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 .

DAI Instructor Lead

Generalassembly · Bahrain

Since 2011, General Assembly has transformed tens of thousands of careers through pioneering, experiential education in today’s most in-demand skills. As featured in The Economist, Wired, and The New York Times, GA offers training in web development, data, design, business, and more, both online and at campuses around the world. Our global professional community boasts 60,000 full- and part-time alumni — and counting. In addition to fostering career growth for individuals, GA helps employers cultivate top tech talent and spur innovation by transforming their teams through strategic learning. More than 21,000 employees at elite companies worldwide have honed their digital fluency with our upskilling and reskilling initiatives. GA has also been recognized as one of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, and Fast Company has dubbed us leaders in World-Changing Ideas as well as the #1 Most Innovative Company in Education.


GA is at the leading edge of creating practical solutions to one of the most pressing challenges of our time - the future of work. As recognized by The World Economic Forum, BCG, the OECD and more, these are big challenges to which only a few companies are offering real solutions. In this role, you'll be speaking every day to corporate leaders who rely on GA to help them apply these solutions to their workforce of the future. 

Since 2011, General Assembly has transformed tens of thousands of careers through pioneering, experiential education in today’s most in-demand skills. As featured in The Economist, Wired, and The New York Times, GA offers training in web development, data, design, business, and more, both online and at campuses around the world. Our global professional community boasts 40,000 full- and part-time alumni — and counting.

In addition to fostering career growth for individuals, GA helps employers cultivate top tech talent and spur innovation by transforming their teams through strategic learning. More than 21,000 employees at elite companies worldwide have honed their digital fluency with our corporate training programs. GA has also been recognized as one of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, and Fast Company has dubbed us leaders in World-Changing Ideas and the #1 Most Innovative Company in Education.

In this 12-weeks (full-time) course, students learn and practice turning messy real-world datasets into actionable, data-driven insights they can communicate. We will be using Excel, SQL and Tableau as the primary tools for analysis. We are looking for an instructor to lead this part-time Analytics course (see course page). Though we provide a core curriculum along with instructor resources, you will have the opportunity to implement your ideas by adapting our materials as one of the course’s first instructors. This is an in-person role based in Bahrain. General Assembly will cover all travel-related expenses for qualified candidates.

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

  • You have strong experience using the following tools: Excel, SQL, Tableau, POWER BI and Python Programming. 
  • You are eager to shape the skills, minds, and trajectories of eager General Assembly students.
  • You are the person that your colleagues naturally gravitate to when they are trying to figure something out.
  • You have at least 5 years of work experience in a role where you’ve been responsible for cleaning messy data, analyzing the data and presenting your data based insights.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

  • Teach 8 hours per day, 5 days a week as a lead instructor or co-lead instructor.
  • Instructors will need to commit a few hours per day preparing lessons and materials, leveraging existing GA curriculum content.
  • Work alongside GA staff and teaching team to best meet the needs and learning styles of your students.
  • Guide students through development of a stellar final project that will showcase their abilities to hiring managers.
  • Facilitate a dynamic and collaborative classroom community.
  • Inspire students to persevere through the challenges of learning a new suite of skills.

 

Unless otherwise noted, remote positions can be performed from the following approved General Assembly operating countries.

United States of America (states of operation may vary), Canada (provinces of operation may vary), United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore.

View full listing