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 .

Regional Division Applications Engineer

Kla · Shanghai, China

Company Overview

KLA is a global leader in diversified electronics for the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Virtually every electronic device in the world is produced using our technologies. No laptop, smartphone, wearable device, voice-controlled gadget, flexible screen, VR device or smart car would have made it into your hands without us. KLA invents systems and solutions for the manufacturing of wafers and reticles, integrated circuits, packaging, printed circuit boards and flat panel displays. The innovative ideas and devices that are advancing humanity all begin with inspiration, research and development. KLA focuses more than average on innovation and we invest 15% of sales back into R&D. Our expert teams of physicists, engineers, data scientists and problem-solvers work together with the world’s leading technology providers to accelerate the delivery of tomorrow’s electronic devices. Life here is exciting and our teams thrive on tackling really hard problems. There is never a dull moment with us.

Group/Division

With over 40 years of semiconductor process control experience, chipmakers around the globe rely on KLA to ensure that their fabs ramp next-generation devices to volume production quickly and cost-effectively. Enabling the movement towards advanced chip design, KLA's Global Products Group (GPG), which is responsible for creating all of KLA’s metrology and inspection products, is looking for the best and the brightest research scientist, software engineers, application development engineers, and senior product technology process engineers. The LS-SWIFT Division of KLA’s Global Products Group provides patterned wafer inspection systems for high-volume semiconductor manufacturing. Its mission is to deliver market-leading cost of ownership in defect detection for a broad range of applications in the production of semiconductors. Customers from the foundry, logic, memory, automotive, MEMS, advanced packaging and other markets rely upon high-sample wafer inspection information generated by LS-SWIFT products. LS (Laser Scanning) systems enable cost-effective patterned wafer defect detection for the industry’s most sophisticated process technologies deployed in leading-edge foundry, logic, DRAM, and NAND fabs. SWIFT (Simultaneous Wafer Inspection at Fast Throughput) systems deliver all-wafer-surface (frontside, backside, and edge) macro inspection that is critical for automotive IC, MEMS, and advanced packaging processes as well as foundry/logic and memory fabs. LS-SWIFT operates from a global footprint that includes the US, Singapore, India and Germany, and serves a worldwide customer base across Asia, Europe and North America.

Job Description/Preferred Qualifications

1. Responsible for providing applications support (owning projects, tool recipe setups, recipe optimization, customer training, issue troubleshooting, BKM setups, presentations…etc.; for advance packaging customers mostly in clean room environment.)

2. Self-driven/motivation characters to achieve business goals from technical side. Well schedule and task managements under pressure are critical.

3. Works on complex problems where analysis of situations or data requires an in-depth evaluation of various factors.

4. Understanding on Advanced Packaging process or HBM process control is a plus

5. Frequent communication with different groups including services dept., Engineering team (SoftWare, Hardware, Algorithm, ...) product manager, sales, Field teams, management and customers for projects and activities.

6. Assists Sales and Marketing staff in assessing potential application of company products to meet customer needs.

7. Provides follow-up support in disseminating technical information on specific applications.  

8. Communicate to customers to understand application requirements for current apps work and future tool/feature developments.

9. Generate BKM for knowledge sharing and publish technical papers/notes. 

10. Use PowerPoint, Excel and Word for data analysis, knowledge documentation and presentation preparation.

11. Domestic or international traveling to customer sites is required. Travel rate is up to 30%.  

Minimum Qualifications

Master's Level Degree and 0 years related work experience; Bachelor's Level Degree and related work experience of 2 years

We offer a competitive, family friendly total rewards package. We design our programs to reflect our commitment to an inclusive environment, while ensuring we provide benefits that meet the diverse needs of our employees.

KLA is proud to be an equal opportunity employer

Be aware of potentially fraudulent job postings or suspicious recruiting activity by persons that are currently posing as KLA employees.  KLA never asks for any financial compensation to be considered for an interview, to become an employee, or for equipment. Further, KLA does not work with any recruiters or third parties who charge such fees either directly or on behalf of KLA. Please ensure that you have searched KLA’s Careers website for legitimate job postings.  KLA follows a recruiting process that involves multiple interviews in person or on video conferencing with our hiring managers.  If you are concerned that a communication, an interview, an offer of employment, or that an employee is not legitimate, please send an email to [email protected] to confirm the person you are communicating with is an employee. We take your privacy very seriously and confidentially handle your information.