What can actually break
Greenhouse lists image-based resumes, graphics, word art, complex tables, headers, footers, text boxes, and columned layouts among formatting patterns that can produce unsuccessful or partial parsing. Lever notes that image files are not parseable and recommends checking whether the document text can be highlighted. Those layouts are what a design-first builder sells, so export the PDF and check that its text can be selected.12 A failed parse doesn't make the resume disappear. Greenhouse attaches the file to the candidate and asks the recruiter to enter the details by hand, and Lever describes the same fix.12
Parsing is not the whole selection process
Once the details are stored, recruiters can filter applications by fields such as status, source, education, and answers to custom questions, and workflows differ by employer. Automatic rejection does exist, but in Greenhouse and Lever's documentation it runs on answers to application questions, often called knockout questions, not on resume formatting.456 Both let employers reject or archive applicants automatically on an answer like “Do you have a commercial driver's license?” The parser itself is only the extraction step.56 Where software does screen people out, it is mostly elsewhere: which job ads you see, whether you’re eligible, and how you reach a person. And once the file is in front of a person, the question is the reader, who isn’t immune to software either: in one experiment, an algorithm’s recommendation swayed recruiters who said they trusted it less than a person. EEOC guidance on employment tests and selection procedures, issued in 2007 and not specific to software, says a screen that disproportionately excludes people by race, sex, or another protected trait has to be job-related and consistent with business necessity.3
Practical takeaways
- Use standard section headers so both parsers and humans can navigate quickly.
- Write role titles and core skills in plain language, not internal jargon.
- Avoid graphics or tables that disrupt parsing and readability.
- A single column with clear headings, consistent dates, and standard section names is the safest baseline.
- Use the role's language where it truthfully describes your experience. Don't stuff hidden or repeated keyword blocks into the file. A scanner's match rate is the vendor's own model of an ATS, not the employer's.