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 .

Corporate Controller

Beaconbiosignals · Boston, MA - Remote

Beacon Biosignals is on a mission to revolutionize precision medicine for the brain. We are the leading at-home EEG platform supporting clinical development of novel therapeutics for neurological, psychiatric, and sleep disorders. Our FDA 510(k)-cleared Waveband EEG headband and AI algorithms enable quantitative biomarker discovery and implementation. Beacon’s Clinico-EEG database contains EEG data from nearly 100,000 patients, and our cloud-native analytics platform powers large-scale RWD/RWE retrospective and predictive studies. Beacon Biosignals is changing the way that patients are treated for any disorder that affects brain physiology. 

Beacon Biosignals is seeking a finance team member to join us as a Corporate Controller. This role will be primarily responsible for overseeing and ensuring high-quality accounting practices, compliance and cash management strategies. We are a growth-stage Series B company that is rapidly scaling up, which will also create opportunities for candidates aiming to grow their financial strategy skills. This role will be mission critical to our future success and will be a partner to leaders across all parts of the business. Beacon values continuous improvement and automation, providing opportunities to implement or optimize cloud-based systems and best-in-class finance tools. This role is preferred to be based out of Beacon's Boston or NYC hub. This role reports directly to the CEO. 


What success looks like:

  • Oversee all accounting and payroll activities, including the month-end close process
  • Support invoicing and AP activities
  • Be the in house expert and point person on revenue recognition and operations
  • Develop, monitor and maintain accounting policies, procedures, and internal controls to ensure conformance with GAAP, internal policies, external audits and other regulations
  • Support financial performance monitoring activities (e.g., execution against forecast)
  • Support the timely and accurate preparation of internal and external financial statements
  • Produce KPI reporting and root cause trends in KPI and prepare insights for variance and key meetings
  • Work with People Operations and leadership to support accurate and continuous headcount planning and projections 
  • Review quarterly and annual payroll tax returns (Form 941, 940, W-2s, W-3, state equivalents)
  • Ensure that all federal, state, and local payroll taxes are calculated, remitted, and recorded accurately
  • Create and maintain policies and procedures related to things like travel and other business expenses 
  • Be responsible for reviewing and approving all expenses 
  • Ensure accounting systems and processes are continually streamlined to achieve greater efficiencies and accuracy

What you will bring:

  • CPA
  • 3 + years of experience in public accounting
  • 7+ years of experience in Finance, ideally in a startup environment 
  • A degree in finance, statistics, economics, business or other related fields
  • An interest in building out the infrastructure to sustain significant growth while maintaining tight financial controls
  • A passion to help others make informed decisions driven by ROI and storytelling with numbers
  • An ability to convey complex financial concepts to leaders across the organization
  • The desire to drive continuous process improvements
  • Outstanding Excel skills with the ability to manipulate large data sets
  • Experience with Quickbooks

The salary range for this role is $170,000 – $190,000. Salary ranges are determined using current market compensation data for this role and adjusted based on experience, skills, and location.The base salary is one component of the total compensation package, which includes equity, PTO and other benefits.

At Beacon, we've found that cultural and scientific impact is driven most by those that lead by example. As such, we're always seeking new contributors whose work demonstrates an avid curiosity, a bias towards simplicity, an eye for composability, a self-service mindset, and - most of all - a deep empathy towards colleagues, stakeholders, users, and patients. We believe a diverse team builds more robust systems and achieves higher impact.