How to Get Your Resume Past an ATS Screen: 6 Tips from a Recruiter

How to get your resume past an ATS is a challenge more candidates are facing than ever. ATS resume screeners have gotten significantly smarter with the addition of AI, but they’re still not foolproof. A surprising number of qualified candidates, especially in competitive fields like solar and renewable energy, get filtered out before a human ever lays eyes on their resume. Not because of their experience, but because of formatting. Here’s how to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

1. Start with the right tool

The program you use to build your resume has a direct impact on how it gets processed by an applicant tracking system.

Right now, Canva is everywhere, and while it’s a fantastic design tool that can produce genuinely beautiful resumes, it’s not the right choice if you want an ATS-friendly resume. Canva builds resumes using text boxes, which ATS systems struggle to parse correctly. Your carefully crafted content can end up garbled or ignored entirely.

Microsoft Word remains the gold standard for ATS-compatible resume creation. Google Docs is a solid second. They’re not flashy, but they work. And in this case, working is what counts.

2. Skip the columns and sidebars

A two-column layout with a skills sidebar looks clean and professional to a human reader. To an ATS? It’s a mess. These systems read left to right, straight down the page. They don’t interpret columns, dividers, or visual separators.

Here’s a real example of what can happen. A skills list formatted like this:

– Solar PV – Electrical Engineering – Utility Scale

…gets read by an ATS as something like: %Solar PVElectrical &EngineeringUtility +Scale

Other ATS resume formatting elements to avoid:

• Text boxes
• Tables
• Graphics, emojis, or icons
• Headers and footers containing critical information
• Unusual or decorative fonts

When in doubt, keep it simple and linear.

3. Don’t rely solely on acronyms

This one is easy to overlook, especially in industries with heavy jargon like renewables and energy storage. If a recruiter is searching for “Power Purchase Agreement” and your resume only says “PPA,” you may never show up in results, and vice versa.

The fix is simple: spell out acronyms at least once, and use both versions when space allows. For solar and clean energy professionals, some common ones to double up on:

• Energy Storage System (ESS)

• Photovoltaic (PV)

• Independent Power Producer (IPP)

• Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)

4. Customize your resume for every role

In competitive markets like solar and renewables, submitting the same resume to every job posting is no longer a viable ATS strategy. Applicant tracking systems are built to match resumes to specific job descriptions using keyword scoring, and a generic resume will lose that match almost every time.

The good news: we’re not talking about rewriting your entire resume. Just making sure the terminology and keywords in your resume match the keywords and terminology of the job posting. AI has made customization fast. What used to take an hour now takes minutes. It’s a small investment of time that can make a significant difference in whether your resume makes it past the filter.

5. Know your file format

PDF vs. Word is a debate worth having when it comes to ATS compatibility. Most modern applicant tracking systems can handle both, but they don’t handle them equally. Recent testing suggests PDFs actually parse more accurately in many systems, but always check the application instructions first. When in doubt, have both versions ready.

One universal rule: never put your contact information in a document header or footer. A significant number of ATS systems fail to read that section entirely. Your name, phone number, and email belong in the main body of the document.

6. Work with a recruiter BEFORE you apply – the secret weapon to get your resume past an ATS

This is the tip most ATS resume guides won’t give you, because most of them aren’t written by recruiters.

When you work with a specialized recruiter, your resume doesn’t go through an applicant tracking system at all. It goes directly to a hiring manager, along with context: your career story, your key wins, why you’re a strong fit for this specific role. That’s a fundamentally different experience than being one of hundreds of applications in a queue.

There’s a critical catch: if you’ve already submitted your resume through a company’s ATS, a recruiter typically cannot present you to that company. If you have a recruiter relationship, especially in a niche market like solar or renewables, check in with them before applying anywhere independently. It’s a small step that can make a significant difference.

Bottom line

The days of printing your resume on linen paper are long gone, but that doesn’t mean presentation is irrelevant. It just means your resume needs to be optimized for the first audience it will face: an applicant tracking system, not a person.

Get the ATS formatting right and speak the language of the job description. But if you really want to skip the guessing game entirely, work with a recruiter who knows the companies and hiring managers in your space. Your resume won’t sit in a queue. It will land on the right desk, with the right context, and with someone in your corner making the case for why you’re the right fit.

That’s what gets you in the room.

The best way to get your resume past an ATS is to never go through one in the first place. Visit our Jobs Page or sign up for Job Alerts and let us do the heavy lifting.