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 .

Software Engineer

Cocoon · Remote

🚀 Build the future of employee leave

We’re bringing much needed simplicity to the complex world of employee leave. Today, the process is needlessly complex: going on leave (be it parental, medical, bereavement, or for any other reason) means talking to reps and wading through a mountain of government and insurance claims just to get your time off and income in moments when you're the most stressed and busy. We talked to hundreds of employees and employers who had nightmare stories to tell, so we decided to fix it.

Our mission is to empower every working person to take care of the important things in life when it matters most — removing all of the friction that exists today for both employees and employers — and be the #1 advocate for folks going through the process. It's a really exciting space, and we're moving incredibly fast on both product and user momentum.

Excited about taking the most frustrating processes companies and employees face and making it surprisingly delightful? We'd love to work with you.

💪🏽 What will you do?

We're a small but mighty team looking to build out the rest of our engineering org.

As a software engineer, you'll end up working on everything up and down the stack. You'll spend a lot of time talking to customers, figuring out what the product should be, and jamming with the rest of the team on building and iterating. We'll all be wearing many different hats, so you'll work on and learn a ton about areas adjacent to engineering — design, sales, legal, partnerships, and whatever else you're interested in.

And, most importantly, you'll be building this company with us. There's a lot to figure out. We want to work with folks who care deeply about the process of building the right company: from what operating values we should have, building out the rest of the team, decisions about how we should scale, and everything in between.

Our tech stack is Typescript, React and Next.js on the client, GraphQL API, Node.js + Express on the server, Postgres, and AWS.

⚡️ You'd be a great fit if you…

  • Are an experienced engineer with experience leading large-scope projects.
  • Previously worked in a fast-paced engineering environment. Ideally, you have experience building complex products or infrastructure end-to-end.
  • Obsess over the details, whether it’s getting that user-facing flow or code abstraction just right. We take great pride in things that have a high level of craftsmanship, both inside and outside of work.
  • Know when to “move fast and break things”, and when to slow down and think through all of the details to build something robust and scalable.
  • Are intellectually curious and enjoy digging into the nuts-and-bolts of how things work.
  • Debate without animosity or ego. We thrive on thinking from first principles, questioning assumptions, and always pushing to make things better.
  • Care deeply not just about engineering, but about building the right product and company culture. As a founding team member, you’ll have a huge impact on the company’s story.

🎁 Some benefits you can expect as a part of the Cocoon team:

  • Competitive salary and equity
  • Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance coverage
  • Unlimited vacation and sick time
  • Professional development budget
  • Office setup and wellness stipends
  • 14 weeks of paid parental leave
  • 4 weeks of each paid medical and caregiver leave
  • 4 weeks of flexible, paid compassionate leave
  • Company sponsored offsites & more!
The salary for this role is $170,000 and equity is part of the total package.
 
At Cocoon, we believe that diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) serve as the foundation for a successful team, product, and community. We’re committed to building a company where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work and be set up for success. Creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce requires ongoing effort and attention. We are committed to cultivating space for feedback and expanding our understanding of DEIB as our community grows.

 

We use Covey as part of our hiring and / or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT. As part of the evaluation process we provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound on February 1, 2024.

Please see the independent bias audit report covering our use of Covey here.

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