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 .

General Application to One Project

Oneproject · Remote Work

If you don't see a currently open position that fits your experience and skills, please submit your resume here. Please also take a minute to answer a few short questions to help us learn a little more about you. We'll keep your information on file and reach out if there's a fit in the future. Thanks for your interest in One Project! 


Who We Are:

One Project is a team who believes in a future that is free, fair, and flourishing for all.

Together with communities who are inspired to break away from failed and oppressive economic systems, our work is to help the world imagine what comes after capitalism, then foster the collaborations needed to create it. We work both as an operating non-profit and a giving foundation, to support this work and the wider ecosystem in which it may thrive.

But it starts with a vision. Let’s begin with the radical notion that all human beings on the planet can have enough food, shelter, health care, access to information and education, meaningful work, and the general conditions to lead a satisfying life of their choosing, rooted in equity and justice for all. And, crucially, we believe this can happen as the natural world regenerates, making wildlife more abundant, the climate more stable, the air and water cleaner, and ecosystems more self-sustaining. While this may sound naive or idealistic, we believe that humanity can achieve this within our lifetimes. In fact, we must at least move substantially in this direction before the interwoven threats of ecological destruction, social instability, and unaccountable technology threaten to end civilization as we know it.

What we cannot do, however, is get there by relying on the same systems that have, over the last 50 years, increased resource use to almost twice what the Earth can support while leaving billions of people living just barely above subsistence level and global existential risks unaddressed. We believe it’s time to address the root causes of these crises, before their symptoms overwhelm our planet and all of us.

That is why One Project’s mission exists. We do this work in solidarity with people around the world who are rising, to fight, to build and to dream, and as part of a much wider movement — a movement that today goes by many names. We find inspiration in those working among the solidarity economy, mutual aid, cooperatives, commoning, participatory democracy, and in broader movements for equality and justice around the world. In the words of the Zapatistas, the future we seek is “un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos” — one world where many worlds fit.

It’s in this space between crisis and opportunity, through cooperation, imagination, solidarity and practicality, we believe another world is truly possible, and it is what we are working for, together, at One Project.

We seek One Project team members who approach their work with:

  • Clear thinking and communication skills 
  • Creativity with problem solving and collaboration 
  • Commitment to excellence and high quality work
  • Ability to work independently and efficiently along with the capability to integrate diverse cognitive styles and cultural backgrounds
  • A mind open to new ideas and ways of considering the world and curiosity about how to build  better systems
  • Comfort with ambiguity and a dynamic environment coupled with ability to drive towards clarity and action
  • Interest and drive to grow in your position and the organization

Working at One Project:

One Project strives to be a place where a diverse mix of talented people are empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to do their best work. Our goal is to build a team that reflects the world we live in and celebrates multiple approaches and points of view. We believe diversity drives innovation and every idea deserves consideration and respect. We have an unwavering commitment to inclusion across educational background, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, citizenship, socioeconomic status, disability, and veteran status.

One Project offers competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits; our goal is for our compensation packages to attract the strongest candidates and to reflect our values.