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 .

Software Engineer, Infrastructure

Lightfield · HQ: San Francisco

About Lightfield

Lightfield is an AI-native CRM that assembles itself from your email, calendar, and meetings. It captures every interaction and turns it into organized context: accounts, tasks, follow-ups, and insights, so nothing slips through the cracks.

We’re rethinking CRM from first principles. Instead of forcing teams to maintain rigid systems, Lightfield learns from how companies actually work, adapting, automating, and surfacing the insight that drives growth. We’re building the CRM platform we always wished existed: fast, intelligent, and genuinely helpful.

We are backed by Greylock, Lightspeed, and Coatue, and our team previously built Tome, a generative AI presentation product used by over 25 million people. Before Tome, many of us worked on Llama, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Pinterest, Google, and Salesforce.

About the role

We’re looking for an experienced, creative, and versatile engineer who is eager to tackle the challenge of architecting, building, and scaling the core infrastructure and systems powering Lightfield's AI-driven CRM.

At Lightfield, engineers take ownership of projects from inception to impact, collaborating across functions and pushing the envelope on what’s possible in applied AI and data systems. You’ll play a critical role in designing and building the data models and infrastructure that support a next-generation CRM, ensuring our system is performant, scalable, and resilient.

What you’ll do

  • Build and maintain full-stack systems, end-to-end, ensuring reliability, scalability, and performance.

  • Architect and scale the data infrastructure and backend services that power Lightfield AI-driven CRM.

  • Design and optimize data models to support CRM workflows, customer interactions, and AI-driven insights.

  • Develop observability and metrics to enable smooth operation, proactive issue detection, and continuous improvement.

  • Mentor teammates, participate in code reviews, and help shape engineering culture and practices.

  • Contribute to building a world-class engineering team through recruiting, mentorship, and knowledge-sharing.

Who you are

  • 3+ years of experience in software development, with a strong background in infrastructure, data modeling, and backend systems.

  • Deep experience building scalable, high-performance data infrastructure that can support complex customer workflows and large-scale data processing.

  • Strong understanding of database design, indexing strategies, and query optimization, especially in PostgreSQL or similar relational databases.

  • You’re excited about Large Language Models (LLMs) and the opportunity to build systems that support and leverage them.

  • You have the ability to ramp quickly on tech stack that features TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, Apollo GraphQL, and PostgreSQL.

  • Strong fundamentals in software engineering, with a degree in Computer Science or a related field.

  • Thrives in ambiguity, able to independently drive projects and deliver results in a fast-moving environment.

  • Clear communicator, capable of articulating technical decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

  • Passionate about building products customers love, ensuring our CRM is intuitive, intelligent, and indispensable.

Benefits & Perks

  • Competitive salary

  • Meaningful early equity

  • Health insurance (medical, dental, vision)

  • 3 weeks of PTO

  • 11 paid company holidays + we enjoy a winter holiday break

  • 3 months of paid family leave

  • Wednesdays work from home

  • Regular team dinners, events, offsites, and retreats

  • 401k plan

  • Other perks include: commuter and lunch stipend