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 Staff Engineer - Java (HYBRID)

Geico · Bethesda, MD

At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities. 

Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most. We thrive through relentless innovation to exceed our customers’ expectations while making a real impact for our company through our shared purpose. 

When you join our company, we want you to feel valued, supported and proud to work here. That’s why we offer The GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards and Great Careers.

Position Description 
Our Senior Staff Engineer works with our Staff and Sr. Engineers to innovate and build new systems, improve and enhance existing systems and identify new opportunities to apply your knowledge to solve critical problems. You will lead the strategy and execution of a technical roadmap that will increase the velocity of delivering products and unlock new engineering capabilities. The ideal candidate is a self-starter that has deep technical expertise in their domain. 
 
Position Responsibilities 
 As a Senior Staff Engineer, you will: 

  • Provide technical leadership to multiple areas and provide technical and thought leadership to the enterprise 

  • Collaborate across team members and across the tech organization to solve our toughest problems 

  • Deliver High-Quality services and software for a variety of domains 

  • Accountable for the quality, usability, and performance of the solutions 

  • Utilize programming languages like Java, C#, or other object-oriented languages, SQL, and NoSQL databases, Container Orchestration services including Docker and Kubernetes, and a variety of Azure/AWS/GCP tools and services 

  • Work on End-to-End solutions that may span front-end implementations (Flutter, Agular, React) through API tiers and Back-End domain services.  

  • Be a role model and mentor, helping to coach and strengthen the technical expertise and know-how of our engineering and product community. Influence and educate executives 

  • Consistently share best practices and improve processes within and across teams 

  • Analyze cost and forecast, incorporating them into business plans 

  • Determine and support resource requirements, evaluate operational processes, measure outcomes to ensure desired results, and demonstrate adaptability and sponsoring continuous learning 
      

Qualifications 
 

  • Exemplary ability to design, perform experiments, and influence engineering direction and product roadmap 

  • Experience partnering with engineering teams and transferring research to production 

  • Extensive experience in leading and building full-stack application and service development, with a strong focus on SAAS products / platforms.  

  • Proven expertise in designing and developing microservices using graphQL, gRPCJava, Python, Kafka, with a deep understanding of both API and event-driven architectures.  

  • Proven experience designing and delivering highly-resilient event-driven and messaging based solutions at scale with minimal latency.  

  • Deep hands-on experience in building complex SAAS systems in large scale business focused systems, with great knowledge on Docker and Kubernetes 

  • Fluency and Specialization with at least two modern OOP languages such as Java, C#, C++, or Python including object-oriented design 

  • Familiarity and comfort with front-end technologies as well as back-end, including technologies like React, Flutter, Angular, Html, Javascript 

  • Great understanding of open-source databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc. And strong foundation with No-SQL databases like Cosmos, Cassandra. Apache Trino etc.  

  • In-depth knowledge of CS data structures and algorithms 

  • Ability to excel in a fast-paced, startup-like environment  

  • Knowledge of developer tooling across the software development life cycle (task management, source code, building, deployment, operations, real-time communication) 

  • Experience with Micro-services oriented architecture and extensible REST APIs 

  • Experience building the architecture and design (architecture, design patterns, reliability, and scaling) of new and current systems 

  • Experience in implementing security protocols across services and products: Understanding of Active Directory, Windows Authentication, SAML, OAuth 

  • Fluency in DevOps Concepts, Cloud Architecture, and DevOps Operational Frameworks 

  • Experience with application monitoring tools and performance assessments 

  • Experience in Azure Network (Subscription, Security zoning, etc.) 
     

Experience 

  • 10+ years full-stack development experience (Java/C#/Python/GO), with expertise in client-side and server-side frameworks. 

  • 8+ years of experience with architecture and design 

  • 6+ years of experience in open-source frameworks 

  • 4+ years of experience with AWS, GCP, Azure, or another cloud service
     

Education 

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent education or work experience 


 

Annual Salary

$105,000.00 - $260,000.00

The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate/ annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate’s work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations.


 

GEICO will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.


 

The GEICO Pledge:

Great Company: At GEICO, we help our customers through life’s twists and turns. Our mission is to protect people when they need it most and we’re constantly evolving to stay ahead of their needs.

We’re an iconic brand that thrives on innovation, exceeding our customers’ expectations and enabling our collective success. From day one, you’ll take on exciting challenges that help you grow and collaborate with dynamic teams who want to make a positive impact on people’s lives.

Great Careers: We offer a career where you can learn, grow, and thrive through personalized development programs, created with your career – and your potential – in mind.  You’ll have access to industry leading training, certification assistance, career mentorship and coaching with supportive leaders at all levels.

Great Culture: We foster an inclusive culture of shared success, rooted in integrity, a bias for action and a winning mindset. Grounded by our core values, we have an an established culture of caring, inclusion, and belonging, that values different perspectives. Our teams are led by dynamic, multi-faceted teams led by supportive leaders, driven by performance excellence and unified under a shared purpose.

As part of our culture, we also offer employee engagement and recognition programs that reward the positive impact our work makes on the lives of our customers.

Great Rewards: We offer compensation and benefits built to enhance your physical well-being, mental and emotional health and financial future.

  • Comprehensive Total Rewards program that offers personalized coverage tailor-made for you and your family’s overall well-being.
  • Financial benefits including market-competitive compensation; a 401K savings plan vested from day one that offers a 6% match; performance and recognition-based incentives; and tuition assistance.
  • Access to additional benefits like mental healthcare as well as fertility and adoption assistance.
  • Supports flexibility- We provide workplace flexibility as well as our GEICO Flex program, which offers the ability to work from anywhere in the US for up to four weeks per year.

The equal employment opportunity policy of the GEICO Companies provides for a fair and equal employment opportunity for all associates and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state and local law. GEICO hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled.

GEICO reasonably accommodates qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to receive equal employment opportunity and/or perform the essential functions of the job, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship to the Company. This applies to all applicants and associates. GEICO also provides a work environment in which each associate is able to be productive and work to the best of their ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment. We expect and require the cooperation of all associates in maintaining an atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment with mutual respect by and for all associates and applicants.