A safe resume template has one column, real selectable text, standard section headings and your contact details in the body of the page. Avoid templates built on tables, sidebars, text boxes, icons, skill bars or photos. Greenhouse, an applicant tracking system, lists tables, columns, graphics and photos among the reasons its resume parser fails.
Test any template before you rely on it. Select all the text, paste it into a plain-text editor, and check that everything is there and in the right order. A template that passes that test and looks clean to a person is good enough.
Key takeaways
- One column, standard headings, a common font and no graphics: those four checks rule out most problem templates.
- Put your name and contact details in the body of the page. Document headers, footers and text boxes are where parsers can lose information.
- What a template can break is parsing, the step where software copies your details into a candidate record. A garbled record is the real risk.
- Run the copy-and-paste test on every template, including ones that call themselves ATS-friendly.
- University career centers publish plain templates for free, and a blank document works as well as any of them.
01
What makes a resume template ATS-safe?
An applicant tracking system (ATS) stores applications. MIT’s career office describes most of them as designed like a database, with some able to rate or score applicants by comparing what they parse from a resume with the job posting. Parsing is where templates matter: the software reads your file and tries to place your name, employers, titles, dates and education into fields. What is an ATS covers the rest.
A template is safe when nothing in it gets between the parser and your text.
| Feature | Safe choice | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Columns | One column across the full page | The University of Minnesota Duluth’s career center notes that an ATS reads left to right across the page, so side-by-side columns can be read as one jumbled line |
| Text | Real text you can select and search | A resume saved as an image gives the parser nothing to read |
| Headings | Summary, Experience, Education, Skills | Creative headings make it harder for software to sort your information |
| Contact details | First lines of the page body | Headers and footers may be dropped completely |
| Font | A common font at 10 points or larger | MIT recommends fonts found on most computers, such as Arial, Calibri, Georgia or Times New Roman |
| Bullets | Plain round or square bullets | Decorative symbols may not survive conversion to plain text |
| Color | Black text, one accent color at most | Software ignores color, so it cannot carry meaning |
02
What should you avoid in a resume template?
Most of the features that make a template look designed are the ones that cause trouble.
| Template feature | What goes wrong | Use instead |
|---|---|---|
| Two columns or a sidebar | Greenhouse lists columned layouts as a cause of failed parses | One column, with skills as a line of text |
| Tables or text boxes used for layout | Both appear on Greenhouse’s list, and MIT says to avoid them | Plain lines and ordinary paragraph spacing |
| Name and contact details in the header or footer | Greenhouse names this placement as a parse problem | The top lines of the body |
| Icons for phone, email and location | Software cannot pull information from graphics | The details themselves, separated by a bar or comma |
| Skill bars, star ratings and charts | They are images, and “four stars in Excel” means nothing to a reader either | Skills in words, with a level where it helps |
| A photo | Graphics and photos are on Greenhouse’s list, and US resumes do not include one | No photo |
| Letter-spaced headings typed as S U M M A R Y | Greenhouse lists spaces between letters as a parse problem | Normal spelling, in bold or capitals |
| Creative headings such as “My journey” | Hard for software to sort, and slower for people | Standard headings |
| Linked words such as “Portfolio” | An ATS may show only the URL and drop the word | The address written out |
03
How do you test a resume template?
- Fill it with your real content. Templates behave differently once lines wrap and sections grow.
- Copy the text out. Select everything, copy it, and paste it into a plain-text editor, or into a blank document using “paste without formatting.”
- Read the pasted text top to bottom. Your name and contact details come first. Every heading is present. Each job’s title, employer and dates sit together, with its bullets underneath. Nothing is missing, repeated or out of order.
- Search the PDF. Press Ctrl+F or Cmd+F and look for your own job title. If search finds nothing, the file is an image, not text.
- Check the file size. Greenhouse says it cannot parse resumes larger than 2.5MB. A text resume should be far smaller than that.
- Watch the next application form. Many forms fill in fields from your uploaded resume. If your employers and dates land in the right boxes, the template parsed well there. Correct any that do not before you submit.
A template that fails step 3 is not worth fixing. Move your content into a simpler one.
04
A plain-text resume skeleton you can copy
Paste this into a blank document, replace the brackets, then apply a font, bold headings and your word processor’s own bullet style. Set margins between half an inch and an inch and a font size between 10 and 12 points, the ranges on MIT’s resume checklist.
