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Create ResumeAn ATS resume checker can help you identify formatting problems, missing keywords, unclear job titles, and weak alignment with Australian job ads. But here is the honest part: no ATS checker can tell you whether your resume will actually get shortlisted. It can only test whether your resume is readable, structured, and reasonably matched to a role. The real goal is not to “beat the ATS”. The goal is to make your resume easy for the system to parse and easy for a recruiter or hiring manager to understand quickly. In Australia, that means using a clean resume format, matching the language of the job ad, showing relevant experience clearly, and avoiding design choices that look impressive to you but create work for everyone else.
An ATS resume checker reviews your resume against common applicant tracking system requirements. In plain English, it checks whether your resume can be read properly by recruitment software before a human looks at it.
Most Australian employers using online applications rely on some form of applicant tracking system. This might be a large enterprise platform, a recruitment agency database, a job board application system, or an internal HR tool. These systems help employers collect applications, search resumes, filter candidates, track interview stages, and manage hiring workflows.
An ATS checker usually looks at things like:
Whether your resume has standard section headings
Whether your file format is readable
Whether your contact details can be detected
Whether your work history is structured clearly
Whether your resume includes keywords from the job description
Whether your skills match the role requirements
The purpose of an ATS resume checker is not to create a robotic resume stuffed with keywords. It is to remove avoidable friction before your application reaches a recruiter.
In Australian hiring, recruiters usually screen quickly. Not because they enjoy being brutal with people’s careers, but because application volume can be heavy, hiring managers are impatient, and role requirements are often more specific than candidates realise.
When I review resumes, I am usually trying to answer a few practical questions very quickly:
Does this person match the core requirements of the job?
Have they done similar work in a similar environment?
Is their experience current and relevant?
Can I understand their career path without decoding it?
Are they likely to be worth presenting to the hiring manager?
Will the hiring manager understand the fit quickly?
Whether your formatting could confuse the software
Whether your resume is too image heavy, table heavy, or overly designed
That sounds useful, and it can be. But there is a big misunderstanding candidates need to drop immediately.
An ATS checker is not a hiring manager. It does not understand your career the way a person would. It does not know whether your stakeholder management was impressive, whether your project was politically difficult, whether your previous company was chaotic, or whether your job title undersold what you actually did.
It checks signals. It does not understand context well.
That is why a resume can get a high ATS score and still fail with a recruiter. I see this all the time. The resume technically contains keywords, but the story is weak. The achievements are vague. The job titles are confusing. The candidate looks busy but not clearly valuable. The checker says “good match”. The recruiter thinks, “I still do not know what this person actually did.”
That gap matters.
An ATS checker can support that process by making sure the resume is clean, searchable, and aligned to the role. But it cannot fix poor positioning.
A properly checked resume should help three audiences at once:
The ATS, so your information can be parsed correctly
The recruiter, so your fit is obvious within seconds
The hiring manager, so your experience feels relevant and credible
This is where many candidates get the strategy wrong. They write for the software and forget the human. Or they write a visually polished resume for a human and forget the software. The strongest Australian resumes do both. They are technically clean and commercially clear.
Applicant tracking systems are not all identical. Some are basic databases. Some are more advanced. Some employers configure them carefully. Others barely touch the settings and just use them as a filing cabinet with search capability.
That is why I am cautious when people say, “The ATS rejected me.”
Sometimes, yes, software filtering may have played a role. But often the resume was searchable and still not shortlisted because the match was weak, unclear, or poorly presented.
In practice, Australian ATS systems and recruiter searches tend to rely on a mix of signals.
Job titles matter more than candidates think. If the job ad says “Business Analyst” and your resume says “Process Improvement Specialist”, the system may not immediately understand the overlap unless your content makes it clear.
This does not mean you should fake job titles. Do not do that. It means you should add clarity.
For example:
Weak Example:
Process Improvement Specialist
Good Example:
Process Improvement Specialist supporting business analysis, requirements gathering, workflow mapping, and stakeholder engagement across finance transformation projects
The second version gives the system and recruiter more context. It does not manipulate your title. It explains the relevant work.
ATS tools often rely heavily on keyword matching. Recruiters also search databases using keywords. This is not some secret conspiracy. It is how large volumes of resumes are searched.
If a job ad repeatedly mentions “payroll processing”, “SAP”, “award interpretation”, and “high volume environment”, your resume needs to reflect those terms if they genuinely apply to you.
The important phrase is “if they genuinely apply”.
Do not add skills you do not have. That may get you through one filter and straight into an awkward interview where your credibility quietly leaves the room.
