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 .

Backend Engineer

Pointwild · Remote Estonia

Point Wild helps customers monitor, manage, and protect against the risks associated with their identities and personal information in a digital world. Backed by WndrCo, Warburg Pincus and General Catalyst, Point Wild is dedicated to creating the world’s most comprehensive portfolio of industry-leading cybersecurity solutions. Our vision is to become THE go-to resource for every cyber protection need individuals may face - today and in the future. 

Join us for the ride!

About the Role:
We’re looking for a Backend Engineer to contribute to a next-generation security initiative. You’ll be part of a small, highly technical team working on novel approaches to secure systems - with a focus on cryptography, automation, and AI-powered analysis. You’ll work closely with senior engineers and contribute hands-on to the codebase across the stack. This role involves hands-on development, learning opportunities, and collaboration across engineering, product, and design.

Day to Day:

  • Contribute to the design, development, and delivery of features across the product
  • Write clean, maintainable code for back-end systems deployed in AWS or GCP
  • Collaborate with AI and cryptography specialists
  • Work with the product manager to understand requirements and help the team plan architecture, data flows, API specs, and testing strategies
  • Follow established engineering practices and participate in team discussions around process and quality
  • Participate in customer-driven development and iterate based on feedback
  • Write automated tests for load, performance, and error handling

What you bring to the table:

  • 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience for backend development
  • Excellent TypeScript coding experience
  • AWS experience in containers (EKS, ECS) and serverless systems
  • Relational, key/value, and graph datastore experience with schema management
  • API design, data modeling, secure service development, database systems
  • Has a focus on quality code, error handling, and high availability
  • A thoughtful, pragmatic approach to solving technical problems in a fast-paced environment
  • At least upper-intermediate level of spoken and written English

Extra Credit:

  • Versed in Python coding and environments
  • Experience with GCP systems
  • Experience with applied cryptography, especially key management, TLS, or post-quantum algorithms
  • Familiarity with agent-based architectures or systems that scan and orchestrate actions across distributed environments
  • Knowledge of AI/ML systems, particularly LLM integration or agent-style reasoning patterns
  • Experience managing LLM agents to increase both speed and quality of code generation and tests
  • Exposure to security tools, vulnerability detection platforms, or compliance automation
  • Prior experience working on developer-facing or infrastructure-heavy products

 

As part of Point Wild, you will:

Solve real customer problems. Point Wild’s point solutions allow consumers to address their immediate cyber protection needs. Our mandate is to continuously anticipate our customers’ evolving digital security needs to create best-in-class solutions aimed at keeping them safe.

See your impact. We are a scrappy, nimble organization where individual contributions are needed and valued. You will see your impact every day.

Accelerate your career.  As we expand, you will have the opportunity to learn new technologies, products, and markets in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment.

Most importantly, you’ll get to work with other talented people at a company where people matter. If you want to put your fingerprint on an organization and leapfrog your growth, this is the place for you.

In keeping with our beliefs and goals, no employee or applicant will face discrimination or harassment based on race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, age, gender, marital domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or veteran status. Above and beyond discrimination or harassment based on “protected categories,” Point Wild is committed to being an inclusive community where all feel welcome. Whether blatant or hidden, barriers to success have no place at Point Wild.

Important privacy information for United States based job applicants can be found here.

 

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