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 .

Head of Acquisitions / Sales

Flockhomes · Denver, New York, or San Francisco

About Flock 

There are 17 million Americans who own rental property. Most don't want to be landlords anymore, but selling isn’t a good option. Why? You’d lose income and appreciation, trigger tax liabilities, kick out your tenants, have to fix up the house – the list goes on! Flock is here to help.

Flock’s mission is to provide every retiring landlord with the most cost-efficient and seamless exit. Our first product is a tech-enabled 721 Exchange for Single Family Rental (SFR) landlords. Owners contribute properties into our professionally managed Fund, in exchange for passive equity ownership. It's a modern UPREIT model designed for sophisticated owners who want access to continued cashflows, liquidity, and diversification without triggering capital gains, disturbing tenants, or dealing with disposition friction. We’re now growing fast into the commercial and multifamily space and are looking for smart, entrepreneurial hustlers who want to help build something category-defining. 

We are backed by top tier investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Primary Ventures, Renegade Partners, SUSA Ventures, 1Sharpe Ventures, and leaders from Invitation Homes and Opendoor. 

About the Role

The Head of Acquisitions / Sales is a critical leadership role responsible for building, managing, and scaling Flock’s acquisitions organization. This role sits at the intersection of sales, investments, and operational excellence, and will directly influence Flock’s ability to grow efficiently while maintaining high asset and client quality.

The individual will lead both SFR Directors and Client Growth Associates while partnering closely with leadership and cross-functional teams to increase conversion rates, improve deal velocity, and strengthen the long-term performance of Flock’s SFR Fund.

If you've built experience in both investment management and startups, have a proven ability to sell, and are hungry to be on the front lines of building a huge business, this role is for you.

What You’ll Do

You'll own and elevate Flock's acquisitions org — managing the team, improving the machine, and closing the deals that let us scale.

  • Manage our team of SFR Directors and Client Growth Associates, building accountability, discipline, and a culture of high performance.
  • Recruit and grow the acquisitions team as the company scales, bringing in the right people and ramping them effectively.
  • Work closely with leadership to increase deal velocity and conversion rates — improving existing processes and building new ones.
  • Partner with Engineering, Investments, Client Relations, Legal, and Capital Markets to bring high-quality assets and well-aligned clients into the Fund.
  • Support leadership in complex portfolio transactions and, over time, lead them independently.
  • Lead from the front — conduct hands-on deal work, understand the org from the inside, and build your leadership on a foundation of knowing exactly how this business works.

About You

You have deep experience in investment management and know how to sell. You've probably spent time at a startup. You're hungry — not because you have to be, but because that's how you're wired.

  • You have 8-12 years of experience spanning investment management — equities, credit, real estate, or alts — and time at a startup, ideally one selling a complex or regulated product. You have a genuine understanding of how investment funds work.
  • You can sell. You've done it — at a startup, in financial services, or both.
  • You have high EQ. You connect easily with people from all backgrounds, understand what motivates them, and know how to move a conversation forward.
  • You're intellectually curious with a high slope — you pick things up fast and are eager to learn from people around you.
  • You're a systems thinker. You see gaps in processes, cut through noise, and understand how the pieces of an organization fit together.
  • You communicate clearly — in writing, in conversation, and in the way you run a team.
  • You operate with extreme rigor. High attention to detail. Meticulous about data. You hold yourself to a high standard and expect the same from the people around you.
  • You have uncompromisable integrity. We shouldn't need to elaborate on this one.
  • You practice dead reckoning — you don't wait for perfect information or fully built systems. You use judgment, take action, and adjust as you learn.

Location: New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Denver, CO

Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications, we recommend applying to the role!  

Compensation: $400-450K On Target Earnings, plus equity and benefits (medical/dental/vision insurance, 401k, and unlimited PTO).