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 .

Business Strategist

Mastercard · Paris, France

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

Business Strategist

Mastercard Internal Title: Senior Specialist, Product Management

Overview
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is 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. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

Overview
The Business & Market Insights team is looking for a Senior Specialist to support building top knoch data driven product leveraging Mastercard and third parties data assets. The ideal candidate spent time crafting data products in Big Tech, Retail & Commerce or Fintech, is highly motivated, intellectually curious, analytical, and possesses an entrepreneurial mindset.

Role
Key Responsibilities
• Product Strategy: Support the Global Product Manager in crafting the product strategy from feature to go-to-market and maintain accurate product backlog
• Business Case Development: Build comprehensive business cases tailored to different geographies and use cases, supporting strategic decision-making.
• Sparring partner: Ensure smooth and transparent collaboration across various team (Tech, UX/UI, Legal, Privacy, BD,…), particularly around solution development discussions.
• Internal Communication: Develop and manage internal communication channels, including newsletters, email updates, and alignment with the corporate communications team to maintain high engagement on the initiative
• Executive Reporting: Deliver frequent and accurate reports to executive stakeholders, providing clear insights and progress updates.
• Go-To-Market Support: Assist with GTM initiatives, including internal and external discussions, document preparation, pitch presentations, and communication strategies.

Qualifications
• API/data product experience (real‑time decisioning, authorization flows)
• Comfort with complex ecosystems; ability to operate in a global matrix
• Data quality, security‑minded design
• Stakeholder communication and executive updates; crisp narrative skills
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience in business case development and reporting.
• Ability to work cross-functionally with technical and business teams.
• Familiarity with innovation processes and GTM strategies and execution.

Knowledge which would be a plus for this role:
• Payment ecosystem
• Data privacy/compliance awareness
• GenAI model deployment and maintenance cycle

All About You
The ideal candidate for this position should have a mix of capabilities:
• Can translate complex technical concepts into crisp narratives, executive summaries, and board‑ready updates; strong slide-writing and data storytelling.
• Proven ability to align and influence diverse stakeholders (Tech, Product, Finance, Sales, Corp Comms) and manage expectations across geographies.
• Builds robust multi‑scenario business cases (TAM/SAM/SOM, cost‑benefit, sensitivity analysis) and ties models to strategic outcomes and measurable KPIs.
• Comfortable running cadences (standups, steering committees), driving decision logs, risks/assumptions tracking, and keeping initiatives on time.
• Always look for potential solutions to solve problems
• Experience in roles like Product/Program Manager, Business Operations, Strategic Communications, GTM/Enablement, or Management Consulting.
• Advanced and structured storytelling, ability to craft narratives with visuals and data (pivot tables, scenario analysis), familiarity with financial modeling principles.

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.