There's a good chance your resume has a beautiful two-column layout. Skills on the left, experience on the right. Clean. Modern. Professional-looking.
And it might be the single biggest reason you're not getting called back.
What Happens to Your Resume Inside an ATS
When you submit your resume to an online job portal, it passes through an Applicant Tracking System before any human looks at it. The ATS does two things: it parses your resume (extracts the information) and it scores it against the job description.
For parsing to work correctly, the system needs to read your resume in a predictable order — typically left to right, top to bottom, across the full page width. When you introduce columns or tables, you break that reading order in ways the system can't handle.
What Columns Do to ATS Parsing
Here's a simplified example. Imagine your two-column resume looks like this to a human:
Left column: Python · SQL · Tableau · Leadership · Communication
Right column: Marketing Manager at Acme Corp (2021–2024) — Led digital campaigns...
An ATS parser reading left-to-right across the full page might read it like this:
What ATS sees: "Python Marketing Manager · SQL at Acme · Tableau Corp Led · Leadership (2021–2024) · Communication digital campaigns..."
The output is garbled nonsense. Your job title gets mixed with your skills. Your dates end up attached to random words. The parser can't identify your work history, can't match your keywords correctly, and scores you dramatically lower than your actual qualifications deserve.
What Tables Do to ATS Parsing
Tables are even more problematic. Many ATS systems simply skip the contents of HTML or Word tables entirely. If your skills section is formatted as a table (which is common in many resume templates), the ATS may not read any of your skills at all — scoring you zero on keyword matching for every skill you listed.
Tables are also commonly used for the experience section in template designs. Same problem: the parser may skip the table content, leaving your entire work history invisible to the scoring algorithm.
The Specific Formatting Elements That Cause Problems
- Multi-column layouts — Two or three column designs, sidebar-style formats
- Word tables — Used to align text in rows and columns within the document
- Text boxes — Floating text containers often used for contact info or skill sections
- Headers and footers — Document elements that repeat on each page, often unreadable by ATS
- Tab-aligned columns — Using tab stops to create visual columns without actual table markup
- Columns feature in Word — Word's built-in column formatting (Format → Columns)
How to Tell If Your Resume Has These Issues
Open your resume in Word. Then try this: click at the beginning of your contact information and drag your mouse down to the end of your resume. If the selection jumps across columns rather than flowing top-to-bottom, you have a column layout that will cause ATS parsing problems.
To check for tables: click anywhere in your resume. If the Table Tools menu appears at the top of Word, that section is formatted as a table — and may be invisible to ATS.
The Fix: Convert to Single-Column Plain Text Flow
The solution is straightforward but can feel like a design downgrade. It is, visually. But remember: the ATS can't see visual design — only parseable content. A plain resume that gets read correctly will always outperform a beautiful resume that gets scrambled.
Step 1: Remove all tables
Select any table, right-click, and choose "Convert Table to Text." Then reformat the extracted text as regular paragraphs or bullet points.
Step 2: Eliminate columns
Move all content from your left column to appropriate sections in a single-column flow. Skills go in a Skills section. Contact info goes in the body, above your summary.
Step 3: Move headers and footers to body
Double-click your document header to enter it. Select all header content. Cut it. Close the header. Paste it at the very top of the body of the document as regular text.
Step 4: Remove text boxes
Click any text box to select it, then cut the text out and paste it as regular body text in the appropriate section. Delete the empty text box.
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Fix My Resume →But My Resume Looks Better with Columns...
This is the tension every job seeker faces. The answer depends on how you're applying.
If you're applying through online portals — which is how most jobs are filled — single column is non-negotiable. The ATS risk is too high.
If you're handing your resume directly to a hiring manager, emailing it to someone you know, or attending a career fair, the visual design matters more. In that case, maintain two versions: an ATS-optimized plain version for online applications, and a designed version for direct human review.
The extra 20 minutes to maintain two versions is worth it. The ATS version gets you past the filter. The designed version can do its job when it's actually being read by a human.