[FULL NAME] [City, ST] | [Phone] | [Email] | [linkedin.com/in/your-url] [Target job title] | [Specialty or industry] | [Key credential] SUMMARY [A short paragraph: who you are, your strongest skills for this role, and one result that proves them.] EXPERIENCE [Job title] [Employer], [City, ST] | [Mon YYYY] – [Mon YYYY or Present] - [Action verb + what you did + scale + result] - [Action verb + what you did + scale + result] - [Action verb + what you did + scale + result] [Job title] [Employer], [City, ST] | [Mon YYYY] – [Mon YYYY] - [Action verb + what you did + scale + result] - [Action verb + what you did + scale + result] EDUCATION [Degree and major], [School], [City, ST] | [Mon YYYY] SKILLS [Skill], [skill], [tool], [tool], [language (level)] CERTIFICATIONS (optional) [Certification], [Issuer] | [YYYY]
Filled in, the first lines look like this. The candidate is invented.
MARCUS BELL Tulsa, OK | (555) 010-0163 | marcus.bell@example.com Warehouse Supervisor | Inventory Control | OSHA 30 EXPERIENCE Warehouse Supervisor Redbud Distribution, Tulsa, OK | Feb 2022 – Present - Supervise 14 associates across two shifts in a 180,000-square-foot facility - Raised inventory accuracy from 96.1% to 99.4% by replacing annual counts with daily cycle counts
The skeleton uses the reverse-chronological order. If you need a different arrangement, resume format explains the options, and how to write a resume covers what goes in each section.
05
Where can you find a good resume template?
- A blank document. The skeleton above plus consistent formatting is a complete template.
- University career centers. Many publish free templates that are plain by design. Harvard’s career center, for example, offers its bullet-point resume template as Word and Google Docs files.
- Your word processor’s built-in templates. Test before you trust. MIT’s resume checklist tells students working in Word not to use a template at all, because applicant tracking systems have trouble reading them. A built-in template that passes the copy-and-paste test is fine; one that relies on tables or text boxes is what that warning is about.
- Online resume builders. Check what the exported file looks like and whether you can edit it later. Free resume builders lists what to check before you start typing.
06
Should a resume template be a PDF or a Word file?
Follow the posting if it names a format. If it does not, MIT’s career office calls .docx and PDF both fairly safe, while Minnesota Duluth’s says ATS software prefers .docx. The disagreement tells you that neither format is a problem in itself.
Keep the editable original, and export a PDF from it with “Save as” or “Export.” Do not print and scan, and do not take a screenshot. Either one produces an image, and Greenhouse lists resumes uploaded as an image, not a document, among its parse failures.
The other formatting rules are in the guide to an ATS-friendly resume.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Are two-column resume templates ATS-friendly?
They are a risk. Greenhouse lists columned layouts among the reasons its resume parser fails, and software that reads straight across the page can merge two columns into one jumbled line. A single-column template avoids the problem and costs you nothing with human readers.
Is it OK to use a resume template?
Yes, if it is plain and it passes a text test. Copy everything out of the finished file and paste it into a plain-text editor. If your details appear complete and in order, the template is safe to use. Employers read the content, not the design.
Are creative resume templates ever a good idea?
Rarely for an online application. If you work in design, show your eye in a portfolio website and submit a plain resume that links to it. A designed resume can still be useful to hand over in person or attach to an email to someone who asked for it.
What is the best font for a resume template?
Any common, easy-to-read font at 10 points or larger. MIT’s career office suggests fonts that exist across platforms, including Arial, Calibri, Cambria, Georgia, Helvetica and Times New Roman, and advises against colorful, fancy or stylized fonts.
Sources
- Greenhouse Support: Unsuccessful resume parse: the template features that cause a failed parse and the 2.5MB file limit.
- MIT Career Advising & Professional Development: Make your resume ATS-friendly: how applicant tracking systems work, fonts to use, graphics and tables to avoid, and file types.
- MIT Career Advising & Professional Development: Resume checklist and worksheet: margin and font-size ranges, and the warning against templates in Word.
- University of Minnesota Duluth Career Center: Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Tips: reading order, headings, headers and footers, links and file type.
- Harvard FAS Mignone Center for Career Success: Harvard College Bullet Point Resume Template: an example of a free university template in Word and Google Docs formats.
Published by Jobbie and last updated on October 6, 2026. This guide is general information for job seekers, not legal, tax or financial advice. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.