- 76% of Indian resumes analysed failed ATS on the first check — the majority because of two-column layouts, contact details in headers, or missing professional summaries.
- 68% used two-column or sidebar designs. These look professional to humans but ATS parsers read across columns, mixing your job titles with your skills into unreadable text.
- 54% had contact details in the document header — a place many ATS systems cannot read. Move your name, phone and email into the main body of the document.
- 71% had a missing or completely generic professional summary ('seeking a challenging role'). This is the single easiest fix with the highest ATS score impact.
- 22% submitted in wrong formats (.pages, .png, screenshots). Always use PDF or DOCX — and confirm the format the company requires before submitting.
Over the past year, I've personally reviewed and rewritten hundreds of resumes for Indian professionals. I've also had clients run their resumes through our free ATS resume checker before coming to me — which gave me a dataset I couldn't resist analysing properly.
I looked at 500 Indian resumes that had been run through an ATS checker. I noted which checks they failed, what industries they came from, what career levels they represented, and what patterns showed up repeatedly. What I found was both surprising and, in hindsight, completely predictable.
Here are the 8 findings — with actual percentages and the exact fixes that work.
The 8 Findings (With Real Numbers)
Two-column layouts are killing resumes silently
68% of the resumes I looked at used a two-column or sidebar layout. These are the designed templates that look great as a PDF but are completely misread by ATS parsers. When a parser encounters two columns, it often reads across the page left-to-right — mixing your job titles from column one with your skills from column two into nonsense. I've seen ATS-parsed resumes that read "Project Manager Python SQL Led a 12-member team JavaScript React" in a single block of text. The system has no idea what's experience and what's a skill.
The worst part is these are usually the prettiest resumes. The candidate spent hours on them. And they're the most likely to get zero callbacks.
Contact details in document headers
More than half the resumes had their phone number, email and address in the Word document's header section — the very top area that Word shows on every page. This looks clean and professional to a human. But many ATS parsers skip document headers entirely. The system extracts your resume content but misses your name and phone number — which means it either can't file you correctly, or it contacts someone else, or your application just sits in a pile with missing data.
Professional summary is missing or completely generic
71% of resumes either had no professional summary at all, or had one so generic it added zero value. The classics: "Seeking a challenging role in a dynamic organization." "A hardworking professional with good communication skills." "Looking for an opportunity to contribute to organizational growth." These phrases appear on literally millions of Indian resumes. They tell ATS nothing because they contain no keywords. They tell recruiters nothing because they say nothing specific.
Photos and logos causing parsing failures
43% of resumes included a professional photo, company logos, or decorative elements. Some had all three. ATS parsers are text extraction engines — they don't process images. What happens instead is that the image either gets skipped (harmless but pointless) or — in some older parsers — it causes the parser to error out on that section and skip nearby text as well. I've seen resumes where a photo in the top-right corner caused the parser to miss the candidate's contact details entirely.
There's also a regulatory angle worth mentioning: more Indian companies are moving toward blind hiring to reduce bias. A photo on your resume is increasingly something HR departments actively discourage.
Wrong file format — .pages, .png, and unusual formats
This one surprised me. 22% of resumes were submitted in formats that many ATS systems can't process at all: .pages (Mac-only Apple Pages format), .png screenshots of resumes, .pages files exported incorrectly, or even .txt files with formatting stripped out. One candidate had sent her resume as a Canva design link. Another had photographed a printed resume and sent the photo.
If your resume is in a format the ATS can't read, your application often goes into a "manually review" pile that nobody looks at, or gets rejected outright with no notification.
Dates formatted inconsistently or missing
ATS systems need to calculate your total years of experience and the gaps in your employment history. They do this by parsing dates. When dates are formatted inconsistently — sometimes "Jan 2022 – Present," sometimes "January 2022–current," sometimes just "2022" — parsers often fail to extract them correctly. In one resume I reviewed, the candidate's most recent 3 years of experience were effectively invisible to ATS because the dates were in a text box.
Skills section is either missing or a keyword dump
Almost two-thirds of resumes had a dysfunctional skills section. Either it didn't exist (leaving ATS with no keyword pool to match against), or it was a massive undifferentiated list of 40 skills that included "MS Word" alongside "Strategic Leadership" — things that are so obviously expected they add no value and dilute the keywords that matter. I also saw resumes that listed skills the candidate clearly didn't have — added to game ATS — which creates problems at the interview stage.
Section headings ATS can't identify
39% of resumes used non-standard section headings that confused ATS parsers. "Career Journey" instead of "Work Experience." "My Expertise" instead of "Skills." "Academic Background" instead of "Education." ATS systems are trained to look for specific heading names. When they can't find "Work Experience," they may not know where to look for your employment history — and that section effectively disappears from their analysis.
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Every single resume in this dataset — even the ones that were otherwise well-written — was created by someone who was thinking about how their resume looks to a human reader. Almost none of them were created with ATS in mind first.
This isn't a criticism. It's just the reality of how resumes are still taught in India — career counselors focus on presentation, formatting guides focus on aesthetics, and nobody tells you that the first judge of your resume isn't a person at all.
The good news: every one of the 8 problems above is fixable. Most of them can be fixed in under an hour if you know what you're doing. Our free ATS checker will pinpoint exactly which ones apply to you. And if you'd rather have an expert handle it, that's exactly what I'm here for.
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Written by Neeraj Singh Bora
Neeraj has personally written and reviewed 10,000+ resumes for Indian professionals. This analysis is based on real resumes submitted to his practice — not simulated data. Read full bio →
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a free ATS resume checker?
A free ATS checker scans your resume and runs it through the same checks an Applicant Tracking System would — format compatibility, keyword density, section identification, font readability and file format. Our free tool runs 16 specific checks instantly with no login required.
Is a free ATS checker accurate?
Accurate for format and structural checks — detecting tables, headers with contact info, missing section headings, file format issues. Less accurate for keyword matching (which requires the specific JD you're targeting). Our tool is transparent about this distinction.
What ATS score do I need to get shortlisted in India?
70%+ to reliably pass most ATS systems. 80%+ is considered strong. But score alone isn't enough — you also need keywords matching each specific job description. The structural score from our checker handles the format side; customizing your summary and skills handles keywords.
Why does my ATS score drop when I use a designed template?
Designed templates (from Canva, Adobe Express, premium template sites) almost always use tables, text boxes, or multi-column layouts. When an ATS parser reads these, it mixes text from different columns incorrectly or fails to extract content from text boxes. The result: a scrambled, low-scoring resume that looks great visually but fails as text.
Can I use a free ATS checker for every job application?
Yes — and you should, especially after any edits. Our free tool takes 30 seconds and requires no login. After checking structural score, also manually compare your resume language to each specific JD to ensure keyword alignment.