ATS myths: what doesn't get your resume rejected

Where does the claim that ATS rejects 75% of resumes come from?

The figure most often traces back to Preptel, a job search services firm, and no published study shows how it was measured. A Fortune column from August 22, 2014 said the 75% rate "probably came from a study by" Preptel. The column gives no sample, no time period and no method.

The Fortune piece also notes that Preptel was "founded by its CEO Jon Ciampi, an alumnus of ATS maker SumTotal Systems." So the number came from a company that sold help getting past these systems. That does not prove it wrong. It does mean nobody can check it.

The number still appears on official sites. Alberta's career site, on its page about what employers are looking for in a job application, says of applicant tracking software, "It rejects about 75% of the applications it scans." The page names no study, survey or organization behind the figure, as checked November 3, 2026.

Does a robot decide whether you get an interview?

In the vendor pages checked for this guide, software sorts and a person decides. Greenhouse's matching feature puts candidates into groups and leaves every advance or reject call to recruiters and hiring managers. Workday's HiredScore grades candidates from A to D, and its reference page does not describe the grade rejecting anyone on its own.

Greenhouse's Talent Matching FAQ, last updated October 5, 2026, says "Talent Matching does not auto-reject or auto-advance any candidate." It also says "recruiters and hiring managers make all advancement and rejection decisions." One of its five groups is "Needs manual review," which sends a person straight to the resume.

Workday's reference on HiredScore candidate grades, last updated June 23, 2023, describes grade D as a candidate who "does not meet most basic qualifications." A low grade still tells a recruiter something real: the resume did not show the required qualifications. The page on what an ATS score measures covers these ratings in full.

Will a PDF get your resume rejected?

No vendor page checked for this guide says so. Greenhouse names ".docx or .pdf" as the document formats to use instead of an image. The US Office of Personnel Management goes further for federal jobs and recommends PDF. The real problem is a PDF made from a scan, which holds a picture of text.

Greenhouse's page on unsuccessful resume parsing, last updated March 2, 2026, lists resumes "uploaded as an image, rather than a document (such as a .docx or .pdf)" as a cause of failure. A quick test is to open your PDF and try to select a line of text. If you can't, save it again from your word processor.

The OPM's agency guidance on the two-page resume limit gives the wording USAJOBS shows applicants: "We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages." It also lists Word (DOC or DOCX), RTF and TXT among accepted types, with a 5MB limit.

Does your resume have to fit on one page?

Neither government source checked for this guide asks for one page. Canada's Job Bank says to limit your resume to two pages. US federal jobs posted under Title 5 now cap resumes at two pages. A private employer can set its own rule in the posting, and the posting is the place to check.

Job Bank's guide on how to write a good resume, modified May 30, 2024, says "Limit your resume to two pages." It also says experience more than 15 years old should be "either cut out or minimized."

The federal rule has teeth. The same OPM guidance says that starting September 27, 2025, "USAJOBS will restrict all resumes to two pages." It adds: "If the only resume received by an applicant is longer than two pages, the applicant is ineligible for further consideration." That is one place where length alone ends an application, and the rule is written into the posting.

Will a particular font or a bit of design get you rejected?

Greenhouse's list of parsing problems does not name any font. It names layouts and objects: columns, tables, graphics, photos, word art, spaces between letters, and contact details in a header, footer or text box. A common font in a single column avoids every item on that list.

For a font, OPM's guidance gives one federal example. It recommends a sans-serif font such as Lato, and names Calibri, Helvetica, Arial and Verdana among widely available options, with 0.5 inch margins. Those are recommendations for legibility. The page on ATS-friendly resume format collects the layout rules vendors and governments actually publish.

So what can get an application rejected automatically?

Rules an employer writes, mostly on application questions. Greenhouse's Auto-Reject reads your answers to custom questions and can reject and email candidates whose answers match a rule. The federal two-page limit is another written rule. In both cases the rule sits in the form or the posting, where you can read it before you apply.

Greenhouse's Application Rules overview, last updated March 2, 2026, says "Auto-Reject uses custom application questions to screen and reject candidates based on their responses." It describes the feature as a fit for high-volume roles and lists it for the Plus and Pro subscription tiers.

That means the riskiest part of most applications is the questions, and the resume layout comes second. Read each question twice. Here is an example, made up for this page, of a question that is easy to get wrong when rushing.

• Question: "Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status?"
• A person on a work permit that expires in 2027 answers "Yes," because the question includes the future, even if no sponsorship is needed today.

Which ATS myths can you stop worrying about?

Most of them. The table sets each common claim beside what an opened source says, checked November 3, 2026. Where a source does support a worry, the table says so. Treat any claim without a named source the same way you would treat the 75% figure.

What should you do instead of chasing myths?

Spend the time on the parts that a rule or a person reads: a resume that parses, evidence for each required qualification, and accurate answers to the screening questions. Those three come straight from the vendor pages above. Formatting tricks and hidden keywords have no support in any of them.

1. Save one clean, single-column resume as a .docx or a text-based PDF.
2. List the posting's required qualifications and check that your resume shows evidence for each one. The guide to resume keywords shows how.
3. Read every screening question twice before you answer.
4. Keep to the page limit the posting or the employer sets.

The page on how applicant tracking systems work walks through each stage, and the free resume optimizer checks every line against a posting. If you reach interviews and still hear no, the problem has moved past the ATS, and the page on why you keep getting rejected after interviews is the next stop.