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

Edpuzzle · España

About us Edpuzzle is a leading edtech company with offices in San Francisco and Barcelona and over 12 years of history helping teachers find and create exciting, interactive learning experiences. We're a software company built by teachers, for teachers, committed to empowering educators with intuitive software to engage students all in one place, from video learning and beyond. Millions of teachers and students around the world are already using Edpuzzle to make education more equitable and engaging. If you’re passionate about making an impact and find joy in learning, you’ll feel right at home with us. Check out the job details below to see if Edpuzzle could be the right fit for you! About working at Edpuzzle  Working at Edpuzzle means joining a global team dedicated to enhancing education for all. Picture a place where you can connect with your teammates, whether remotely or in person, whenever you need support. A place where one day you're helping shape one of the biggest edtech platforms in the world, and the next day you're doing a teambuilding activity with your coworkers. A place where everyone has been selected because they're the best at what they do, and where your manager and team trust your decisions fully. We value work-life harmony, which is why we’ve embraced a “remote-first” approach that emphasizes flexibility and choice while fostering meaningful engagement. It's no surprise that in our latest employee satisfaction survey, Work-Life Balance (92%), Leadership (85%), and Employee Engagement (84%) were highlighted as our top drivers, because we genuinely care about creating an environment where people can thrive, feel supported, and do their best work. A place where you're encouraged to learn and grow, because education is the cornerstone of everything we do. About the process The goal of our interview process is to learn about each other. Each step is structured to help us understand your unique talents and contributions while offering you insight into our team and culture.  For a detailed breakdown of our recruitment process, please refer to our Selection Process Guide which outlines every step of our candidate journey. A dedicated member of our team will support you through each step, and you'll have the opportunity to meet various Edpuzzlers along the way. About the role We’re looking for our next Software Engineer to join our Product Team in Spain. The right person will help us create the best possible product for teachers and empower them to engage their students with videos. If you’re a self-starter who’s eager to contribute to the education sector, you’ll feel right at home with us.  As a Software Engineer, you’ll be responsible for working on all front-end, mobile and back-end sides of our software. You will participate in the design, creation, and maintenance of features, writing clean, functional, testable, and scalable code as well as fixing bugs or other coding issues. You will also continuously learn with the aim to be able to work on problems with increasing complexity, including the possibility of starting to lead projects with technical complexity, product complexity, or both.   Technically speaking, we use React and Redux for our frontend and Node and Express applying DDD and hexagonal architecture in the backend. We use MongoDB for our database and are fully hosted on AWS which we also use to store, encode and stream our own pool of videos. We work with testing, trunk based development, CI/CD, and follow best practices making sure we never compromise on code quality and reliability.  About our team We are a product-focused team. Our methodologies foster close partnerships between Engineering, Product, Infrastructure, and other key areas (Design, Data, QA, Security, etc.). Everyone is encouraged to share their ideas and opinions, take initiative, and be resourceful when coming up with creative solutions that elevate the experience for our users. Our Engineering team is organized around cross-functional and rotational full-stack projects, with teams of 3 to 5 Engineers on each project providing diverse perspectives and skills. At our core is an environment where every voice is heard and valued, and each team member plays a role in shaping project strategy and designing technical solutions. We embrace proactiveness and curiosity to understand the bigger picture. Engineers are not just encouraged but expected to think critically, propose solutions, and take ownership. We’ve built a culture where ideas are shared openly, challenges are tackled head-on, and assumptions are questioned to drive continuous improvement.  Curious to learn more about our Product team and Engineering culture? Don’t miss these talks: •  Santi Herrero (Co-founder and CTO) at SCPNA 2024, SCBCN 2024 and Edpuzzle Tech Discovery 2025 gives insights on the deliberate choices behind our structure and growth. •  Santi Herrero (Co-founder and CTO) and Ferrán Martín (Engineering Manager) share how we migrated and implemented hexagonal architecture and DDD in this stream with midudev. •  Asier Zapata (Engineering Manager) shares how our team successfully brings AI to production in a scalable and reliable way in this Edpuzzle Tech Discovery 2025 talk.