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 .

Commercial Counsel

Decagon · San Francisco

About Decagon

Decagon is the leading conversational AI platform empowering every brand to deliver concierge customer experiences.

Our technology enables industry-defining enterprises like Avis Budget Group, Block’s Cash App and Square, Chime, Oura Health, and Hunter Douglas to deploy AI agents that power personalized, deeply satisfying interactions across voice, chat, email, SMS, and every other channel.

We’re building a future where customer experiences are being redefined from support tickets and hold music to faster resolutions, richer conversations, and deeper relationships. We’re proud to be backed by world-class investors who share that vision, including a16z, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Coatue, and Index Ventures, along with many others.

We’re an in-office company, driven by a shared commitment to excellence and velocity. Our values — Just Get It Done, Invent What Customers Want, Winner’s Mindset, and The Polymath Principle — shape how we work and grow as a team.

About the Role

We’re looking for an experienced Commercial Counsel to join Decagon and help shape the legal foundation of our fast-growing AI company. As a key early hire in this role, you will join a team of legal professionals working as trusted partners to teams across Sales, Security, Product, and Leadership. From negotiating complex enterprise SaaS agreements to streamlining contract operations, you’ll play a pivotal role in accelerating revenue, protecting the business, and building scalable legal infrastructure from the ground up.

In this role, you will

  • Be a part of a team reviewing and negotiating our commercial agreements, working cross functionally to balance legal risk with business outcomes, tailoring your guidance based on context and deal stage.

  • Build relationships throughout our company, and serve a solutions oriented partner to provide guidance to sales teams based on our technology, market norms, and your experience.

  • Define what excellent looks like on a legal team in a hypergrowth startup - establish working norms and process to provide top-tier service.

  • Work to design, update, and enforce policies and controls over Decagon’s contracting process.

  • Grow with the team as Decagon scales, and be open to taking on new challenges outside of Commercial legal as appropriate.

Your background looks something like this

  • Are a qualified attorney in your jurisdiction with 4 - 7+ years of legal experience, including time at a top-tier law firm and/or a relevant in-house role.

  • Have deep experience drafting, negotiating, and closing on a high volume of commercial agreements, including SaaS, MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, DPAs, and partner/reseller deals.

  • Are fluent in legal frameworks (like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA), security concepts, AI governance, and intellectual property concerns that arise in SaaS transactions.

  • Understand how to balance legal risk with business outcomes, and can tailor guidance based on context and deal stage.

  • Thrive in cross-functional environments and are comfortable being the go-to legal resource for Sales, Finance, Product, and RevOps as we build out a global contracting process.

  • Can leave your ego at the door and communicate clearly and effectively, translating legal complexity and abstract risk into actionable guidance for internal non-legal stakeholders - and do the same with counterparties who may not be at the same level of sophistication.

  • Are flexible, eager to learn and grow, and are energized by fast growth, ambiguity, and the opportunity to build scalable legal systems that drive velocity.

Even better if you have

  • Have in-house legal experience at a high-growth SaaS or technology company.

  • Have a process-building mindset, and have worked closely with RevOps or LegalOps on CLM tools and Salesforce integrations.

  • Are experienced leading customer-facing contract negotiations directly with enterprise clients, and especially highly-regulated customers (financial services, healthcare, SLED & FED).

  • Have negotiated AI terms with counterparties - and can articulate common issues with brevity.

  • Have built and maintained legal playbooks, fallback clause libraries, and approval workflows.

  • Have trained commercial teams on contract review, negotiation strategy, or compliance topics, and are eager to mentor junior colleagues.

Benefits:

  • Medical, dental, and vision benefits

  • Take what you need vacation policy

  • Daily lunches, dinners and snacks in the office to keep you at your best