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 .

Engineering Manager

Talentsafari · Lagos

About Paystack

Paystack’s mission is to power African ambition. Over 300K of some of the most renowned businesses in Nigeria, as well as a growing number of merchants in South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya, use Paystack’s modern payments gateway. They include the likes of MTN, Burger King, UPS, AXA Mansard Insurance, FairMoney, PiggyVest, FilmHouse Cinemas, Smile Communications, Air Peace Airlines, Crocs, Under Armour, Richemont Lifestyle Group (RLG), and many others.

In 10 years, our growing team has introduced a steady cadence of innovation within the online payments landscape, such as automated recurring payments, the ability for customers to pay directly from their bank accounts, automated chargebacks, and much more. We’ve been acquired by Stripe and are doubling down on the mission to help build out Africa’s payments infrastructure.

We’re obsessed with building the best place to work on the continent while accelerating digital commerce across Africa, and we need your help!

What you'll be doing

  • Lead and inspire talented engineers in an agile development environment to innovate, implement, and deploy and own end-to-end complex software solutions in a commercial, mission-critical environment for millions of customers

  • Develop and grow engineering talent through effective mentoring, coaching, and retention strategies in a fast-growing, highly competitive economic environment

  • Manage planning and execution to successfully deliver value to our customers

  • Promote knowledge sharing and collaboration between teams.

  • Work on cross-team initiatives to improve the applications and systems.

  • Work in a cross-functional team to design, build, and deliver new features for our systems.

  • Strive to reduce the complexity of the systems.

  • Create awareness of engineering efforts and achievements.

  • Partner with product and other stakeholders to drive success.

The ideal candidate for this role will have

  • 8+ years of experience building and working on cutting-edge solutions that scale for millions of customers.

  • Solid experience with development, CI/CD, Automation, Testing, and deploying large systems.

  • Experience leading cross-functional teams of multidisciplinary engineers

  • Solid experience in building systems using a variety of different architectures.

  • Ensures quality, performance, monitoring, alerting, and security using best practices

  • Proven history as an experienced engineer.

  • A passion for building products to help African businesses.

  • A proactive approach to solving a problem before it occurs.

  • Mentorship - ability to successfully transfer knowledge

  • Extensive knowledge of object-oriented programming, design patterns, data structures, and best practices.

  • Solid experience with build tools.

  • Solid experience with source control, like Git.

  • Hands-on experience in writing unit, integration, and UI tests.

  • Excellent communication skills.

  • Self-motivation that drives them to do things and pushes them to raise the bar.

  • High analytical thinking to tackle complicated issues.

  • High-quality working standards with a clear, structured approach.

  • Takes full ownership and responsibility for organizational practices and processes.

  • Strives to continuously improve the systems and processes.

  • Bonus: Experience with EMV payments

Beneficial

  • A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field might be beneficial, but is not required

  • Experience in the fintech industry or with payment processing systems

  • Knowledge of cybersecurity best practices and compliance requirements (e.g., PCI DSS)

  • Experience with machine learning and data analytics.

Soft Skills

  • Impeccable problem-solving and analytical abilities

  • Effective communication and collaboration skills

  • High agency and the ability to work independently

  • Adaptability and willingness to learn new technologies and tools

Benefits

  • 13th-month bonus

  • Flexible working environment (including work from home budgets)

  • Full medical coverage

  • Wellbeing stipend

  • Generous leave and sabbatical policies

Paystack is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. We’re committed to providing employees with a work environment that is progressive and open-minded. Our employment philosophy is to hire the best people and empower them to do the best work of their lives. Employment decisions are based on business needs and individual merit without regard to race, color, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, nationality, marital status, gender, or age.