7 Design Mistakes That Must Never Appear in Your CV (ATS-Enemy Templates)
By Umut Barış Terzioğlu · · Updated
A CV template can look excellent and still read badly. An applicant tracking system does not see the page the way you do. It pulls out the text layer, in the order that layer is stored, and tries to sort it into fields such as name, job title, employer and dates. Design choices that change that order, hide text in special areas or replace words with pictures can leave a recruiter's search with less than you actually wrote.
None of this means a CV has to look plain. Bold headings, one accent colour, clear spacing and a readable font are all fine. The trouble comes from a short list of specific choices.
What a two-column layout looks like to a parser
Take a CV with skills in a narrow left column and experience on the right:
| Left column | Right column |
|---|---|
| SKILLS | EXPERIENCE |
| Python | Data Analyst, Acme Logistics |
| SQL | Mar 2023 – present |
Some extraction tools read straight across the page, line by line. The text that comes out is then: "SKILLS EXPERIENCE Python Data Analyst, Acme Logistics SQL Mar 2023 – present". The parser now has to work out that "Python" is not part of a job title and that "SQL" does not belong to a date. Not every system reads this way, but you cannot know which one an employer uses. Our article on two-column CVs goes into more detail.
The seven mistakes
| Design mistake | What goes wrong | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Two-column layout | Text from both columns can be merged line by line, which separates dates from job titles | Use one column and stack the sections from top to bottom |
| Contact details in the header or footer | Some parsers skip header and footer areas, so your name, phone or email can go missing | Put contact details at the top of the main body |
| Skill bars and ratings | A bar or a row of dots is a shape, not text; the parser gets nothing, and the level means little to a reader | Write the skill as a word, and give a level in words if it matters, such as "German (B2)" |
| Creative section headings | A heading like "My Journey" does not tell the parser which field the section belongs to | Use standard names: "Experience", "Education", "Skills" |
| Tables and text boxes for layout | Cells and floating boxes can be read out of order, attaching roles to the wrong employer | Use plain paragraphs, line breaks and tab stops |
| Icons instead of words | A phone or envelope icon carries no text; the label disappears or turns into a stray character | Write "Phone" and "Email", or simply give the number and the address |
| Image-only PDF | A scanned or flattened PDF has no text layer; unless the system runs text recognition, nothing is extracted | Export from your word processor so the text stays selectable |
Test your own CV in two minutes
- Open the PDF, select all the text and copy it.
- Paste it into a plain text editor. Check that your name, email and phone are there, that each job title sits next to its employer and dates, and that no line from one column has slipped into another. This is not identical to every parser, but it shows the order in which your text layer is stored.
- Look for odd characters where icons used to be.
- Paste the same text into the quick test. It scores readability and structure out of 45 from exactly what you copied and lists the findings that cost the most points.
For a field-by-field view, the parser view in the full analysis shows what was read as your title, dates and contact details, and gives a reason for each missing or suspect field, such as a date range that looks split across two columns. If icons are your main concern, our article on icons on a CV covers which uses cause trouble.