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 .

AI Software Engineer

Mighty · New York, NY

About Mighty:

The personal injury system is broken. When everyday people are at their most vulnerable—recovering from an accident, facing medical bills, and missing work—they are forced to navigate a black box designed to favor the powerful. Today, the choice is a catch-22: handle your personal injury claim alone against billion-dollar insurers, or give away a third of your recovery to a lawyer even though you may not need legal work.

Mighty is introducing a third option.

We believe in a world where every victim can recover fully and fairly without being taken advantage of. We are building the AI advocate for the 99%. Our mission is to become the default starting point after an accident, providing a free, AI-powered platform that gives consumers the clarity, valuation, and negotiation power they need to realize the full value of their claim

This is the definition of "doing well by doing good." We aren't building more profitable tools for law firms; we are building a consumer-first alternative that l allows everyday people to take control of their personal injury claims.

The Role: Engineering for Real-World Impact:

We are looking for a product-minded Engineer who wants to solve messy, high-stakes human problems with cutting-edge AI. This isn't a role for building abstract infrastructure or "novelty" features. You will be building the intelligence that helps a parent get their car fixed, a worker pay their medical bills, and a victim find justice without the stress of a lawsuit.

We are a high-conviction, in-person team based in Flatiron in NYC. We believe that when you are building a product that impacts human lives, the high-bandwidth collaboration of a shared office is essential. You’ll be joining our NYC hub , where we whiteboard, debate, and ship in real-time.

The Challenge: Applied AI for the Individual:

You will focus on building AI that levels the playing field:

  • The Valuation Brain: Develop sophisticated agents that can ingest medical records and police reports to deliver instant, fact-specific valuations. This gives users the ground truth they need, so they aren't left guessing what’s fair.
  • Empowered Negotiation: Architect the systems that facilitate communication and negotiation with insurers. You are building software that acts as a world-class negotiator, ensuring the user is never outmatched.
  • Document Intelligence at Scale: Engineer robust pipelines to extract and reason through unstructured data. You’ll be turning chaotic paperwork into a clear, strategic roadmap for the user’s recovery.
  • Responsible & Reliable AI: In a regulated domain where correctness matters, you will establish the evaluation and monitoring frameworks that ensure our AI outputs are accurate, trustworthy, and empathetic.

Who You Are:

  • 4-6 years of software engineering experience. You have a track record of shipping production software and take pride in clean, well-architected code.
  • You are deeply hands-on with LLMs and generative AI. You know how to take a model beyond a prompt and into a reliable, scalable product feature. You understand RAG, prompt chaining, and model evaluation.
  • You are driven by the "Doing Well by Doing Good" philosophy. You want to see your code solve real-world problems for real people, not just move numbers on a spreadsheet.
  • You thrive in an office environment. You value the mentorship, speed, and social connection of a dedicated team. You want to be in the room where the big decisions happen.

 

Compensation: $110,000-$180,000 DOE

Benefits: 

  • 401(k) with a partial company contribution
  • Health, Vision, and Dental benefits
  • Stock options 
  • Flexible PTO - take time when you need it!
  • L&D opportunities 
  • Lunch provided in-person at the NYC office
  • And more



Please note that at this time, we are not accepting candidates who require relocation. 

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