ATS Score Checker
Paste or upload your CV and get a heuristic compatibility score against common applicant tracking system patterns, with a specific list of what to change.
About the ATS Score Checker
Most large employers run applications through an applicant tracking system before a person sees them, and CVs that parse badly can be filtered out on formatting alone. This checker looks for the patterns that cause that: missing standard section headings, contact details the parser cannot find, dates in ambiguous formats, tables and columns, unusual bullet characters, and length well outside the normal range.
The score is a heuristic, and it is important to be honest about what that means. There is no single ATS — Workday, Taleo, Greenhouse and iCIMS all parse differently, and none of them publishes its rules. A high score here means your CV avoids the failure modes that are common across them; it is not a guarantee that any particular system will handle it perfectly.
The value is really in the itemised findings rather than the number. Each one names a specific thing to change, and most take under a minute to fix.
How to use it
- Paste your CV text into the box, or upload it as .txt, .docx or .pdf and let the tool extract the text.
- Read the score alongside the itemised findings — the findings are the actionable part.
- Work through the flagged items. Missing standard headings and unfindable contact details are the highest-impact fixes.
- Re-run the check after editing to confirm the findings have cleared.
When you would reach for this
- Sanity-checking a designed CV before submitting it to a large employer's portal.
- Working out why an application history has produced no responses despite relevant experience.
- Deciding whether a template's two-column layout is worth the parsing risk for a particular application.
Frequently asked questions
What ATS score is good enough?
Treat 80 and above as low-risk and anything under 60 as worth fixing before you submit. But the itemised findings matter more than the number — a CV scoring 75 with one easily-fixed issue is in better shape than one scoring 85 with an unfindable phone number.
Does a high score mean I will get an interview?
No. This measures whether the system can read your CV, not whether a recruiter will be persuaded by it. Parsing cleanly is a prerequisite, not a qualification.
Why are columns and tables a problem?
Many parsers read a page in a single pass and interleave the columns, so a two-column CV can come out as alternating fragments of unrelated sections. Tables can be dropped entirely. A single-column layout avoids both failure modes.
Is my CV sent anywhere to be scored?
No. The checks run in your browser on the text you provide. Nothing is uploaded, stored or logged.