How an ATS reads your résumé
An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is the software that receives a company's applications. Before a recruiter opens your résumé, the ATS has turned it into text, split it into fields (contact details, experience, education, skills) and sometimes filtered it on keywords. A poorly structured résumé, one laid out in columns or saved as a picture, loses information there, when it is not discarded outright.
The eleven checks
The analysis calls no artificial intelligence: it applies the rules an ATS applies, and nothing else. Each check weighs on the score according to what it costs an application.
- Page count
- One to two pages. An ATS reads everything, a recruiter stops early.
- Contact details
- An email and a phone number, as text: the ATS builds the candidate record from them.
- Named sections
- Explicit headings (Experience, Education, Skills, Languages) so each block lands in the right field.
- Dates
- Dates on every position and every degree: that is how the ATS computes your years of experience.
- Bullets
- Bullet lists rather than paragraphs, for the ATS and the recruiter alike.
- Figures
- Quantified results: amounts, volumes, deadlines, headcounts.
- Length
- Between 250 and 900 words: enough to place the key terms, no more.
- Link
- A link to a LinkedIn profile, a portfolio or a website.
- Layout
- A single column: a two-column layout is read line by line and the two get mixed.
- Pictures
- No photo, icon or logo: the ATS reads nothing from them, and some reject the file.
- Readable characters
- No symbols from icon fonts or table frames: they come out as blank characters.
Frequently asked questions
- Is my data kept?
- No. The PDF is read in memory on the server, analysed, then forgotten. Nothing is stored and no account is needed.
- Why does a scanned résumé score zero?
- A scan or a picture holds no text: the ATS reads nothing from it, and neither does this check. Export the résumé from your word processor, or import it into the editor, which can read a scan.
- Does a good score guarantee my application gets through?
- No. The score measures how readable the structure is, not the fit with the job. To compare your résumé with a specific offer, the editor offers a keyword-matching analysis.
- What should I do with the orange and red points?
- Create a free account and import this PDF: the editor takes over the content, applies an ATS-friendly template and walks you through every check.