Free ATS Resume Checklist: 40 Checks to Run Before You Apply

This is the free ATS resume checklist itself, not another explainer about applicant tracking systems. Forty checks, grouped in the order you should run them, from the file you upload to the last line you read before you hit apply.

Copy the list into a note and keep it beside the document. Most rejections at this stage are mechanical: a scanned file, a date without a month, a company name left over from the previous application.

The Free ATS Resume Checklist: 40 Checks

Each check is written so you can answer it yes or no in a few seconds. A no means fix it now, not later.

Checks 1-6 — The file you upload

1. The file is a text-based PDF or a .docx, never a scan, a screenshot or an image export.
2. You can select and copy the text inside the saved file. If you cannot, the parser cannot either.
3. The PDF was produced with Save as, not with Print to PDF, which can flatten the text layer.
4. The file name is your name plus the role, with no final_v3 and no spaces you did not intend.
5. The file is comfortably under the size limit in the posting. Federal applications, for example, cap resumes at 5 MB.
6. You exported this file fresh today instead of reusing a PDF you had already re-saved several times.

Checks 7-11 — The contact block

7. Name, phone, email and city sit in the body of the document, never inside the header or footer area.
8. The email address is a plain personal one you actually check every day.
9. The phone number carries the country code if the employer is abroad.
10. Your LinkedIn or portfolio appears as readable text, not as an icon or a bare hyperlinked word.
11. There is no photo, birth date, marital status or ID number unless the country or the posting explicitly asks for it.

Checks 12-17 — Layout and section headings

12. The document is a single column from top to bottom, with no side panel and no two-column grid.
13. There are no tables, text boxes or graphics anywhere in the file.
14. Section headings use the standard words a parser expects: Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications.
15. Every heading is real text, not an image, a logo or a shape with type on top.
16. Bullets use the standard bullet character, not emoji, arrows or custom glyphs.
17. The font is a common one such as Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman, at 10 to 12 points.

Checks 18-25 — Keywords and wording

18. Your keyword list came from this specific posting, not from a generic list of ATS terms.
19. Every must-have requirement you genuinely meet appears in the CV in the posting's own wording.
20. Acronyms appear once with their expansion, as in applicant tracking system (ATS), so both spellings match.
21. Your job titles use the vocabulary of the posting wherever that is still truthful.
22. Each key skill appears inside an experience bullet, not only in the skills list.
23. Tool and technology names are spelled the way the vendor spells them, PostgreSQL rather than Postgre SQL.
24. There is no keyword stuffing: no white text, no hidden block, no list repeated at the bottom.
25. The summary at the top names the target role in the words the posting uses for it.

Checks 26-32 — The experience entries

26. Roles run in reverse chronological order, most recent first.
27. Every role shows a start and end date with the month and the year, not just the year.
28. The date format is identical in every entry. Pick 03/2024 or March 2024 and never mix them.
29. Company, job title and location are on their own line for each role, in the same order throughout.
30. Each role has three to six bullets, and the role closest to the posting has the most.
31. At least one bullet per recent role carries a number.
32. Bullets open with a past-tense action verb instead of responsible for.

Checks 33-40 — The last pass before you send

33. The spell checker ran on the final version, keywords included. A misspelled keyword is an absent keyword.
34. No other company's name survives anywhere in the document or the file name.
35. Gaps longer than six months have a dated line or a one-sentence explanation.
36. The file opens correctly on a phone, which is how many hiring managers first see it.
37. Pasted into a plain text editor, the CV still reads in the right order.
38. The application form repeats the same data as the CV, because portals score the form too.
39. Every extra document the posting asks for is attached and named clearly.
40. You saved this tailored version under the company name so the next application starts from it.

How to Run the Checklist in 15 Minutes

Run the blocks in order. Each one only makes sense once the previous one passes.

Fifteen minutes, five passes

1
Set up the list
Paste the forty checks into a note and open it beside the document you are about to send.
1 min
2
Fix the file first
Checks 1 to 6 decide whether anything gets read at all. A scanned PDF fails every later check by default.
3 min
3
Reopen the posting
Checks 18 to 25 only work with the job description open next to the CV, never from memory.
6 min
4
Sweep the experience block
Checks 26 to 32 are mechanical: order, dates, verbs, one number per recent role.
3 min
5
Read the last pass out loud
Checks 33 to 40 catch the mistakes that cost interviews, like a dead phone number or the wrong company name.
2 min

The keyword block is the slowest on purpose. It is the only part that changes with every application, and the part that choosing the right resume keywords actually depends on.

