I've uploaded hundreds of resumes to different ATS systems over the years, and here's what I've learned about what actually breaks.
The Real ATS Problem Nobody Mentions
Everyone obsesses over keywords, but that's not what breaks most resumes. ATS parsers are pretty bad at basic document structure parsing. I've seen Workday turn a perfectly formatted resume into garbage because it couldn't figure out where sections ended.
Arc.dev's boring format exists because fancy layouts consistently break. Here's what I've seen fail repeatedly:
Tables Will Destroy Your Resume
Most resume templates use invisible tables for two-column layouts. Terrible idea. ATS systems read tables cell-by-cell, completely ignoring your intended flow.
Had to help someone figure out why they kept getting rejected. Turned out their resume was using invisible tables and the parser was reading it wrong - job titles got mixed up with skills somehow. Took forever to figure out what was happening.
Multi-Column Layouts Are Parser Hell
Two-column resumes look clean but parsers read left-to-right across both columns simultaneously. Your carefully organized sections become word soup.
I've seen contact info from the right sidebar end up in the middle of job descriptions. One guy's phone number became his job title because it was positioned wrong in a two-column layout.
When Fonts Break Everything
PDFs with custom fonts turn into gibberish during parsing. Had some fancy font - I think it was Montserrat or some designer bullshit - completely break the parser. My name showed up as □□□ characters instead of actual text. This was like 6 months ago, might be fixed now but I'm not risking it again. Unicode parsing failures are common with non-standard fonts.
Arc.dev sticks to Arial and similar system fonts because they're guaranteed to exist on parsing servers. Boring but it works.
Why Custom Bullets Are Evil
Ever used those fancy bullet points from design templates? • ◆ ★ Those turn into question marks or disappear completely in ATS systems.
Found this out the hard way when my skills list showed up as:
? React
? Node.js
? JavaScript
Regular hyphens (-) work every time.
Google Docs Export Problems
Avoid exporting PDFs from Google Docs if you can. Their PDF export has text encoding issues - job titles end up with weird unicode characters that confuse parsers. PDF parsing challenges are especially common with image-based or improperly encoded documents.
Saw someone get auto-rejected because Google Docs mangled their job title and the ATS couldn't match it to anything recognizable.
Why Arc.dev's Format Actually Works
Arc.dev uses the most boring format possible, because boring actually works. I've tested resumes on different ATS systems at companies I've worked at, and simple formats consistently parse correctly while creative ones fail.
Single-Column Everything
Everything flows top-to-bottom in one column. Contact info, experience, education, skills - all in predictable order that parsers can follow.
No side-by-side elements. Ever. I've debugged too many resumes where sidebars caused parsing failures.
Boring Section Headers Work
Use "Professional Experience" not "Career Journey." Use "Technical Skills" not "My Arsenal" or "Technologies I Love."
ATS systems literally search for exact phrases in section headers. Get creative with content, not structure.
Date Format Hell
MM/YYYY format throughout. Not MM/DD/YYYY, not "Jan 2021-Present," not "2021-2023."
I helped someone debug why their work history kept getting rejected - they used "March 2020 to Present" format and the parser couldn't figure out the timeline.
Text Must Be Copyable
Everything in the PDF has to be selectable text that you can copy-paste. If you can't highlight it, the ATS can't read it.
Never put critical information in images or fancy graphics. Your name in a stylized image header? Invisible to parsers.
Testing Your Resume in the Wild
Quick Sanity Checks
Upload your Arc.dev resume to Indeed and LinkedIn first. Their parsers are decent, and if it breaks there, it'll definitely break elsewhere.
Red flags that scream parsing failure:
- Your phone number shows up as a job title
- Experience section is completely empty
- Skills get mixed into company descriptions
- Contact info disappears entirely
Found out about these the hard way when a perfectly qualified candidate's resume showed up in our ATS with their GitHub URL listed as their job title.
The Adobe vs Chrome Export Problem
Always use "Export as PDF" from proper applications, never "Print to PDF" from Chrome.
Chrome's print-to-PDF has been broken for ATS compatibility for years. The text extraction creates invisible character issues that break parsing.
Spent an entire weekend applying to 20 companies with a Chrome-exported PDF. Zero responses. Re-exported from Word on Monday, got 3 phone screens by Friday. Fuck Chrome's PDF export forever.
Adobe Acrobat, LibreOffice, or even Word exports work way better than Chrome's built-in PDF creator.
File Naming That Actually Matters
Name your file "FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf" - not "My_Resume_Final_V2.pdf" or "Resume.pdf"
Some ATS systems use the filename for candidate identification. Generic names cause organizational problems in their databases.
When Perfect Formatting Still Fails
Arc.dev fixes the technical problems, but there are still content issues to watch out for:
The "React.js" vs "ReactJS" Problem
Job posting says "React.js" but your resume says "ReactJS"? Some ATS systems won't match them.
I think I've seen candidates get filtered out because they wrote "JavaScript" instead of "Javascript" or "Node" instead of "Node.js". Someone got rejected because they listed "Node 18" when the job wanted "Node.js 18.x" - though that might have been other factors too. Keyword matching can be very literal in some ATS systems.
Include both variations when space allows: "React.js/ReactJS", "Node.js 18.x (Node)", "JavaScript/JS ES6+"
Generic Bullet Points Are Death
"Worked with React" tells recruiters nothing useful.
"Built responsive dashboard with React 18, cut load time from like 3 seconds to under a second" shows actual impact.
Every bullet point needs numbers that prove you didn't just show up and exist.
Your Content Strategy Still Matters
Arc.dev makes one perfect ATS-optimized resume. But applying to 100 jobs with identical content is lazy. Different ATS systems have different quirks, so customization still matters.
Customize for the actual role:
- Startup applications need scrappy impact stories
- Enterprise gigs need process and scale experience
- Remote roles need self-direction examples
- Senior positions need mentoring and architecture decisions
The formatting is solved. The strategy is still your job.