How Our ATS Resume Checker Works

We believe you deserve to understand exactly how your resume is scored — not just a number. This page documents our methodology, what we check, how accurate we are, and how we handle your data.

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Our Scoring Methodology

Your resume is scored by a fixed set of published rules, not by an AI’s opinion. AI is used for one job only: reading your file into clean sections — roles, bullets, skills — so the rules have accurate input, and in Detailed mode, reading the posting into a keyword list. The same resume always gets the same score, and every point lost is shown against the line that lost it.

Quick check — the resume on its own (100 points)

30%

Impact

Bullets that carry a number, open with an action verb, and avoid "responsible for" and clichés. A recruiter reads results, not duties. Numbers are what survive a six-second skim.

25%

Structure

How much of the text a parser can place into a section, the four essential sections, a complete contact block, dated roles in one format. A resume the software cannot read into fields is never found in a recruiter search.

20%

Skills

Skills listed, skills also shown in use inside a bullet, and a list that is not padded. A skill in a list is a claim; a skill in a result is proof. Long lists read as keyword stuffing.

15%

Writing

Bullet length, repeated words, active voice, spelling, duplicated lines. The human who opens the file after the software ranks it decides the callback.

10%

Brevity

Word count for your career stage, bullets per role, summary length. Too thin looks junior; too long buries the strongest lines.

Detailed check — against one posting (100 points)

50%

Keyword match

The skills, tools and terms the posting asks for, found in your resume — full credit when shown in a bullet, half when only listed. Required terms weigh double. Recruiters search the ATS by these terms. Missing them means not appearing.

10%

Title match

The posting’s job title against your headline and past titles. Title is the first filter most recruiters apply.

10%

Experience

Years asked for against the span of your dated roles. A stated minimum is a hard filter in most systems.

10%

Education

Degrees and certifications the posting names, found in yours. Degree-gated roles filter on this before a human looks.

20%

Resume quality

Your quick-mode score, scaled — the same resume-on-its-own checks. Keywords get you found; the document itself gets you called.

AI (Google Gemini) structures text; it never decides the number. It reads your resume into roles, bullets and skills, and reads a pasted posting into a keyword list. If it is unavailable, a rule-based fallback structures the text and you still get a score.

Step-by-Step: What Happens When You Upload

From file upload to final score in under ten seconds. Here is every stage of the pipeline.

1
Document parsing
Your PDF or DOCX is converted to plain text — the same text an applicant tracking system gets. Anything that does not survive this step (text in images, text boxes, merged columns) is already invisible to an ATS.
2
Structuring
AI reads the text into roles, bullets, dates, education and skills so the rules have accurate input. This is the only thing AI does here; it never decides the score. If it is unavailable, a rule-based fallback structures the text instead.
3
Posting keywords (Detailed mode)
The pasted job description is reduced once to a keyword list — skills, tools, title, years, education, each marked required or preferred, with common aliases. Matching against your resume is then exact and repeatable.
4
Rules, itemised
A fixed set of rules awards points per category. Each rule reports the lines that lost points and the fix. The same input always produces the same score.
5
Fixes, ranked
Suggestions are ordered by points recoverable, so the first item on the list is the one that moves your score most.

What We Check For

Every check below is a rule in the engine, with its own points, evidence and fix.

ATS Compatibility

File format (PDF, DOCX, plain text)
Font legibility and standard typefaces
Absence of tables and multi-column layouts
No headers, footers, or text boxes
No embedded graphics or charts in body
No special characters or Unicode symbols

Content Quality

Quantified results in bullets
Action verb at bullet-point start; no "responsible for"
Skills listed and also shown in use
Posting keywords found in use, listed, or missing (Detailed mode)
Job title, years of experience and education against the posting (Detailed mode)
Bullet length, repetition, spelling, duplicates, overall length

What the score is — and is not

No checker can reproduce an employer’s ATS. Workday, Greenhouse, Lever and iCIMS parse and filter; they do not publish a score, and every company configures them differently — so we do not claim a correlation figure. What we check are the things recruiters and parsers demonstrably act on: readable structure, complete sections, quantified achievements, and, in Detailed mode, the exact terms the posting asks for. Treat the score as an itemised to-do list, not a verdict.

What we can promise instead: the method is fixed and published on this page, the same resume always gets the same number, and every point lost is shown against the line that lost it — so a re-check after an edit tells you exactly what moved.

Privacy & Data

Your resume contains personal information. Here is exactly how we treat it.

De-identified, kept 7 days, then deleted

Your file is read into text to produce the score. A structured, de-identified copy — roles, bullets and skills, with your name, email, phone and links removed — is kept for up to 7 days so a re-check is instant and gives the same number, then deleted. A pasted job description is reduced to its keyword list, kept for 30 days. Resumes are never used to train models and never shared with employers or recruiters.

Never shared with employers

We are an independent tool. Your resume is never visible to recruiters, hiring managers, or any third party. We have no commercial relationship with ATS vendors or employers.

No account required for a basic check

You can run a full ATS score without creating an account or providing an email address. An optional account unlocks score history and side-by-side comparisons.

Supported File Formats

PDF

Recommended for most situations. Preserves your intended layout for human reviewers while still being parseable by modern ATS software when produced correctly (avoid "print to PDF" from design tools like Canva).

DOCX

The safest format for older ATS platforms. Microsoft Word files are natively parsed by every major system. If you are uncertain which format an employer uses, DOCX is the lower-risk choice.

Plain Text (.txt)

The most universally compatible format and useful as a sanity check — if your resume looks good as plain text, an ATS will have no trouble reading it. Not recommended for submission to employers due to lost visual hierarchy.

Ready to see your score?

Upload your resume and paste a job description. You will have a detailed ATS score and prioritised fixes in under ten seconds — no account required.