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 .

Senior QA Engineer (f/m/x)

Enpal · Berlin

Our goal is to have a solar system on every roof, a storage unit in every house, and an electric car in every garage. Enpal makes this possible with an integrated total solution for decentralized energy—from solar systems and battery storage to wall boxes, smart meters, and heat pumps. At the heart of it all is our AI-powered platform Enpal.One+, which intelligently connects thousands of systems and efficiently optimizes electricity procurement and feed-in on the energy market.

Are you ready for solutions that are more than just a promise and bring real quality of life to thousands of households every day? What you create at Enpal will deliver clean electricity tomorrow and bring about lasting change in how we use energy.

What you'll do

As a Senior QA Automation Engineer you will work on complex problems in delivering renewable energy solutions: from building up pipelines for automated regression testing, to educating and coaching team members around structured test design and test coverage, all the way to troubleshooting and prioritizing problem areas and bug reports.

We offer speed, agility, and steep career growth. Our vision to make sustainable solar energy available to everyone can only come to live through our customer and product-oriented view, and the cooperation between software development, product management and lean, experiment-driven business development.

Join us to develop your professional skills, take part in the energy revolution, and let us take ownership of the sustainable change we want to see in the world together! We are looking forward to your application.

  • At Enpal, you would be

    • building software. We are serious about delivering incremental value in each iteration, and we celebrate when we improve people's experience with our solution, make an impact towards our climate goals.

    • making the team’s life easier. Nobody wants to stay up until midnight to deploy new solutions, or run the same regression tests manually day in, day out. We're about improving stability, automating as much as we can including load tests and vulnerability scans.

    • growing & learning. Do you know all there is to know about Azure Functions or are you experienced on graceful degradation? We’d love to learn from your knowledge. Feel like you're behind on test-driven development in React, is Terraform new to you? We’ll make sure you grow through our knowledge.

    • working on architecture & vision. We are fusing old and new technologies; cloud-native microservices, IoT applications, a Salesforce backbone, an event-driven architecture. This means we analyze new requirements critically to see which moving parts would have to change, explore opportunities to solve organization-spanning challenges with elegant architectural solutions.

    • steering for empathy and understanding. Only when we comprehend what the market needs we can create solutions that truly address underlying challenges. Ask critical questions and listen to operations, craftspeople, sales - there are so many stakeholders and users to get input from, and balancing their needs leads to the best solutions.

What you'll bring

  • We are looking for roughly a 50% fit with for what we ask. The other 50% is a surprise to us, it is the magic you bring to the table and the diversity in which you make us grow.

    • 5+ years in QA testing (manual/automation), including 2+ years with cloud native apps (ideally in Azure).

    • Strong understanding of microservices architecture, debugging tools and IDEs (e.g., VS Code).

    • Experience with test automation frameworks (e.g., Cypress, Playwright).

    • Proficient in JavaScript, TypeScript or a modern programming language.

    • Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Azure DevOps, Jenkins)..

    • Backend API testing experience (e.g., Postman, curl).

    • Knowledge of monitoring tools (e.g., Datadog, Azure app insights)

Are you interested even if you don't meet all the requirements? Apply anyway! We look forward to discovering your potential—regardless of whether your experience meets every single requirement. ☀️

What we offer

  • Work at Germany's first green unicorn - Play an active role in shaping the solar energy transition.

  • The sun shines all over the world - At Enpal, you'll work with a highly motivated, diverse team of over 65 nationalities.

  • The ideal setup for your focus - We are convinced that excellent results are achieved when the conditions are right. That's why we rely on a hybrid working concept that gives you the freedom to always work in the way that best suits your tasks. Do you need new inspiration on an international level? With Workflex, we offer you the opportunity to relocate abroad for up to 30 days a year, depending on your responsibilities.

  • Grown-up business & startup spirit - In our modern office in Berlin-Friedrichshain, you'll find everything your heart desires, from height-adjustable desks and table tennis to stocked beverage fridges and barista coffee.

  • Your kick-start at Enpal - Onboarding day with a welcome bag, buddy program, and a team that really supports you.

  • Stay up to date & help shape the future - Transparent all-hands meetings, short decision-making processes, and an open feedback culture - without mistakes, there is no progress.

  • The energy transition can only be achieved together - At Enpal, you can expect legendary team spirit and unforgettable team events.

  • Your extra boost - 29 + 2 vacation days, discounted membership at Wellhub, and corporate benefits. Everything you need to help you achieve a good work-life balance.

At Enpal, we are proud of the diversity of our team. No decisions are made on the basis of skin colour, religion or religious belief, ethnic or national origin, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age, either during recruitment or employment. Enpal stands for a safe workplace and takes action against discrimination and harassment of any kind.