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 .

Talent Acquisition Director

Vaynermedia · Singapore

What’s up? We’re VaynerMedia! VaynerMedia is a global integrated creative and media agency, built for today's consumers. As the Modern Agency of Record, it understands the nuances of today's attention landscape, empowering brands to win attention, drive relevance, and deliver business results. Founded in 2009, by Gary Vaynerchuk, the independently owned agency operates in 15 offices worldwide, including Amsterdam, Bangkok, Chicago, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, New York, Tokyo, Toronto, Singapore, and Sydney. VaynerMedia is part of the VaynerX family of companies.

Culture is our key and Empathy is how we build it. VaynerMediaAPAC is strong with a world-class combination of diverse backgrounds collaborating to put forward innovative, creative and strategic solutions to the one advantage that stands the test of time --- PEOPLE. Day in and day out, we propel some of the biggest brands in the world to the intersection of attention and culture. In APAC, we are proudly +300, servicing diverse clients all around the region.

The PITCH

Our amazing People & Experience team is looking for a visionary and hands-on Talent Acquisition Director to strategically lead, scale, and innovate the talent acquisition function across APAC & EMEA. This role requires a “people first” leader who will not only oversee the entire recruitment life cycle but also build and mentor a high-performing talent team.

This is a full-time, senior-level role with a reporting structure to the Head of People and Experience Team, APAC.

Here’s your first brief --

You are a strategic leader, a highly organized systems thinker, and a skilled director who can manage complex regional talent strategies while being comfortable with the dynamic, fast-paced nature of our agency. You take the importance of this leadership role with the utmost professionalism.

You will be expected to lead heart first, caring deeply about both people and outcomes. Your mission is to design, implement, and lead VaynerMedia International (APAC & EMEA) strategy for spotting and hiring top-tier talent and uphold the talent experiences, ensuring all efforts reflect our Vayner values.

  • Own and elevate the regional talent acquisition and management process from strategy and budget to hiring and onboarding in both APAC & EMEA region.
  • Design and execute the overarching talent acquisition strategy, ensuring the true reflection of our Vayner values with a candidate/talent-first approach.
  • Act as a strategic partner to executive leadership and regional leads to forecast staffing needs, design ideal candidate profiles, and create sophisticated recruitment strategies and processes to support their growth goals.
  • Lead, mentor, and develop the APAC Talent Acquisition team, fostering a culture of high performance, out-of-the-box proactivity, and innovation.
  • Be the Subject Matter Expert in identifying amazing talents for senior and leadership roles across media, creative, production, and strategy teams in APAC, with a deep understanding of the agency’s nature and industry.
  • Spearhead the development of robust, long-term talent pipelines for hard-to-find skills, niche, and high-demand executive roles, defining and driving a focused, proactive sourcing strategy.
  • Oversee and optimize the candidate experience, guiding candidates through the entire recruiting life-cycle while ensuring high-touch, responsive, and professional communication.
  • Drive data-informed decisions by developing key recruiting metrics, reports, and dashboards to measure effectiveness, identify bottlenecks, and inform leadership on talent market trends with pragmatic solutions to the team. 
  • Spark enthusiasm in everything you do and genuinely believe in bringing your full self to what you do every day, seeing “work” as a calling and a passion.

We treasure personality and can-do attitude, yet we do know that these qualifications lead to success in the Talent Acquisition Director role for our growing APAC family --

  • 10+ years of progressive experience in talent acquisition (recruitment, selection, and placement), with 3+ years in a leadership or managerial role
  • Prior work experience leading Talent Acquisition within an advertising agency, in-house creative organization, or within the start-up industry is a significant plus.
  • Adept and comfortable working through frequent change in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
  • Works smart; highly entrepreneurial and opportunistic in the AI space.
  • Futuristic; systems thinker; considers broader organizational and cultural impacts.
  • Excellent organizational, prioritization, and multitasking skills with a detail-oriented mindset.
  • A team player with a positive attitude, strong interpersonal skills, and a diverse communicator to all levels within the organization.
  • Ability to exercise sound judgment and discretion in handling sensitive information.
  • Thrives in a company of good people.
  • Experience in APAC/EMEA countries and/or proficiency in additional languages relevant to the region are a plus.
  • Already writing a better job description than this one....

What you should know about VaynerMedia

Think “lab” and not “agency”. We get excited about solving business problems, not creating advertising for the sake of making advertising. Our entrepreneurship DNA runs deep. We’re willing to break rules, try new things, and test hypotheses if it means better understanding our craft. It’s fun!

Our environment (and pace) feels much more like a start-up than most agencies you might be used to. Hopefully that, and the opportunity to collaborate with the talented and enthusiastic crew, work with big brands excites you, as it does us. We can’t wait to meet you.