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 .

Sales Development Representative

Cognition · Austin, Texas

We are an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents.

We're the makers of Devin, the first AI software engineer, and Windsurf, the AI-native IDE. Together, they represent our vision for collaborative AI teammates that enable engineers to focus on more interesting problems and empower teams to strive for more ambitious goals.

Our team is small and talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders from companies at the cutting edge of AI including Scale AI, Palantir, Cursor, Waymo, Tesla, Lunchclub, Modal, Google DeepMind, and Nuro.

Building Devin and Windsurf is just the first step—our hardest challenges still lie ahead. If you’re excited to solve some of the world’s biggest problems and build AI that can reason on real-world tasks, apply to join us.

About the Role

As an SDR, you will be responsible for engaging with prospects and sourcing new opportunities in our target accounts. You will be a crucial contributor to Cognition’s revenue growth and development.

You’ll work closely with the go-to-market team to accelerate the sales cycle and help build one of the fastest-growing AI startups.

Ideal candidates will have an understanding of our technology (Windsurf & Devin), sales/applicable experience, and exhibit the drive and grit required to win consistently in a fast-paced, high-intensity environment.

In this role, you will:

  • Research, prospect, and engage high-level prospects within your AE’s account list.

  • Learn to navigate complex organizational structures, and identify executive sponsors & champions.

  • Discover and understand the business objectives of your customers, and ability to engage with key stakeholders via cold outreach.

  • Support cross-functional partnerships in generating new business opportunities and progressing them forward.

  • Consistently deliver on monthly meeting/opportunity targets, and drive success via multi-channel outreach (email, LinkedIn, calls).

  • Provide timely and insightful input back to other corporate functions.

Requirements for the role:

  • We’re looking for A-players with insanely high adaptability, who have or feel they would thrive in an intense early-stage company environment.

  • 1+ years in a sales role with a track record of success & high performance OR proven track record of success in another domain.

  • Ability to learn and become an expert quickly, on both our product and how prospects/customers use AI code generation to have real, quantifiable impacts on their business.

  • Team player – We value simplifiers, not complexifiers.

  • Self-starter – Hunger to dream up, plan, and execute tasks independently.

  • Interface with prospects to explain Cognition and its technology (Devin & Windsurf).

  • Bonus: familiarity or experience with software engineering, Saas, infrastructure, or AI-powered developer tools (ex: Copilot, ChatGPT, etc.).

You might excel if you…

  • Are highly ambitious or have a competitive background (athletics, debate, etc.).

  • Have found success in another high-growth, fast-paced environment.

  • Have experience with software engineering, studied computer science, or another technical background.

What we believe…

Our best work is done in person. The team works together 5 days a week in our office in downtown Austin, TX (in the heart of the city).

We’re not a family, but a lot of our employees have them. Cognition offers a number of benefits and perks to make sure everyone is cared for – including but not limited to:

  • Competitive comp plan

  • Comprehensive benefits (medical, dental, vision)

  • 401K, equity

  • Catered lunches, fully stocked kitchen, swag, etc.

  • Team events & activities

  • Downtown parking

We truly have one of the best teams in the space. We are set on hiring team members who can communicate the advancement, excitement, and passion of the product and technology for the Sales team and our customers. We don't want this to be just another job, we want this opportunity to fundamentally change your career.