The ATS check
What applicant tracking systems actually do to your file, what the checker tests, and which of its warnings matter for where you are applying.
If your resume did not parse correctly, this is the page. An applicant tracking system is software that reads your file and turns it into fields - name, roles, dates, skills. A human may never see the original, so when the parse goes wrong you are judged on a mangled version of your resume.
The ATS Resume Checker runs that parse and shows you the result. It is free, once a day - there is no credit price on it, and it does not need an account.
What it actually tests#
- Can the text be extracted at all? A resume exported as an image has no text in it. This is rare from our exporter and common from design tools.
- Do the sections come out as sections? Headings the parser recognises, in an order that makes sense.
- Do dates and roles pair correctly? The most common real failure: a job's dates attaching to the wrong employer.
- Do contact details survive? An email or phone in a header or footer is frequently dropped.
Why single column keeps coming up#
Two-column layouts are the single biggest cause of a bad parse. A parser reading left to right can interleave your sidebar with your main content, so a skills list ends up spliced through your job history.
Reading the result#
Look at the extracted output, not the score. The score summarises; the output shows you what a machine believes your resume says. If your last two roles have merged into one, that is the finding
- whatever the number says.
Fixing the common ones#
| Finding | Fix |
|---|---|
| Contact details missing | Move them into the body, out of a header or footer. |
| Sections merged | Use clearer headings and more space between sections. |
| Dates wrong | Use a consistent format. Jan 2021 - Mar 2023 parses; '21-'23 does not. |
| Skills as prose | Make them a list. |
| No text extracted | Re-export as PDF from the builder rather than printing to image. |
The check is not the goal#
A resume that parses perfectly and says nothing gets nowhere. Pass the check, then go back to whether the bullets are any good - that is what the human decides on.
Was this page helpful?