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 .

Strategy & Operations Manager

Kota · London

About Kota

Kota is reimagining insurance and retirement benefits for the modern workforce. Through our two flagship products—Kota Platform, the first fully integrated benefits platform, and Kota Embed, our embedded insurance solution—we're making benefits more accessible, valued, and global.

Today, we power benefits for tens of thousands of employees at Europe's most forward-thinking companies, including Carwow, Tines, Zoe, and Remote. Founded in 2022, we've raised more than €20M from leading investors like EQT Ventures, Eurazeo, Northzone, and Frontline, along with founders and executives from Workday, Remote, Personio, OpenAI, and more.

The Role

We are looking to make our first Strategy hire, playing a crucial role as we scale the business in 2026. Reporting to the COO, this person will take on a wide range of responsibilities to support many different areas of Kota.

Success in this role would lead to this person becoming a trusted problem solver in the company with broad knowledge of the business and its operations. Desired outcomes would see the continued development of a world-class customer experience and co-ordination of key elements of our geographic expansion.

This individual should be a generalist and an excellent problem solver, enjoying the ambiguity that is inherent in startup life. The role represents an opportunity to build, supported by experienced founders and a stellar executive team, leading to senior leadership exposure and accelerated learning.

What We're Looking For

  • Drive strategic projects. Identify and lead business-critical projects that will accelerate business growth and improve efficiency, particularly in areas such as customer experience and expansion

  • Lead day-to-day initiatives to uplift the performance of our functional teams, taking ownership for element of our BAU setup

  • Own competitive intelligence. Build our market understanding and contribute to the development of industry-leading solutions that solve pain points experienced by customers.

  • Establish data foundations. Contribute to a data-centric culture by owning projects that drive our information capabilities, enabling everyone to take a data-driven approach to problem-solving.

  • Prepare cross-functional updates. Draft and update materials informing stakeholders about project progress, risks, and opportunities.

  • Handle ad-hoc requests relating to all functional areas of the business, including deep dives or issue analysis and resolution

What We're Looking For

  • 5+ years of experience in fast-growing startups or top-tier consulting firms or equivalent

  • Outstanding analytical skills across tools, with SQL experience preferred

  • Ability to switch contexts. We are looking for a generalist who can quickly learn and operate across various, complex topics at any one time

  • Bias for action. You prefer to drive things to completion and achieve results

  • Customer-first mindset. Our customers are at the heart of what we do and everything we build contributes to industry-leading outcomes for them

  • Clear communication. Excellent written and verbal skills. You can communicate ideas clearly and engage stakeholders at all levels

  • Comfort with ambiguity. You thrive when there's no playbook. You'd rather build the thing than inherit the thing.

Our Values

  • Have Integrity. We care deeply about our why and it won’t jeopardise our how.

  • Care Deeply. Our products are our story, we look at the details, go the extra mile to delight customers.

  • Own Your Ship. Ask why, do the work, get the data, solve the problem, be an owner.

  • Raise the Bar. We continuously look to push past good enough. Expect more, move faster, and never stop raising your and the team’s standards.

  • Play to Win. We exist because we decided to say no to the norm – now we do this everyday.