Reading your findings
The report is a list of findings grouped by theme and graded by severity. How to read the grouping, and what to fix first.
The score is a summary. The findings are the output - each one saying what was seen, why it costs you, and what to do.
Three severities#
| Severity | What it means |
|---|---|
| Critical | Something is broken enough that the rest of the report is secondary until it is fixed. |
| Major | A real, measurable cost. Most findings sit here, and this is what the suggested rewrites target. |
| Minor | Worth fixing, cheap to fix, not what is holding you back. |
Grouped by kind of problem#
The fix list has a By problem type view that groups the same findings by the kind of problem they are, rather than the dimension they came from. Nothing is added or removed - it is the same fixes, sorted a second way.
What a parser cannot read. Machine-readability problems. Fix first if present - see the cap in how your score is calculated.
Where the resume claims more than it shows. Evidence gaps.
How your career reads from the outside. Not formatting - the story a stranger assembles from your dates and titles. Unexplained title regressions, overlapping roles, a thin current role, claimed leadership with nothing under it. This group costs interviews you never hear about, because the reader forms an impression and moves on.
What a screener will hold against you. None of it is about how good you are, which is exactly why it is worth removing: it costs you something and costs nothing to fix. A weak filename, "references available on request", skills mentioned but never evidenced.
The quick edits. Presentation. Real, small, and the right thing to do last.
Work through the fix list in order#
The fix list sits directly under your score. Critical findings come first; after those, every fix is ranked by what it is worth against what it takes. That is the order to work in, and it is computed from your actual findings rather than from a general rule.
Two things stay true whatever the order says:
- Anything critical comes first. A blocking parseability problem caps your score at 55, so the rest of the report is provisional until it is fixed - see how your score is calculated.
- Re-run after real changes, not after each edit. Each run costs credits and a score does not move on one reworded bullet. Tracking your progress covers what to expect between runs.
What findings cannot tell you#
- Whether your claims are true. The report reads what you wrote.
- Whether you suit a particular job. That is JD ↔ Resume Match.
- Whether a deliberate choice is wrong. If you have a reason for something the report flags, your reason may be better than the rule.
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