ATS systems prefer predictable structure. In Australia, that usually means sections such as:
Contact Details
Professional Summary
Key Skills
Employment History
Education
Certifications
Technical Skills
Referees available on request, if you choose to include this
Creative section names can hurt readability. “My Journey”, “Career Story”, “Where I Have Made Magic”, or “Professional Adventure” might feel personal, but recruitment software is not sitting there admiring your personality. It is trying to classify information.
Use normal headings. Save the personality for the substance.
Recruiters look closely at dates because they tell us career movement, stability, recency, progression, gaps, and relevance.
ATS software also uses dates to organise your experience. If your dates are buried in tables, icons, graphics, or unusual formatting, the system may misread them.
Use a simple structure:
Job Title, Company, Location
Month Year to Month Year
For example:
Senior Payroll Officer, ABC Health Services, Melbourne VIC
March 2021 to November 2025
That is not exciting, but it works. In resume writing, “works” beats “decorative” almost every time.
This is where candidates need to be careful. ATS checkers can be useful, but they can also create false confidence.
A resume checker might give you a strong score because your resume contains matching words from the job ad. But matching words are not the same as matching evidence.
For example, a checker might like this:
Weak Example:
Experienced in stakeholder management, reporting, project support, communication, and problem solving.
The software may detect the keywords. A recruiter sees a sentence that says almost nothing.
A stronger version would be:
Good Example:
Coordinated weekly project reporting for a national systems upgrade, consolidating input from finance, operations, IT, and external vendors to help senior stakeholders track risks, timelines, and delivery blockers.
That gives me context. I can see the environment, the task, the stakeholders, and the value.
ATS tools often miss the quality of evidence. They cannot always judge whether your achievements are strong, whether your responsibilities are senior enough, or whether your experience is transferable in a realistic way.
They also tend to overfocus on keyword percentages. This is where candidates start doing strange things, like repeating the same phrase eight times because a tool told them they were under optimised.
Please do not write like you are trying to hypnotise a database.
A recruiter can spot keyword stuffing quickly. It makes the resume feel unnatural and sometimes desperate. Worse, it can make your actual experience harder to trust.
The best ATS friendly resume is not a keyword dump. It is a clear, role aligned document that uses the employer’s language naturally while proving the experience behind those words.
Before you trust any online ATS resume checker, do your own practical review. This is the same kind of logic I use when assessing whether a resume will survive both software screening and human screening.
For most Australian job applications, a Word document or simple PDF is usually safest. Some portals specify one format, and when they do, follow the instruction exactly.
If an employer asks for Word, do not upload a PDF because you prefer the design. If they ask for PDF, do not upload a Pages file from your Mac and hope everyone enjoys the surprise.
Your resume should be easy to open, easy to scan, and easy to parse.
Avoid formats that create unnecessary risk, including:
Image based resumes
Canva resumes with heavy design elements
Scanned documents
Files with text embedded inside graphics
Unusual file types
Password protected documents
Resumes with complex columns that break when uploaded
A resume is not a poster. It is a decision document.
This is a simple test candidates often overlook.
Open your resume. Try selecting and copying the text into a plain text document. If the content appears in a strange order, disappears, or turns into nonsense, your resume may not parse well.
This is especially useful if you created your resume in a design tool. Some visually attractive resumes are terrible for ATS readability. They look polished, but the system cannot read them properly.
Recruiters see this in another way too. A resume comes through, but the database profile is messy. The job titles are missing. The skills are not detected. The dates look wrong. The candidate may never know that their nice looking format quietly worked against them.
Use standard headings. This is not the place to be clever.
Good ATS friendly headings include:
Professional Summary
Key Skills
Employment History
Work Experience
Education
Certifications
Technical Skills
Projects
Avoid vague or overly creative headings such as:
My Story
Career Highlights and Adventures
What I Bring
Things I Have Done
Professional Timeline
The first group helps software and recruiters classify your information. The second group creates friction.
And in hiring, friction is rarely your friend.
Take the job ad and highlight the repeated requirements. Look for the language the employer keeps using.
Pay attention to:
Role title variations
Required technical skills
Industry terms
Systems and platforms
Certifications
Compliance requirements
Stakeholder groups
Delivery methods
Leadership scope
Then compare that language with your resume.
You are not trying to copy and paste the job ad. You are checking whether your resume speaks the same professional language as the role.
For example, if the job ad asks for “case management experience” and your resume only says “supported clients”, you may be underselling the match. If the job ad asks for “month end reporting” and your resume says “prepared reports”, you may be too vague.
Australian recruiters often screen for exact or near exact evidence. Not because they lack imagination, but because hiring managers push back when the fit is not obvious.
Make the fit obvious.
This is the part most ATS advice misses.
A keyword without proof is weak. A keyword attached to a real work example is stronger.
For every important requirement, ask yourself:
Where have I actually done this?
In what environment?
At what scale?
With which systems, people, or stakeholders?
