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 .

Applicant privacy notice

Hiscox

Hiscox Recruitment and Employment Data Privacy Notice

At Hiscox, your privacy matters to us and we are committed to protecting it. Our privacy policies and notices explain what personal data we collect about you and how we use it. If you wish to find out further details, rights in relation to your personal data, or the procedures that we have in place to safeguard your privacy then please review the full notice or contact us directly via [email protected].

It is important to read this Recruitment Privacy Notice together with any separate privacy notices that we may provide when collecting personal data from you.

This recruitment privacy notice explains how we collect and use personal data for:

  • Applicants and candidates
    • Example: data collected during a recruitment process for a role with Hiscox
  • All current colleagues, including all current employees, workers, individual contractors, contingent workers, interns, agency workers, consultants, directors and third parties whose information is provided to us in connection with one of these relationships
    • Example: next-of-kin, emergency contact and dependents information held by Hiscox during the context of employment
  • All former colleagues
    • Example: historic employment records and any pension information

This recruitment privacy notice is issued on behalf of the Hiscox Group, therefore this notice refers to our global privacy standards. Where relevant and applicable, Hiscox complies with local privacy laws.

Factors such as your nationality or the region in which our Business is located means our compliance obligations include, but are not limited to: the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (‘EU GDPR’), and the data protection laws applicable in the EEA countries where we operate, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018; the California Consumer Privacy Act 2018 (‘CCPA’) 2018, Bermuda Personal Information Protection Act 2016 (‘PIPA’); and The Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017 (‘DPL 2017’).

Country Supplements and local Privacy Notices

Certain Hiscox subsidiaries may be required to adhere to local data protection laws that require the disclosure of their own country specific privacy notices (that are provided to you by our local Hiscox subsidiary at the time of personal data collection during the recruitment process). You can access the country specific supplements by clicking on the countries below (available in English and local languages, where applicable):

 

Recruitment notice – Hiscox and Wilson

Who are we?

Hiscox is a global insurance group. The specific Hiscox company referred to in this notice will depend on the jurisdiction in which you are applying for a role. You can find further details in the relevant Country Supplement set out above. 

Wilson HCG-EMEA Ltd is a company registered in England under company number 05544845 whose registered office is at 5 Churchill Place, 10th Floor, London, E14 5HU ("Wilson").

Both Hiscox and Wilson (referred to in this notice collectively as "we", "us", and "our") are committed to respecting your privacy rights and protecting your personal information. This notice sets out the details of how we use your personal information when we work together in relation to recruitment and selection for roles at Hiscox.

Our relationship

Hiscox has partnered with Wilson, a specialist recruitment services provider, to help find and recruit the best talent for roles at Hiscox. 

For certain recruitment activities, we work together as "Joint Controllers" of your personal information. This means that we both work together to decide why and how your personal information is used, and we are both responsible for using your personal information in compliance with data protection laws. 

We are Joint Controllers for activities including sourcing the best talent, initial screening of applications, and manging potential candidates for current or future roles at Hiscox. 

This notice tells you what personal information we collect as Joint Controllers, why we need it, how we use it, and how you can exercise your data protection rights. 

We will not be Joint Controllers for all of the activities undertaken as part of the recruitment process. In such circumstances, our individual privacy notices will set out how we each use and protect your personal information.

  • Hiscox will always be solely responsible for making the final decision about making a job offer and on-boarding successful candidates (including carrying out pre-employment background checks).
  • As part of our arrangement, Wilson will be Hiscox's data processor for some of the activities undertaken, including administrative tasks such as scheduling interviews or informing you if your application has been unsuccessful. This means that Wilson will only use your personal information under the instructions of Hiscox.

You can find out further details of how each of us individually protect and use your personal information by clicking on the links to our respective privacy notices below.

Hiscox: available here.

Wilson: available here. 

 

Our responsibilities

We have worked together to set out our arrangements to ensure that your personal information is always processed and protected in compliance with data protection obligations. For example:

  • We have worked together to prepare this notice and Wilson will be responsible for providing you with a copy.
  • Wilson will ensure that your personal information is collected fairly and lawfully and is accurate and up to date.
  • Hiscox will have primary responsibility for responding to any request to exercise your data protection rights. Please see below for details regarding how to do this.
  • Each of us will be responsible for our own data security measures, engaging third parties and record keeping.

What personal information do we collect?

We collect and process the following personal information:

  • Name and contact information
  • Location
  • Education
  • Work history
  • Certifications
  • Other personal information customary for recruitment purposes used in the ordinary course of recruitment. 

How do we collect your personal information and who do we share it with?

We collect your personal information:

  • From you: we collect your personal information directly from you, for example if you submit your CV or communicate with us about a role at Hiscox.
  • From professional networking sites: we use sites including LinkedIn, specialist job boards, professional societies, and developer communities to gather personal information about potential talent for Hiscox roles.

We share your personal information with each other to ensure the smooth running of the recruitment process. Further information about who we each share your personal information with and our transfers of personal data outside of the UK is set out in our individual privacy notices which you can access using the links above.

How will we use your personal information?

When we act as Joint Controllers, one or both of us will process your personal information for the following reasons:

  • Candidate sourcing – we (primarily Wilson) carry out activities related to the sourcing of potential candidates for Hiscox roles. This includes finding potential candid
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