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 .

Product Designer, Business Intelligence

Patreon · San Francisco

Patreon is a media and community platform where over 300,000 creators give their biggest fans access to exclusive work and experiences. We offer creators a variety of ways to engage with their fans and build a lasting business including: paid memberships, free memberships, community chats, live video, and selling to fans directly with one-time purchases.

Ultimately our goal is simple: fund the creative class. And we're leaders in that space, with:

  • $10 billion+ generated by creators since Patreon's inception

  • 100 million+ free memberships for fans who may not be ready to pay just yet, and

  • 25 million+ paid memberships on Patreon today.

We're continuing to invest heavily in building the best creator platform with the best team in the creator economy and are looking for a Staff Product Designer, Business Intelligence to support our mission.

This role is based in New York or San Francisco and open to those who are able to be in-office 2 days per week on a hybrid work model.

About the Team

We're hiring a Product Designer to lead design for Business Intelligence, shaping how creators understand and act on their business performance data. You'll design the insights experiences and data visualizations that help creators see what's working, identify opportunities for growth, and make confident decisions about their creative businesses. Your work will empower creators to grow their audiences, optimize their content strategy, and build sustainable businesses on Patreon.

You'll work on launching new product surfaces powered by intelligence that empower creators with expertise and best practices to make better decisions. This is a high-impact role where your work will directly influence how hundreds of thousands of creators understand and grow their businesses on Patreon.

In this role you will:

  • Lead design for insights and analytics experiences that help creators understand their business performance and take action to grow.

  • Help creators make sense of complex business metrics with digestible and durable mental models that creators trust and use daily.

  • Design tools and touchpoints that help creators identify what's working, spot opportunities, and make confident decisions about their content and membership strategy.

  • Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Content Design, and Data Science to define what insights matter most to creators.

  • Create compelling ways to surface actionable recommendations and best practices within the product

  • Partner with user researchers and data scientists to understand how creators use (or struggle with) their business data to inform your design direction.

  • Navigate ambiguous problem spaces by exploring multiple approaches to surfacing and presenting data effectively.

  • Iterate on designs based on user feedback and data to continuously improve the insights experience.

  • Maintain a high bar for craft in visual design, data visualization, and interaction design across insights experiences.

About You

  • 7+ years of product design experience, with a focus on consumer-facing digital products, including surfaces for supply-side users.

  • Proven experience designing analytics, dashboards, or data visualization products that help users make better decisions.

  • Strong visual and interaction design skills, with exceptional ability to simplify complex information.

  • Proven ability to think systematically and create design solutions that scale seamlessly.

  • Comfortable working with quantitative data and translating metrics into meaningful design direction.

  • Skilled collaborator who builds trust and alignment across Product, Engineering, and Data Science teams.

  • Portfolio demonstrating shipped, high-impact work with clear outcomes and user value.

About Patreon

Patreon powers creators to do what they love and get paid by the people who love what they do. Our team is passionate about making this mission and our core values come to life every day in our work.

Through this work, our Patronauts:

  • Put Creators First | They’re the reason we’re here. When creators win, we win.

  • Build with Craft | We sign our name to every deliverable, just like the creators we serve.

  • Make it Happen | We don’t quit. We learn and deliver.

  • Win Together | We grow as individuals. We win as a team.

We hire talented and passionate people from different backgrounds because workplace diversity and inclusion is critical to our ability to serve creators worldwide. If you’re excited about a role but your past experience doesn’t match with every bullet point outlined above, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway. If you’re a creator at heart, are energized by our mission, and share our company values, we’d love to hear from you.

Patreon is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other protected class. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the interview process, please let us know via email at accommodations@patreon.

Patreon offers a competitive benefits package including and not limited to salary, equity plans, healthcare, flexible time off, company holidays and recharge days, commuter benefits, lifestyle stipends, learning and development stipends, patronage, parental leave, and 401k plan with matching.

Patreon operates under a hybrid work model, where employees based in office locations are expected to come into the office two days per week, excluding sick time and paid leave. The goal of this policy is to be intentional about the in-person time we spend together to strengthen the feeling of community at Patreon. Candidates hired into remote-eligible roles are not expected to meet the same requirements.

At Patreon, we believe in fair and transparent pay. In compliance with New York and California pay transparency laws, we are sharing the expected salary range for this role

The posted salary range is dependent on the location and the level. This range may encompass multiple levels within the role’s job family. The final offer will be based on candidate’s experience, skills, competencies, and geographic location, aligning with the appropriate job level within Patreon’s leveling framework. For remote employees located outside CA and NY, salary may vary based on location and local market conditions.

Patreon reserves the right to modify or update compensation and benefits at any time.