If that block is where you stall, start from a list instead of a blank line: our ATS keywords by industry collects the role terms, tools and certifications for nine sectors, which turns filling it in into a comparison rather than a memory exercise.

Which Checks Matter Most If You Only Have Five Minutes

When the deadline is tonight, run these seven and accept the rest as debt:

Check 2 — the text in the file is selectable.
Check 7 — contact details are in the body, not the header.
Check 12 — one column, top to bottom.
Check 19 — the must-have requirements appear in the posting's wording.
Check 27 — every date has a month and a year.
Check 33 — the spell checker ran on the final file.
Check 34 — no other company's name is left in it.

Those seven cover the two failure modes that end an application before a human sees it: the parser cannot read the document, or it reads it and finds none of the terms the recruiter searches for. The rest of the layout rules matter too, and the full ATS format guide works through them one by one.

Should You Send a PDF or a Word File?

Send what the posting asks for. When it says nothing, both a text-based PDF and a .docx are safe, and the way you produced the file matters more than the extension.

What survives the parser

PDF exported with Save as from a word processor — parsesKeeps the text layer the parser reads.
A .docx from Word or Google Docs — parsesThe safest default when the posting stays silent.
PDF created with Print to PDF — riskyUniversity career centres warn it can flatten the text.
Scanned or photographed CV — riskyThere is no text to extract, only pixels.
Export from a graphic design tool — riskyColumns, text boxes and outlined type break the reading order.
A .pages or .odt file, or a shared link — riskyMany portals reject the upload before parsing anything.

The University of Connecticut's career service adds a detail most guides skip: generate a fresh PDF for each application instead of reusing one that has been converted repeatedly. The same page is where the advice to keep the word Experience in your section headings comes from, because standard headings are what the parser looks for.

Does an ATS Automatically Reject Your Resume?

Usually not. An applicant tracking system is a database with a search box, and in most configurations it ranks and filters rather than deletes. What removes you from consideration is being unfindable: your CV is in the system, but the terms the recruiter searches for are not in it.

Some portals do apply hard knockout rules, normally on the form rather than the CV: work authorisation, a required licence, a minimum number of years. That is why check 38 exists. The form is data the system can filter on directly.

The parsing side is where formatting bites. The University of Pittsburgh's career centre tells applicants to keep essential information out of headers and footers and to stick to standard fonts, precisely because those elements are read inconsistently. Nothing gets rejected; your phone number simply never arrives.

Federal applications in the United States are the clearest example of how literal these requirements can be. USAJOBS asks for start and end dates with the month and year, and the hours worked per week, and tells applicants to use plain language and avoid acronyms. Private portals rarely publish rules that explicit, but they parse the same fields.

What to Do Next

Run checks 1 to 17 once on your master CV and be done with them. From then on, each application is the keyword block, the experience order, and the final pass, which is where the fifteen minutes actually go.

The slowest part is comparing your CV against the posting term by term. If you would rather see that comparison than build it by hand, our CV to job description match reads both documents and shows you which requirements are covered and which are missing, so checks 18 to 25 take a minute instead of six.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this ATS resume checklist free to use and share?

Yes. Copy it, print it, or paste it into your own notes. If you publish it somewhere, a link back to this page is appreciated but not required.

How many of the 40 checks do I need to pass?

All of them eventually, but they are not equal. Checks 1 to 17 are pass or fail for the parser, checks 18 to 32 decide whether you rank, and checks 33 to 40 protect you from avoidable mistakes.

Do I have to run the whole checklist for every application?

No. Checks 1 to 17 belong to your master CV and stay fixed once you fix them. Only the keyword block and the experience order change from one posting to the next.

Should my resume be one page or two?

Whatever the content justifies. Length is not an ATS criterion, it is a human one, and a second page with three lines on it reads worse than a full single page.

Does adding numbers to my bullets really change anything?

It changes what a human does after the parser is done. A bullet with a figure is comparable and specific, which is why quantifying your achievements is check 31 and not an optional polish step.