MEC-04 — Charts, progress bars and icon noise
Short answer
MEC-04 looks for skill progress bars, star ratings and icon glyphs mixed into the text flow. It catches both real block characters (████░░) and the repeated symbol runs (ˆˆˆˆ‘‘) they turn into when the font is not embedded.
What you see
- Python ████████░░
- Docker ██████░░░░
What the ATS reads
- Python ˆˆˆˆˆˆ‘‘
- Docker (level lost)
Impact
12 pts
Penalty
mechanical · high
What it checks
- Block, circle and star character runs and repeated symbol groups
- Icon glyphs inside the text flow
- Subjective level claims such as "Python 80%"
Why it matters
An ATS never sees graphics, so the proficiency a bar represents is lost — and sometimes the skill name next to it becomes unreadable too. Unicode icons leak into the text and break email and phone parsing.
How to fix it
Remove progress bars and icons. List skills as comma-separated plain text without levels; if you must show depth, use "Advanced:" / "Intermediate:" sub-labels.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to a progress bar in an ATS?
Nothing. It is vector art, never part of the text layer, so the level information disappears entirely.
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