How Your Resume Gets Reviewed Before It Reaches a Recruiter

What happens before a recruiter sees your resume?

Many companies use software to help organize and review applications. These systems are often called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), but the process is not simply about looking for a list of keywords.

The way your experience is written, how clearly your roles are presented, and how easy your resume is to read can all affect how your application is processed.

Keep your experience clear

A recruiter should be able to understand what you did without searching through your resume.

Instead of simply listing tools or technologies, explain how you used them.

For example:

Designed dashboards in Figma.

is less useful than:

Designed a B2B dashboard in Figma that helped users monitor account activity and manage daily tasks.

The second version gives more context about your work.

Be careful with complex layouts

A creative resume can look great, but overly complicated layouts can sometimes make the content harder for software and people to read.

Multiple columns, text inside images, unusual fonts, and complicated tables can cause important information to be missed.

A clean structure with clear headings is usually easier to scan.

Show relevant skills in context

A skills section is useful, but your experience should also show where and how you used those skills.

If you're applying for a Product Designer role, for example, don't only write:

Figma · UX Research · Prototyping

Show those skills through your previous work and results.

Focus on what you actually did

You don't need to fill your resume with keywords.

Instead, make your experience easy to understand:

What did you work on?
What was your role?
What changed because of your work?

A clear resume helps both software and recruiters understand your experience.