What your resume actually looks like to the machine Most ATS posts on LinkedIn say "use keywords." Useful, but not concrete. I spent a weekend testing five ATS platforms (Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, iCIMS, Ashby) with the same resume in different formats. Here is what your resume actually looks like once it goes in. Test 1 — The two-column resume disaster I uploaded a resume with a left sidebar (skills, contact) and a right column (experience). Visually clean. To the parser: John Smith Frontend Engineer React TypeScript Next.js 2024 - present Senior Engineer at Acme Led migration to App Router Reduced bundle size 40 percent Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode The sidebar got stuck above the experience block. Skills floated above context, dates merged into the next line. A recruiter searching for "React + Next.js + 3 years" would not find me — the parser had no idea those skills connected to a 2024-present role. Fix: Single column. Always. Pretty design loses to a parser every time.…