How we score ATS readiness
Our ATS score is fully transparent and deterministic — the same resume always gets the same score. It is job-agnostic: it measures whether your resume parses cleanly and survives an applicant tracking system, independent of any specific job. No AI guesswork, just published rules.
Methodology version 1.0 · scores are out of 100.
Contact info
15 ptsA detectable email and phone number, plus a name. ATS route candidates by these — missing contact details can drop you from the pipeline.
Standard sections
20 ptsRecognisable Experience, Education and Skills headings. Summary and Projects earn a small bonus. ATS map your resume onto known sections; non-standard headings get mis-filed.
Parseability
20 ptsText extracts cleanly — not an empty scanned image, not jumbled column bleed, and a low ratio of non-standard glyphs. If a machine cannot read the text, none of the rest matters.
Dates
15 ptsExperience and education entries carry parseable date ranges in standard formats (e.g. "Jan 2020 – Mar 2023"). ATS build your timeline from these.
Length & density
15 ptsWord count in a healthy band (~400–1200), bullets present, and not a wall of text. Too short reads as thin; too long buries signal.
Formatting hygiene
15 ptsStandard bullet characters, no table- or column-like structures, and no excessive special characters or emoji. Tables and multi-column layouts are the most common cause of ATS mis-parsing.
Grades
A ≥ 90 · B ≥ 75 · C ≥ 60 · D below 60.