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 .

Analytics Engineer

Kognity · Sweden

Education changes lives. But tech hasn’t lived up to its promise, yet. At Kognity, we’re here to change that.

We’re a 125-person EdTech scale-up powering learning in 120+ countries. Our intelligent platform combines rich pedagogy with smart AI to help students and teachers thrive, from international schools to US high schools.

Why Kognity is the place to be:

Educational Innovation – Lead the next wave of AI-powered learning solutions

🌍 Global Reach – Our platform is used in 120+ countries across international and US markets

🤝 Collaborative Culture – Join a smart, ambitious team that values impact over ego

💪 High-Performing Teams – Work with sharp, driven colleagues across product, engineering, and AI who raise the bar every day.

The Role

You will own the end-to-end analytics engineering layer - turning raw data into well-modeled, trusted metrics and scalable, business-ready data products that power decision-making across the company.

You’ll join a small team with a strong and stable data foundation, modern tooling, and a clear strategy in place. As we move into the next phase, you’ll play a key role in building a self-service data platform and advancing a metrics-first approach. With high ownership, a flat organisation, and cutting-edge technology, this is a rare opportunity to shape the future of analytics in a company that is ambitious and ready to scale.

What you’ll do:

  • Design, implement, and maintain scalable data models and transformations to deliver clean, reliable business-ready datasets.

  • Collaborate with other analytics engineers to integrate new data sources, automate workflows, and ensure reliable, high-performing data pipelines.

  • Develop and maintain a semantic layer to standardize key metrics and definitions across the organization.

  • Implement data quality checks, testing frameworks, and governance practices to ensure accuracy and consistency.

  • Partner with stakeholders across product, finance and sales teams to translate business needs into robust analytical and modeling solutions.

  • Continuously improve tools, processes, and architecture by applying modern analytics engineering best practices and actively experimenting with AI.

What we’re looking for

Experience that drives impact:

  • Experience with ELT/ETL workflows, version control (Git), and data governance.

  • Strong SQL and dbt experience, with proven skills in building and maintaining dimensional data models.

  • Experience in analytics or data engineering with modern cloud data stacks (e.g. Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift).

Ways of working:

  • You combine strong business acumen with technical depth, understanding how metrics drive decisions and company outcomes.

  • You are collaborative and proactive in engaging both technical and non-technical stakeholders, building strong cross-functional relationships rather than working in isolation.

  • You take ownership and are self-driven - you move things forward without waiting for detailed instructions and thrive in ambiguity.

  • You are detail-oriented with a passion for problem-solving, continuous improvement, and raising the bar for quality and standards.

Our Values

🏅 We take ownership – We take initiative and act with self-leadership. We don’t wait for someone else to solve problems we see.

🤖 We leverage AI – We apply AI to enhance creativity, decisions, and execution to allow for impact maximization.

💡 We drive customer value – Success for our customers drives our progress. We create value for them in everything we do.

🗣️ We are transparent – We are radically transparent with opinions and feedback, and we share information widely.

💙 We take care of ourselves and each other – We work hard and passionately, but also prioritise our own well-being, and that of our colleagues.

Benefits

🏡 Truly Hybrid — work from our Stockholm office when you like.

💰 ITP Pension Plan with Nordnet.

💆 Yearly budget of 5,000 SEK to spend on health-related services.

🌴 30 days of paid vacation every year.

🤒 Full pay sick leave starting on day 1.

Our Interview Process

Our hiring process is all about you. Show us your skills, tackle real-world challenges, and get a real feel for life at Kognity. Expect case studies, honest conversations, and plenty of chances to shine.

  1. Discovery Call with a Recruiter

  2. Hiring Manager Hangout

  3. Case study

  4. Values Interview

  5. Leadership discussion

Every qualified person will be evaluated regardless of age, gender, identity, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability status or religion. We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive team and welcome people of all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.

See more about how we collect and process your personal data in our Privacy Notice.