Key Takeaways

  • 75% of U.S. employers use automated applicant tracking systems to screen resumes before a human reviews them (Harvard Business School & Accenture, 2021)
  • The most common ATS failures are missing keywords, incompatible formatting, and incorrect file types
  • ResumeGeni scores your resume across 8 parsing layers — modeled on the same steps enterprise ATS platforms like Workday, Greenhouse, and Taleo use to evaluate candidates

How ATS Resume Scoring Works

Applicant tracking systems parse your resume into structured data — extracting your name, contact info, work history, skills, and education — then score how well that data matches the job requirements. Many ATS rejections happen because the parser couldn't extract critical fields, not because the candidate wasn't qualified.

LayerWhat It ChecksWhy It Matters
Document extractionFile format, encoding, readabilityCorrupted or image-only PDFs fail immediately
Layout analysisTables, columns, headers, footersMulti-column layouts break field extraction
Section detectionExperience, education, skills headingsNon-standard headings cause sections to be missed
Field mappingName, email, phone, dates, titlesMissing contact info is a common cause of immediate rejection
Keyword matchingJob-specific terms, skills, certificationsKeyword overlap affects recruiter search visibility and ATS scoring
Chronology checkDate ordering, gap detectionReverse-chronological order is expected by most ATS
QuantificationMetrics, numbers, measurable outcomesQuantified achievements help human reviewers and some scoring models
Confidence scoringOverall parse quality and completenessLow-confidence parses get deprioritized in results

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ResumeGeni free?
Yes. ResumeGeni is currently in beta — ATS analysis, scoring, and initial improvement suggestions are free with no signup required. Full guidance and saved reports may require a free account.
What file formats are supported?
PDF, DOCX, DOC, TXT, RTF, ODT, and Apple Pages. PDF and DOCX are recommended for best ATS compatibility.
How is the ATS score calculated?
Your resume is processed through an 8-layer parsing pipeline that extracts structured data the same way enterprise ATS platforms do. The score reflects how completely and accurately your resume can be parsed, plus how well your content matches common ATS ranking criteria.
Can ATS read PDF resumes?
Yes, but not all PDFs are equal. Text-based PDFs parse well. Image-only PDFs (scanned documents) and PDFs with complex tables or multi-column layouts often fail ATS parsing. Our analyzer will flag these issues.
How do I improve my ATS score?
Focus on three areas: use a clean single-column format, include keywords from the job description naturally in your experience bullets, and ensure all sections (contact, experience, education, skills) use standard headings.

ATS Guides & Resources

Built by engineers with 12 years of experience building enterprise hiring technology at ZipRecruiter. Last updated .

Retail Partnerships

Base Power · Austin, TX

About Base

Base is America’s next-generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization–electricity–by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time.

About the Role

We’re hiring a growth-minded operator to own and scale Base’s retail partnership channel. Today that starts with our flagship retail partner. Tomorrow it could be any number of big-box and grocery retailers across Texas and beyond.

This role sits at the intersection of vendor management, field marketing, performance analytics, and sales operations. You’ll manage our in-store sales vendor, build the marketing collateral and local campaigns that drive foot traffic and conversions, and own the reporting that tells us what’s working and what isn’t. You’ll turn a single retail partnership into a repeatable, scalable channel.

You’ll work closely with growth marketing, business operations, sales, member experience, product, and design. You’ll have clear targets, full ownership, and direct visibility across the organization.

What You’ll Do

  • Own retail partnership growth targets, with clear accountability for in-store conversion volume, cost per acquisition, and channel revenue.

  • Manage the in-store sales vendor relationship end-to-end—performance standards, rep quality, training, escalations, and reporting cadences.

  • Build and iterate on marketing collateral, in-store materials, and local campaigns that drive awareness and conversion at retail locations.

  • Own performance analytics for the retail channel: track vendor output, campaign results, and funnel metrics; translate data into clear recommendations.

  • Develop repeatable playbooks and processes that allow Base to launch new retail partnerships efficiently as the channel scales.

  • Coordinate cross-functionally with design, product, sales, and member experience to ensure Base’s brand and value proposition are consistently represented in-store.

What You’ll Bring

  • 3–10+ years of hands-on experience in growth, channel marketing, retail marketing, or partnership management—ideally with direct ownership of performance targets in a consumer or consumer-adjacent business.

  • Experience managing vendor or field sales teams, with a track record of holding partners accountable to outcomes.

  • Comfortable building from scratch: creating processes, collateral, and reporting where none exist yet.

  • Strong cross-functional operator—able to work fluidly with design, sales, product, and biz ops to move fast and ship work.

  • Clear communicator who can translate performance data into decisions: what to double down on, what to fix, what to shut down.

  • Bonus: data fluency (SQL, CRM reporting, or similar) and experience in early-stage or unstructured environments.

About This Team

The Marketing team at Base is lean, high-ownership, and results-driven. We operate with clear accountability, tight feedback loops, and a strong bias towards action. Marketing works closely with design, sales, and product to build scalable systems that support the rapid buildout of America’s next-generation power company.

Please note: Base is a startup, which means priorities shift and evolve quickly. Your role may expand or change based on the needs of the business at any given time, so the responsibilities listed may not be exhaustive.

Our Values

  • First Principles Thinking: Question assumptions. Principles > rules.

  • Operate at Base Pace: Focus on what matters, act quickly, and learn by doing.

  • Give & Get Feedback: Be direct, be humble, and maintain a growth mindset.

  • Everyone’s an Owner: Follow through on commitments and own results.

  • Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Drive clarity and make calls with imperfect information.

  • Committed to the Mission: Rebuilding the grid is a big challenge. We work hard because we care deeply about the impact we’re creating. We work in-person. It’s not a 9-to-5. We are all-in.

  • Fun & Optimism Coexist with Grit: Collaboration and celebration coincide with the intensity of building real things.

Do the best work of your life at Base.