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 .

Associate Managing Consultant

Mastercard · Warsaw, Poland

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.

Title and Summary

Associate Managing Consultant

Job Description Summary
Associate Managing Consultant, Advisors Research Center (L7)

Our Purpose

We work to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. We cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences enable us to be a better team – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation and delivers better business results.


Job Title

Senior Research Analyst, Advisors Research Center

All About Us

The Data & Services team is a key differentiator for Mastercard providing the cutting-edge services that help our customers grow. Focused on thinking big and scaling fast around the globe, this agile team is responsible for end-to-end solutions for a diverse global customer base. We combine traditional management consulting with our rich data assets and in-house technology to provide our clients with powerful strategic insights and recommendations. Centered on data-driven technologies and innovation, these services include consulting, loyalty and marketing programs, test-and-learn business experimentation, and data driven information and risk management services. While specializing in the payments industry, Mastercard Data & Services also works closely with major retailers, airlines, and other enterprises, leveraging data and insights garnered from within and beyond its network.

All About the Role

Advisors Research Center is a new capability designed to respond to fast evolving customer needs for high-quality research support, with the important mission of value realization in developing insights and recommendations. This capability augments Advisors traditional areas of strength.

Advisors Research Center is a Global Research-oriented Competency That Applies Proven, Accredited Research and Domain Experience to Partner With Any Client Worldwide to Help Them Drive Measurable Value By

Delivering new research products and strategies to market smoothly and efficiently

Successfully leveraging research assets and delivering the most challenging research output that’s impactful for clients

Ability to provide key insights based on primary research (qualitative and/or quantitative) is essential

Ability to also analyse secondary research and/or large data sets would be an advantage

All About You

Worked on a variety of research projects (both primary and secondary research).

Experience of working on projects involving primary research (quantitative techniques including surveys and qualitative research including in-depth interviews, focus groups, online forums etc.)

Able to analyze large sets of data generated as part of quantitative survey techniques.

Ability to synthesize and analyze information from multiple sources. Ability to prepare insightful slides aggregating data from various sources

Strong at business writing, creating client ready materials

Strong communication skills to actively participate as a team member on client calls, internal team meetings, prepare draft emails for both internal and external purposes.

All About Your Education & Skills

Possess substantial and relevant experience across various research projects, with a minimum of five years spent working in a research agency or within a client’s research department.

Expertise in conducting both primary (e.g., interviews, surveys etc.,) and secondary research (e.g., Euromonitor, Bloomberg etc.)

Proficient in English and an additional European language.

Advanced Word, Excel, and PowerPoint skills required; knowledge of Project Management tools preferred


Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices.

Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed.

Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and

Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines

Corporate Security Responsibility


All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

  • Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices;

  • Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;

  • Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and

  • Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.