By Peter Miller · Published March 24, 2026 · Last updated: October 4, 2026
6 min read
You can spend an hour on bullets and still lose the screen because your phone number never imported. That's not drama. It's a layout choice in the contact block most people copy from a pretty template, and you can't fix it with stronger action verbs.
If you're unsure whether your header survived export, don't guess. Check your resume for free and read whether name, email, and phone landed as separate lines before you tailor anything else tonight.
Use the grouped checklists below for must-have lines, optional add-ons, and traps that blank contact fields in Workday, Taleo, and iCIMS imports.
Quick Wins
- Move name, phone, and email into the document body, not the Word header.
- Type email as plain text; skip icon-only contact rows.
- Paste the PDF into Notepad and confirm each contact line survived export.
What parsers read before your first job
Contact is the first structured block. Systems map name, phone, email, and sometimes location into candidate fields used for outreach and duplicate detection. Experience only matters after those fields populate.
Fancy templates move that block into a sidebar or Word header. Humans still see it. Parsers often do not. The fix is boring: one column, plain text, no text boxes.
Font choice matters less than placement. Calibri or Arial at 11 point in the body beats a designed card that breaks on PDF export.
Duplicate detection uses email and phone more than your street address. A missing email breaks outreach entirely. A missing city line rarely kills parse on its own unless the req is strictly on-site and filters location.
Resume contact information for ATS: must-have lines
| Line | Rule |
|---|---|
| Full name | Legal or professional name you want on offer paperwork. One line, no nicknames in parentheses unless you always use them at work. |
| Mobile phone | Number you answer for recruiter calls. One consistent US format. Voicemail with your name turned on. |
| Personal domain or Gmail you check daily. Not your current employer inbox. firstname.lastname pattern reads cleanest. | |
| City, State | Metro you will work from. Match what you will put on the application form so records do not conflict. |
Stack them in that order with line breaks, not pipes buried inside a table cell. Parsers split on new lines more reliably than on decorative separators.
Avoid listing ten labels on one line separated by bars unless you test parse afterward. A single pipe between city and phone can merge fields in Taleo imports.
Optional lines after the core four
- Target title line: One short phrase under your name that matches the req, such as Senior Data Analyst. Keep it plain text, not a logo banner.
- Portfolio or code URL: One https link on its own line for creative, design, or engineering roles. Spell the full address.
- Work authorization: Only when the posting asks early. One neutral line such as Authorized to work in the United States. Skip long policy essays here.
If optional lines push contact onto page two, cut design flourishes before you cut phone or email.
Before: Contact icons in a Canva sidebar with no typed email string.
After: Plain lines in the body: name, city, phone, and [email protected] on separate rows.
Before: Phone and email merged on one line with pipe separators.
After: Phone on its own line, email on the next, so Taleo imports two fields instead of one blob.
Copy-paste header block
Alex Morgan Senior Customer Success Manager Denver, CO (303) 555-0142 [email protected] https://portfolio.example.com/work-samples
Swap in your details, delete lines you do not need, and keep everything left-aligned in the document body.
Pre-submit contact checklist
- Name matches what you will type on the application form.
- Phone voicemail uses the same name and is not full.
- Email inbox has space and you check it on mobile.
- City and state match what you will select in location dropdowns.
- Contact block sits in the document body, not the Word header.
- PDF plain-text paste shows email and phone on separate lines.
Run that list once per template change. Designers love moving contact for aesthetics. Parsers hate it.
Remote candidates should still list a city and state they'll work from, even when the posting says remote. It keeps location filters from misfiring when the req owner runs a metro report.
Traps that leave email blank in the ATS
I've rejected follow-ups in Taleo when the parsed record had no email, and the PDF header looked fine to the candidate because Word hid the field outside the body.
- Contact inside Word header or footer regions.
- Two-column Canva layouts with sidebar contact cards.
- Phone or mailto links without visible text strings.
- Icon rows replacing typed email addresses.
- Merged cells in table-based headers.
Fix path: Copy contact into a blank Word doc with no template, re-save, and paste plain text back into your master file if you must keep design elsewhere.
See resume contact info formatting that never breaks ATS for US-specific examples when your export still drops a line after you flatten layout.
Verify contact before you apply
Upload the PDF you will submit. Confirm parsed name, phone, and email match what you typed. A mismatch here wastes a tailored experience section.
Build your resume with a single-column header if your Word file keeps hiding contact in the margin. Re-run the checker on that export before you attach it to the portal.
If you send a short note with the file, use the same email and phone in the cover letter generator output so recruiters do not see conflicting contact strings.
Make outreach possible
Resume contact information for ATS is not about looking modern. It is about giving parsers typed lines they can map. Fix placement first, then polish fonts. When email and phone import cleanly, your bullets finally get a fair read.
Re-run the pre-submit checklist every time you duplicate the file for a new req. One template tweak for aesthetics can move contact back into a header without you noticing.
Frequently asked questions
Usually no. City and state are enough for most corporate reqs unless the posting asks for a full address. Parsers and recruiters use location for role fit, not mail delivery. Skip the street line unless HR explicitly requests it on the application form.
Avoid it. Many ATS imports ignore header and footer regions, so your phone and email never land in the candidate record. Put the block in the body under your name in plain text on line one of the document.
Use a consistent US pattern such as (555) 123-4567 or 555-123-4567 on one line. Do not hide the number inside an icon, button, or text box. Repeat the same format if you list phone twice, which you should not need to do.
Add one optional URL on its own line after email if the role expects work samples. Write the full https address as plain text. Do not stack five social icons in a sidebar. Parsers read strings, not graphics.