A useful list, then the app. Workday ranks more than it auto-rejects. Most silence is a file that did not parse, a resume that does not match this posting, or a knockout question you cannot clear. Run this list on the job you have open. Then score the pair on Athena ATS. First rewrite is free.
1. The file the parser can read
Single column. No text boxes, icons-as-headings, or two-column modern templates.
.docx or a text-based PDF. Not a screenshot inside a PDF. Not Canva-as-image.
Standard headings in plain text: Experience, Education, Skills.
Contact info in the body, not only in a header the ATS strips.
Dates next to each role. Title and company on their own lines.
2. This job description, not your master resume
Paste the full posting. Title plus three bullets is not enough.
Highlight tools, licenses, and scope phrases that appear more than once.
Those phrases belong in your bullets only where they are true.
One tailored version per posting. Forty copies of the same file is how you get zero replies.
3. Knockouts before keywords
Work authorization, location, license, years of a named tool filter first.
If you cannot clear a must-have on paper, skip the req. Do not hide it in a synonym.
After upload, fix autofill. Recruiters search the fields, not the pretty PDF.
4. What to skip
White-text keyword stuffing.
Claiming 75% of resumes are auto-rejected by a secret score. That number is marketing, not a law.
A new template every week instead of matching the posting you already have open.
Do it on the posting you have open
Athena ATS scores your resume against that job description and rewrites to it. First rewrite is free. Founding Beta is $8/mo or $59/yr. No interview guarantee.