MEC-01 — Multi-column layout
Short answer
MEC-01 looks for a column corridor that breaks ATS reading order. Line start x values are clustered into 15pt bins; if a secondary cluster sits at least 22% of the page width to the right of the primary one, holds 5+ lines and overlaps it vertically by half its own range, the layout is multi-column. This is a hard blocker.
What the ATS reads
- Skills Software Engineer | Trendyol
- Python Mar 2022 - Present
- Docker - Cut payment latency by 40%
Single column
- Software Engineer — Trendyol · Mar 2022 – Present
- - Cut payment latency by 40%
- Skills: Python, Docker
Impact
45
Score cap
hard blocker
25 pts
Mechanical penalty
severity: critical
What it checks
- x clustering of line starts and corridor width
- Line count and average block width of the secondary cluster (right-aligned dates are excluded)
- In DOCX: table rows carrying more than one cell
Why it matters
ATS parsers read left to right, so left-column content is glued to the right column. Job titles merge with skill names and companies merge with dates. Experience records are never created — or created as nonsense — and keyword matching collapses.
How to fix it
Convert the CV to a single-column, top-to-bottom layout. Drop the sidebar and list skills as plain text under a heading in the main body.
Frequently asked questions
Why do sidebar templates fail?
The parser reads across the page, so the sidebar "Skills" list ends up on the same line as the job title, producing records like "Python Software Engineer" — or no experience record at all.
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