Understanding ATS Scores

Which number am I looking at?

• Job match is the % on your match report. You get it from Analyze & Tailor, from Analyze on the resume review screen, and from analyzing a saved job. Most of this page explains it.
• Quick match is the ring at the top of an analysis result from the Analyze resume upload page. It is mostly keyword coverage.
• Match Score on a saved job is the detailed score, weighted by the kind of role. The scored examples on the ATS resume examples page use it too.
• The free ATS checker gives a count, not a %: how many of the tools, licenses and certifications the posting names are on your resume.

The numbers measure different things, so they can disagree. Compare a score with the same kind of score, never across them.

What Job match counts

The tools, hard skills, domains and certifications the posting asks for. A degree in a named field or years of a named skill count too, when your resume clearly meets them or clearly does not.

Some things are left out because a resume cannot show them or because every candidate claims them: general abilities like "communication", and conditions of the job like lifting, travel or a background check.

How each requirement is credited

A name in a skills list proves less than a bullet where you used it, which is why Listed earns less than Shown.

Must-haves carry full weight and nice-to-haves carry half, scaled by how central the posting makes each one. A general office suite always counts as a nice-to-have. Job match is the weighted share of credit you earn.

For example, a posting with four must-haves of equal weight, where you show two, list one and are missing one, scores (100 + 100 + 75 + 0) / 4 = 69%.

What the labels mean

• Missing must-haves are always listed beside the %, so a high number cannot hide one.
• A required certification, license or clearance you do not show holds the label at Fair, whatever the %. The % itself does not change.
• Postings that name fewer than three requirements get no %, because one item would swing it from 0 to 100. With three or four, you see the % with a note that each one moves it a lot.

Raising your Job match

• Move listed skills into your bullets. A skill that only sits in your skills list earns 75%. Name it in the bullet where you used it and it earns 100%.
• Add requirements that are true of you and missing from the page. Use the posting's own name for the tool or certification.
• Leave out what you do not have. It raises the number and costs you the interview.

Tailoring does the first two for you. It asks before it adds anything it cannot find on your resume, and you review every change before you export.

Quick match

Five categories, mostly keyword coverage. Recency and achievements are not in it.

• Hard skills: 55%. It rises to 65% when the posting asks for no qualification, and gains up to 15 more points when the posting's keywords are checked against your resume, so it can reach 80%
• Job title: 15%, falling to 10% when hard skills takes those points
• Soft skills: 10%, falling to 5%
• Education: 10%, or nothing when the posting asks for no qualification
• Other keywords: 10%, falling to 5%

The detailed score

Seven parts, each scored 0 to 100. Five compare your resume with the posting: keywords, title and seniority, recent experience, achievements, and education and certifications. Two read your resume on its own: section completeness (a summary, experience, education and skills) and bullet quality (bullets that open on "Responsible for" or are too short or too long lose points).

The five posting parts are weighted by the kind of role. A few of the profiles:

• Section completeness and bullet quality join at 10% each, and everything is scaled to fit. On the default profile that works out to roughly keywords 33%, title 21%, recent experience 13%, achievements 13%, education 4%, completeness 8% and bullet quality 8%.
• Keywords are capped at 35% of the score, or 40% for roles where tools are most of the job. Weight above the cap goes to title, recent experience and achievements, never to education.
• Without a posting, keywords, title and education switch off. The rest is a general quality score, with formatting at 15%. Do not compare it with a score against a posting.

What no score here measures

No applicant tracking system shows candidates a score. Every ATS score you see, these included, is a model of how well your resume matches one posting.

• Whether you will get the job. It knows nothing about the other applicants or the hiring manager.
• Visual design. Whether a file reads cleanly is checked on its own and never added to Job match.
• Truthfulness. A skill you do not have raises the number. The interviewer will notice.
• Whether the posting is worth applying to. A high score against a badly written posting is still a high score against a badly written posting.

If your score does not match what this page describes, tell us. That is a bug, not a nuance.