What was the outcome?
Would a recruiter understand this quickly?
For example:
Weak Example:
Strong experience in process improvement.
Good Example:
Reviewed manual invoice approval workflows across three business units and helped implement a revised process that reduced approval delays and improved visibility for finance and operations teams.
The good version gives me something to believe. The weak version asks me to take your word for it.
Recruiters are not paid to take your word for it. We are paid to reduce hiring risk.
An online checker can identify technical issues. A recruiter style review identifies hiring issues.
There is a difference.
Technical ATS issues include things like formatting, file type, headings, and keyword visibility. Hiring issues include relevance, clarity, seniority, evidence, positioning, and whether the resume makes the candidate look like a sensible shortlist choice.
A resume can pass the technical check and fail the hiring check.
When I review a resume, I am not only asking, “Can the system read this?” I am asking:
Is this candidate clearly matched to the role?
Is their most relevant experience easy to find?
Have they translated their work into business value?
Do their achievements sound real or inflated?
Are they using job ad language naturally?
Are they hiding important information too low in the document?
Are they giving me enough reason to call them?
Can I confidently explain this candidate to the hiring manager?
That final question matters more than candidates realise.
Recruiters often act as translators between candidate experience and hiring manager expectations. If your resume does not give the recruiter clear evidence, the recruiter has to do extra work to position you. When there are stronger resumes in the pile, that extra work may not happen.
That may sound harsh, but it is useful to know. Your resume should not require someone to rescue it.
Most ATS problems are not dramatic. They are small issues that stack up until the resume becomes harder to shortlist.
Design heavy resumes are popular, especially with candidates who want to stand out. The problem is that many of them stand out for the wrong reason.
I have seen resumes with icons instead of words, skill bars that mean nothing, photos taking up valuable space, two column layouts that scramble the reading order, and graphics that make the resume look like a café menu.
For creative roles, presentation can matter. But even then, your resume still needs to be readable. Use a portfolio link for visual work. Keep the resume clean.
A generic resume is not usually rejected because it is badly written. It is rejected because it makes the recruiter work too hard to see the match.
If you are applying for a Project Coordinator role, your project coordination experience needs to be obvious. If you are applying for a Customer Success Manager role, your retention, onboarding, account management, and stakeholder experience needs to be obvious.
A broad resume says, “I have done many things.”
A targeted resume says, “I have done the things this role needs.”
That difference is everything.
Some candidates bury their strongest experience halfway down page two because they are following a strict chronological format without thinking strategically.
Chronology matters, but relevance matters too.
Your professional summary and key skills section should bring the most relevant evidence forward. Your employment history should then prove it.
This is especially important for:
Career changers
Migrants entering the Australian job market
Candidates returning after a break
Professionals with mixed experience
Contractors and consultants
Senior candidates with long work histories
The ATS may parse your resume, but the recruiter still needs to understand your positioning quickly.
Australian job ads often mention soft skills such as communication, teamwork, adaptability, and stakeholder management. Candidates then fill their resumes with soft skill claims.
The problem is that soft skills are rarely persuasive when written as claims.
Everyone says they communicate well. Some of them then send a resume that is three pages of fog.
Instead of saying “excellent communication skills”, show the communication environment.
For example:
Weak Example:
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
Good Example:
Managed communication between internal operations teams, external suppliers, and senior managers during a warehouse transition, ensuring delivery risks, stock issues, and timeline changes were escalated early.
Now I can see the communication skill in action.
Australian resumes usually do not need a photo, marital status, date of birth, full home address, or overly personal information. For most roles, these details are unnecessary and can distract from the actual hiring decision.
What Australian employers usually care about is simpler:
Can you do the job?
Have you done similar work before?
Are your skills current?
Are your qualifications or licences relevant?
Do you have the right to work in Australia?
Are you realistic for the level, salary, location, and working arrangement?
Your resume should answer those questions without making the reader dig.
A higher ATS score is not useful if the resume becomes awkward, repetitive, or unbelievable. The goal is balance.
Do not guess keywords from random online lists. Use the job ad in front of you.
If the employer says “customer service”, use that term if it matches your experience. If they say “client relationship management”, use that language where appropriate. If they mention “MYOB”, “Xero”, “Salesforce”, “SAP”, “Power BI”, “NDIS”, “WHS”, “ISO 9001”, or “Agile”, include those terms only if you genuinely have that experience.
The safest ATS strategy is honesty with better alignment.
If a skill is central to the job, it can appear in your key skills section and again in your employment history where you prove it.
For example, if you are applying for an HR Advisor role and the job ad requires employee relations, your resume might include:
Employee relations in the key skills section
Specific ER case examples in your recent role
Relevant policy, award, or enterprise agreement experience
Stakeholder groups you supported
Any investigation, performance, or grievance work where appropriate
This helps both ATS matching and human trust.
