Free ATS Resume Checker

Scan your resume for ATS compatibility issues — keyword gaps, formatting problems, and missing sections — in under 60 seconds. Works for all major ATS systems including Taleo, Greenhouse, and Workday.

75% of resumes are rejected by Applicant Tracking Systems before a human ever reads them — not because the candidate is unqualified, but because the file confused a parser or was missing the right keywords. Upload your resume below for an instant score. It's free, takes 60 seconds, and requires no account.

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How the checker works

Three steps — done in under a minute.

What the checker analyzes

A complete scan across five dimensions that determine ATS pass/fail.

Why ATS compatibility matters

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is software used by over 98% of Fortune 500 companies — and most mid-size employers — to receive, sort, and filter job applications before a recruiter ever opens a single file.

When you submit your resume online, it is rarely read by a human first. The ATS parses your document into structured data: name, contact details, job titles, dates, skills, and more. It then scores your resume against the job description — looking for keyword matches, relevant titles, and required credentials.

The 75% rejection statistic is sobering — but the cause is rarely lack of qualifications. It's almost always formatting that confuses the parser, or keywords that didn't match closely enough. A well-qualified candidate with a two-column designer template will score lower than a less-qualified one with a clean single-column document.

ATS systems rank surviving candidates and surface only the top results to the hiring team. That's why tailoring your resume to each job description — not just making it "ATS-safe" — is the only winning strategy.

How does an ATS actually work, step by step?

1. Parse: The ATS extracts your resume into structured data fields — name, email, job titles, companies, dates, education, and skills.
2. Score: It compares your extracted data against the job description, calculating a keyword match percentage and checking for required credentials.
3. Rank: All applicants are ranked by score. Only the top candidates — often the top 20–30% — are surfaced to the recruiter.
4. Filter: Hard knockout filters remove anyone missing required qualifications entirely, regardless of overall score.

Understanding these four steps is why simply "making your resume look clean" isn't enough. You need to pass all four gates: parseable formatting, sufficient keyword match, high relative rank, and no knockout disqualifiers. Our free ATS resume checker evaluates all four.

Which ATS systems do companies actually use?

Different employers use different platforms, but the core rules for passing ATS are consistent across all of them. Here's what the most common systems look for:

7 ATS mistakes that get resumes rejected

These are the most frequent reasons resumes never reach a human.

1. Multi-column layouts and tables

Two-column designs look great in Word but ATS parsers read left-to-right and scramble the content — your job title ends up next to your education dates, rendering the document unreadable.

Fix: Use a single-column layout with clear section headings.

2. Non-standard section names

"My Journey" or "Professional Wins" won't be recognized. ATS software looks for exact or near-exact matches to standard headings like Work Experience, Education, and Skills.

Fix: Use standard, expected headings throughout.

3. Decorative fonts and graphic elements

Icons, infographic skill bars, and decorative fonts often render as unreadable characters or get skipped entirely during parsing. What looks polished to a human is noise to a machine.

Fix: Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. Remove all graphics.

4. Missing keywords from the job description

A generic resume will always miss role-specific terms. ATS systems score you on how many required keywords appear — and your ranking suffers for every one that's absent.

Fix: Mirror the language in the job posting exactly. If it says "Salesforce CRM," use that phrase verbatim.

5. Sending the same resume to every job

One resume cannot be keyword-optimized for every role. Different jobs prioritize different skills, and a one-size-fits-all document will always underperform on keyword matching.

Fix: Customize at minimum the summary and skills sections for each application.

6. Scanned PDFs or image-based files

If you scanned a printed resume to PDF, or saved it as a JPG/PNG, the ATS sees an image — not text — and can extract nothing from it.

Fix: Always export directly from Word or Google Docs to a text-based PDF.

7. Contact info in headers or footers

Many ATS systems skip document headers and footers during parsing. Phone numbers and email addresses placed there may never be extracted.

Fix: Put your name, email, phone, and LinkedIn URL in the main body of the document.

ATS-friendly resume checklist

Run through this before every application.

• Save as DOCX or text-based PDF — never an image.
• Single-column layout — no tables, text boxes, or side columns.
• Standard fonts: Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman (10–12 pt).
• Standard section headings: Summary, Work Experience, Education, Skills.
• Contact info in the body — not the document header or footer.
• Mirror keywords directly from the job description.
• Quantify achievements: "increased sales 30%" beats "improved sales."
• Start bullets with strong action verbs: led, built, launched, optimized.
• Include start and end dates (month + year) for all roles.
• Keep to 1–2 pages (one page for under 10 years of experience).

Before & after: ATS-optimized resume bullets

Here's what the difference looks like in practice. The "before" bullets use vague phrasing that scores poorly on keyword matching. The "after" versions use exact job-description language and quantified results.

Frequently asked questions