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 .

Founding Marketer, EMEA

Claylabs · London

About Clay

Our mission is to help organizations turn any growth idea into reality.

We see growth as a creative practice, not a formula. Finding and reaching your best-fit customers takes unique ideas and constant iteration. As AI makes execution faster and tactics easier to copy, creativity is the only lasting advantage. We're already helping thousands of customers — including Anthropic, Notion, Google, and Ramp — go to market with unique data, signals, and AI research.

In 2025, we raised a $100M Series C backed by world-class investors including Sequoia, CapitalG, and First Round — and crossed $100M in revenue.

In 2026, we announced our second employee tender offer in 9 months at a new $5B valuation. We also launched a community equity round, for our customers, agency partners, and club members.

Some things to know about us:

  • Our community includes 11,000+ customers, 150+ integration partners, 125+ agencies, 50+ Clay clubs, and 30k members on Slack.

  • Our culture is unique inside and outside of work. Our team members are also DJs, activists, writers, clowns, marathoners, skydivers, psychedelic therapists, social workers, and more.

  • All employees can work for free with world-class coaches who specialize in creativity, management, and more.

  • Our operating principles — including negative maintenance and non-attached action — guide our work. Read more about them here.

  • Read about us in the NYT, Forbes, First Round Review, and more.

Hear from our employees directly on our Glassdoor page!

Founding Marketer, EMEA

Clay is expanding into EMEA, and we're hiring our first Marketer in the region to establish our brand and drive revenue as we scale. You'll own foundational positioning and messaging for the market, while working in lockstep with sales to build enablement materials and demand generation that actually moves deals.

This is a hands-on, execution-focused role for someone who wants to build marketing infrastructure from scratch and directly influence revenue. You'll translate Clay's product capabilities into narratives that resonate with EMEA enterprise buyers, test and refine messaging in real sales conversations, and help set up a repeatable enterprise motion. If you want to shape how an entire region understands and buys a category-defining product, this is the role.

What You’ll Do

Define Clay’s positioning within EMEA

  • Define and evolve Clay’s positioning, messaging, and ICPs for EMEA enterprise buyers

  • Translate Clay’s product capabilities into clear, differentiated value propositions and use cases

  • Identify where EMEA buyer needs, language, and buying dynamics differ from the US and adapt the story accordingly

  • Pressure-test messaging in real sales conversations and refine continuously

Lead sales enablement through product storytelling

  • Partner closely with EMEA Sales and GTM-Engineering (GTM Ops) to support active deals

  • Create and iterate on sales enablement assets (core pitch, narratives, one-pagers, use cases, competitive context)

  • Help sales teams articulate why Clay, why now, and why us vs alternatives

  • Ensure consistency in how Clay is positioned across the full enterprise buying committee

Use field marketing and community events to validate and reinforce the message

  • Support in-person community events, executive dinners, and conferences in EMEA

  • Define event themes, talk tracks, and narratives rooted in product value

  • Decide who should be invited based on ICP fit and active opportunities

  • Capture qualitative feedback from the field to inform positioning and enablement

Close the feedback loop with Product and Marketing

  • Synthesize insights from sales calls, demos, objections, and wins/losses

  • Share EMEA-specific learnings with Product Marketing and Product teams

  • Influence roadmap, packaging, and messaging with real buyer evidence

  • Refine Clay’s story based on what actually moves deals

What You’ll Bring

  • Strong product marketing foundation in B2B SaaS. You’ve owned positioning, messaging, and narratives for complex products. Ideally, in sales-led or enterprise contexts.

  • Experience supporting enterprise sales motions. You’ve worked closely with sales on live deals, understand buying committees, and know how to enable sales with the right story at the right moment.

  • Ability to translate product depth into clarity. You can take technical or complex capabilities and turn them into clear, compelling value props that resonate with executive and practitioner buyers.

  • Hands-on mindset with a bias toward execution. You’re comfortable going from strategy to doing - building enablement assets, shaping campaigns, supporting events, and iterating quickly based on feedback.

  • Strong written and verbal communicator. You’re an excellent writer and presenter, able to craft narratives, one-pagers, decks, and talk tracks that sales teams actually use.

  • Commercial and analytical instincts. You think in terms of pipeline, deal progression, and buyer objections - not just awareness or engagement metrics.

  • Comfort operating in ambiguity. You’ve thrived in early or fast-moving environments where the scope isn’t fully defined, and ownership matters more than process.

  • Bonus: modern GTM tooling experience. Familiarity with tools like Clay, Salesforce, outbound platforms, or ABM workflows is a plus - but curiosity and learning speed matter more.