Achievement statements should not be fluffy. They should explain what you did, where you did it, and why it mattered.
A useful structure is:
Action
Context
Scope
Outcome
For example:
Good Example:
Improved onboarding documentation for a 120 person operations team, reducing repeated manager queries and helping new starters access process, safety, and system information faster.
This is more useful than “improved onboarding” because it gives scale and practical value.
Boring formatting is underrated.
Use:
Clear headings
Consistent spacing
Normal fonts
Simple bullet points
Reverse chronological work history
Plain section labels
Readable margins
Standard job title, company, location, and date structure
Avoid:
Text boxes
Heavy tables
Icons replacing words
Skill rating bars
Photos
Decorative columns
Headers and footers containing critical contact details
Graphics containing important text
If the ATS struggles to read it, the design has failed. If the recruiter has to hunt for basic information, the design has failed twice.
A useful ATS resume checker should give practical feedback, not just a mysterious percentage score.
Look for feedback on:
File readability
Contact detail detection
Section heading structure
Keyword match against a specific job ad
Missing hard skills
Missing qualifications or certifications
Resume length and readability
Formatting risks
Repeated or vague language
Whether achievements are measurable or specific
Whether the resume is aligned to the target role
Be careful with tools that make dramatic promises.
If a checker says it can guarantee interviews, be suspicious. Hiring does not work like that. A strong resume improves your odds, but it cannot control the applicant pool, salary alignment, internal candidates, hiring freezes, visa requirements, location preferences, recruiter bias, poor job ads, slow managers, or the classic corporate circus of “we are still reviewing applications” for six weeks.
A good checker helps you improve. It does not pretend recruitment is a vending machine.
A free ATS resume checker is useful for basic technical checks. It can help you identify obvious issues before applying. But it is limited.
Use a free ATS checker when you need to check:
Whether your resume includes job ad keywords
Whether formatting may create parsing issues
Whether your resume has standard sections
Whether obvious skills are missing
Whether the document is readable
A professional resume review is more useful when you need judgement.
That includes situations where:
You are applying for competitive roles
You keep getting rejected despite relevant experience
You are changing careers
You are new to the Australian job market
You are senior and need stronger positioning
You are applying for government, corporate, healthcare, mining, tech, finance, or specialist roles
Your resume is technically fine but not converting
You are not sure how to explain gaps, contracts, redundancy, overseas experience, or career changes
The difference is simple.
An ATS checker can say, “You are missing the keyword stakeholder engagement.”
A recruiter style review can say, “You mention stakeholder engagement, but you have not shown who the stakeholders were, what decisions you influenced, or why that matters for this role.”
That second layer is where many resumes improve dramatically.
Use this checklist before submitting your resume to an Australian employer.
The resume is tailored to one specific role or role type
The file format matches the application instructions
The resume uses clear Australian English
Contact details are easy to find
The resume does not rely on photos, icons, or graphics
Key skills match the job ad naturally
Important technical skills are named clearly
Job titles, employers, locations, and dates are consistent
Employment history is in reverse chronological order
Achievements include context, scope, and outcomes
Soft skills are proven through examples, not just claimed
Industry terminology matches the employer’s language
Certifications, licences, and work rights are visible where relevant
The resume avoids keyword stuffing
The most relevant experience appears early
The resume can be copied into plain text without becoming unreadable
The document is easy for a recruiter to explain to a hiring manager
That last point is the one I wish more candidates understood.
Your resume is not only being read. It is being used. A recruiter may need to search it, shortlist it, compare it, discuss it, summarise it, and defend it to a hiring manager. The clearer you make that job, the stronger your chances.
An ATS friendly resume is not a plain, lifeless document written for robots. It is a resume that removes technical barriers and makes your relevance obvious.
A strong ATS friendly Australian resume should be:
Easy for software to parse
Easy for recruiters to search
Easy for hiring managers to understand
Matched to the job ad without sounding copied
Clear about your skills, experience, scope, and outcomes
Honest about what you have actually done
Designed for decision making, not decoration
The best resumes do not make the recruiter guess. They do not hide the evidence. They do not rely on vague claims. They show the match clearly enough that the next step feels logical.
That is the real point of checking your resume for ATS compatibility.
Not to trick a system. Not to chase a perfect score. Not to cram “leadership” into every second line because a tool told you to.
The point is to make your resume readable, searchable, relevant, and convincing.
That is what gets you closer to the shortlist.
Written by Simar Malhi, a recruiter and headhunter with international recruitment experience. I write about CVs, job applications, hiring decisions, and the reality behind recruitment processes. My goal is to help candidates understand more honestly how employers, recruiters, and hiring managers actually select candidates.
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