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 .

Associate Counsel

Sentilink · Austin, TX

SentiLink provides innovative identity and risk solutions, empowering institutions and individuals to transaction with confidence. We’re building the future of identity verification in the United States replacing a clunky, ineffective, and expensive status quo with solutions that are 10x faster, smarter, and more accurate.

We’ve seen tremendous traction and are growing extremely quickly. Our real-time APIs have helped verify hundreds of millions of identities, starting with financial services and rapidly expanding into new markets. SentiLink is backed by world-class investors including Craft Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NYCA, and Max Levchin.

We’ve earned recognition from TechCrunch, CNBC, Bloomberg, Forbes, Business Insider, PYMNTS, American Banker, LendIt, and have been named to the Forbes Fintech 50 list every year since 2023. Last but not least, we’ve even made history - we were the first company to go live with the eCBSV and testified before the United States House of Representatives on the future of identity.

SentiLink supports a variety of ways to work, ranging from fully remote to in-office. We operate as a digital-first company with strong collaboration across the U.S. and India. We maintain physical offices in Austin, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago in the U.S., and in Gurugram (Delhi) and Bengaluru in India. If you’re located near one of these offices, we would love for you to spend time in the office regularly. Some roles are hybrid or in-office by design. For example, our engineering team in India works primarily from our Gurugram office.

Role:

SentiLink is hiring an Associate Counsel, a junior in-house attorney, based in Austin to support core commercial, procurement, data licensing, product, and regulatory workflows. This role will own and improve high-volume legal processes, especially around evaluation agreements, NDAs, procurement contracts, and related commercial pathways, while helping raise the company’s product and regulatory knowledge floor. The role is designed for a lawyer who is excited to be broadly useful, work independently, and use technology—including AI tools—to amplify their impact.

This role is based in our Austin office.

Responsibilities:

  • Draft, review, negotiate, and manage a high volume of commercial agreements, including NDAs, evaluation agreements, procurement contracts, and data licenses

  • Support internal clients on routine product, regulatory, and commercial legal questions, escalating appropriately when needed

  • Create leverage for the legal team by improving legal workflows, templates, playbooks, and institutional knowledge

  • Use AI and other technology tools to streamline contracting and internal legal support

  • Partner cross-functionally with Product, GTM, Tech, Operations, and other stakeholders to provide practical and timely legal guidance

  • Exercise independent judgment under time pressure and manage matters with limited oversight

  • Help improve internal understanding of relevant legal and regulatory issues affecting the business

  • Support vendor and procurement negotiations

Requirements:

  • JD from a U.S. law school and active admission/in good standing in at least one U.S. state

  • Approximately 1-3 years of legal experience

  • Strong legal drafting, redlining, and research skills

  • Hands-on experience with contracting; experience with commercial, procurement, data, product, or regulatory matters preferred

  • In-house experience preferred but not required

  • Good judgment, intellectual curiosity, and ability to learn quickly

  • Comfortable working independently and operating effectively without heavy oversight

  • Interest in supporting both commercial and product/regulatory legal work

  • Openness to using AI and other technology tools in day-to-day legal work

  • Strong interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills

  • Based in Austin or willing to relocate to Austin

  • Willingness to travel occasionally

Compensation:

  • $160,000 - $180,000/year + equity + benefits

Perks:

  • Employer paid group health insurance for you and your dependents

  • 401(k) plan with employer match (or equivalent for non US-based roles)

  • Flexible paid time off

  • Regular company-wide in-person events

  • Home office stipend, and more!

Corporate Values:

  • Follow Through

  • Deep Understanding

  • Whatever It Takes

  • Do Something Smart

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