About these notes
Numbers come from tests by ReadableResume (I run it): one sample resume with 46 fields, built in Google Docs, downloaded as a PDF and read by OpenResume, an open-source resume parser. 10 layouts and 32 fonts were tested, changing one thing at a time.
It's one parser. Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS and other hiring systems may behave differently, and a misread field is not the same as a rejection. |
Layout
One column |
46/46 fields read |
Photo next to the name |
46/46 |
Icons in the contact line |
46/46 |
Skill rating bars |
46/46 |
Contact details in the page header |
46/46 from the Google Docs PDF |
Two columns (table or Format > Columns) |
42/46. Lines that wrapped in the narrow column were cut or misread |
Name and contact in a text box |
34/46. Exported as a picture |
Photos and skill bars didn't lower the score in this test. Check they leave room for dates and degree titles to stay on one line. |
Fonts that parsed cleanly
9 of 32 fonts kept every character and read 46/46 after a Google Docs PDF export:
Arial · Book Antiqua · Calibri · Cambria · EB Garamond · Garamond · Georgia · Times New Roman · Trebuchet MS |
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Fonts to watch
Letter pairs (ligatures) |
16 fonts, including Roboto, Lato and Open Sans, stored pairs such as "fi" and "fl" as one character |
Lost spaces |
In 15 of those, the parser dropped the space before the word: checks first
→ checksfirst
|
Aptos |
Google Docs drew it in Arial. The company name was read onto the date line (36/46) |
Helvetica |
Google Docs drew it in Helvetica Neue |
Inter |
Brackets and hyphen in the phone number saved as private-use characters; phone field empty |
Tahoma, Roboto Slab |
Company name read onto the date line |
Courier New |
Words run together, 10/46 |
Page length |
15 fonts pushed the one-page sample onto two pages at the same sizes |
Sizes
Body text |
10.5–11 pt |
Section headings |
11–12 pt, bold |
Your name |
18–22 pt, bold |
Never below 10 pt |
Cut a line instead |
One font for the whole page. Use size and bold for hierarchy. |
Text boxes
Google Docs exported the text box as a picture. The words were visible but not in the PDF's text. |
The parser found no name, email, phone or links, and took the heading EDUCATION
as the name. |
The .docx download of the same document still held the text, inside the text box. |
Fix: move contact details into the body of the document. |
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Dates
Dates in a wide table column |
46/46 |
Same column, too narrow |
Dates wrapped; the year on line 2 was read as the company ( 2025
). 40/46 |
Rule of thumb |
Keep each date range on one line |
Short months (Jan, Aug) |
OpenResume doesn't treat them as months, but the year carried the date and it still read correctly |
Export from Google Docs
PDF |
File > Download > PDF Document |
Print to PDF |
Turn off Headers and footers under More settings, or the date and doc URL get printed |
Word |
File > Download > Microsoft Word (.docx) |
Don't |
Convert a PDF to Word. Converters rebuild lines as text boxes and tables |
Don't |
Send a screenshot or image |
Header contact in .docx |
Fine in the PDF, but in the .docx the name and contact sit in the header part, outside the main body |
File name |
Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf
|
Parser limits worth knowing
Phone numbers: only US style, e.g. (555) 555-5555. +44 7700 900123 was not recognised. |
Locations: expects "City, ST". "Manchester, England" was not recognised. |
Links: only one is kept. A second link stays in the text, not the link field. |
Headings: English section headings only. |
Two pages: the last line of page 1 is joined to the first line of page 2. Harmless between bullets; breaks the entry between jobs. |
Names: José Álvarez and Иван Петров read correctly; 王小明 left the name field empty. |
Self-check before you apply
1. Open the PDF, select all, paste into a plain text editor. |
2. Name, email and phone at the top? If not, look for a text box or image. |
3. Each date range on one line? |
4. Any words joined together, or bullets turned into boxes? Change the font. |
5. Same page count as in Google Docs? |
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