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 .

Accounting Lead

Garage · New York City

Accounting Lead at Garage (YC W24)

About Garage

Garage is a marketplace for specialized vehicles and equipment, starting with emergency vehicles. By automating every part of the transaction—including payments, freight, paperwork, warranty, and financing—we reduce what used to take months down to minutes. We're building the modern platform that powers commerce across America’s essential industries.

We recently closed a $13.5M Series A ($18M in total funding) from Infinity Ventures, Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, FJ Labs, and other top investors. In less than a year, our team has already served customers in all 50 states – and we’re just getting started.

The Role

As Accounting Lead, you will play a pivotal role in shaping Garage’s early operations, processes, and customer experience around taxes, bookkeeping & compliance. You’ll be an operator at first but we hope you will be able to grow/manage the accounting function as our company scales. You’ll collaborate directly with the founders & our customers to establish the foundation upon which the company grows.

You may enjoy this role if

  • You want a seat at the table on the most important financial and strategic decisions, working directly with leadership to shape how the business scales

  • You like operating at the intersection of accounting, operations, and strategy—not just closing the books, but helping the company understand and act on the numbers

  • You’re excited by the challenge of a marketplace business

  • You’re proactive and resourceful—you don’t wait for perfect information and are comfortable making decisions in ambiguous environments

  • You’re energized by complexity and take pride in bringing structure, accuracy, and clarity to messy, high-stakes financial and operational problems

  • You have a high bar for precision and ownership—you care deeply about getting the details right, especially when it comes to money movement and financial integrity

  • You enjoy building systems from the ground up and designing processes that will scale with a rapidly growing company

  • You’re motivated by being a foundational part of a company’s growth, with a path toward broader finance leadership over time

In this role, you will:

  • Own the company’s financial foundation, including accurate financial statements, month-end close, and overall integrity of the books using QuickBooks Online.

  • Manage the full lifecycle of marketplace infrastructure and funds flowBuild and implement scalable accounting, reporting, and forecasting systems to support rapid growth

  • Monitor and optimize cash flow, including ensuring the right liquidity across accounts and improving overall capital efficiency

  • Own core finance operations including AP/AR, payroll, vendor payments, and sales commission calculations

  • Define, track, and report on key business metrics (e.g., GMV, take rate, burn, margin) to support internal decision-making and investor reporting

Qualifications

Required

  • Strong experience with QuickBooks Online and proficiency in Microsoft Excel

  • Strong knowledge of GAAP accrual accounting, including AP/AR and financial statement management

  • Extremely detail-oriented with strong reconciliation skills, especially across multiple accounts and systems

  • Strong organizational and operational execution skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously

  • Ability to build and improve processes—not just execute existing ones

  • Comfortable working in ambiguity and taking ownership in a fast-paced, early-stage environment

Preferred

  • CPA or CPA-track

  • Experience in marketplaces, fintech, or transaction-heavy businesses

  • Experience at an early-stage startup or building finance processes from the ground up

You could work anywhere, so why Garage?

  • We’ve grown revenue >10x last year

  • We’ve raised $18M in funding (including a recent $13.5M Series A) and are well capitalized

  • We have a product loved by users– used daily to procure mission-critical equipment across the country

  • We’re punching well above our weight– everyone joining at this stage will have outsized impact

  • We have a talent dense team operating in a high performance culture, in-person in NYC

  • We’re backed by world class investors including Y Combinator, Infinity Ventures, Initialized Capital, FJ Labs, and more

As part of our close-knit team, you’ll be one of the first 30 employees to join alongside the founders. You’ll take on meaningful responsibilities and play a key role in our next stages of growth.

More about Garage

Our values

  • Growth oriented. We invest in people who grow as the company grows. We all should be constantly learning.

  • Humility. Everyone has a lot to give and a lot to learn. We believe in creating an environment where the best ideas win and acknowledging when we are wrong.

  • Customer focused. We love our customers. Customer success is our success.

  • Hack to success. We move fast and take big swings. We always aim for a solution that addresses 80% of the problem in 20% of the time. We make informed bets, launch quickly, and iterate.

What we offer:

  • Competitive salary and stock options

  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance for you and all your dependents

  • Enjoy daily catered lunches at our New York City office

  • Unlimited paid time off every year

  • $100 / month wellness stipend

  • Bi-annual team offsite

We realize applying for jobs can feel daunting at times. We don’t expect you to check all the qualification boxes and encourage you to apply if you have experience in some of the areas.

The salary range for this role is $110,000 to $145,000 USD base + equity + benefits. This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. An employee’s pay position within the wage range will be based on several factors including, but limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs. This compensation range may also be modified in the future.

As an equal-opportunity employer, we are committed to building an inclusive environment where you can be you. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, natural origin, age, disability, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected class.