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You see a lot of round numbers thrown around. "75 percent of resumes are rejected by ATS" is the most popular one, and it is false (the ResumeAdapter 2026 teardown linked in the sources walks through the original misquote). Here is what defensible research actually shows.
97.8%
of Fortune 500 use an ATS
Jobscan 2025 ATS Usage Report
~39%
of Fortune 500 use Workday specifically
Jobscan 2025 ATS Usage Report
23%
of ATS parsing failures are caused by formatting alone
Enhancv 2025 parsing study, 25 recruiters, 10+ ATS platforms
3x
higher callback rate for CVs scoring 85% or above
LinkedIn 2025 keyword-optimisation analysis
11.7%
callback rate for ATS-optimised CVs
CVCraft compilation, study of 15,000 applications
4.2%
callback rate for generic CVs in the same study
CVCraft compilation, study of 15,000 applications
6–11s
recruiter initial scan time per CV
ResumeHeatMap 2026 eye-tracking study
35%
higher callback for keyword-optimised CVs vs generic
LinkedIn 2025 keyword analysis
Most free checkers give you a single number and call it a day. We break the score into the six things that actually decide whether a recruiter ever opens your CV, with weights shown so you know where to spend your editing time first.
How closely the language of your CV mirrors the role you are applying for. We compare titles, tools, methods and seniority terms against a benchmark of postings in your function.
Whether ATS systems can extract each field cleanly. We simulate Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS and SmartRecruiters and flag where any one of them scrambles a section.
Single-column layout, standard fonts, no parsing traps. The Enhancv 2025 parsing study found 23 percent of ATS failures come from formatting alone.
Name, email, phone and city detected in the body, not the document header. Many parsers skip header and footer regions entirely.
Strong, varied verbs leading each bullet. Repetition and weak openers ("Responsible for") cap your impact even when the content underneath is good.
Numbers, percentages and outcomes in your first two bullets per role. Recruiter eye-tracking research finds quantified bullets attract measurably more fixation than text-only descriptions.
Every ATS has its own quirks. A layout that scores 90 in Greenhouse can score 60 in Workday because the parsers were built years apart with different priorities. We benchmark against each one so a single score tells you the worst case, not just the best.
Reads strictly left to right, top to bottom. Acquired HiredScore in 2024 to add AI-driven candidate grading on top of parsing. Two-column layouts and right-side contact rails commonly land at the bottom of the parsed record or get dropped.
Watch outs
More forgiving than Workday on layout. Handles well-built two-column CVs roughly 80 percent of the time, but still scrambles right-column content in about one in five attempts.
Watch outs
Similar parsing behaviour to Greenhouse. Re-ranks candidates inside the dashboard rather than auto-rejecting on score, so a clean parse pushes you up the queue.
Watch outs
Reasonably strong on standard layouts. Drops accuracy when CVs use creative section names like "My Journey" instead of "Experience" because keyword search is weighted by section.
Watch outs
The least forgiving major parser. Treats anything beyond the simplest layout as suspicious. Often misreads dates in non-standard formats and ignores formatted bullets in PDF exports.
Watch outs
Solid parsing on clean documents. Tends to penalise CVs without a clear Skills block by ranking them below candidates whose skills section is easy to extract.
Watch outs
For the formatting rules that satisfy every parser at once, see our ATS-friendly resume guide. If you are deciding whether to use ChatGPT to fix the issues our checker flags, read ChatGPT vs purpose-built AI for resume review first.
Every mistake below is fixable in minutes. Each fix typically moves the score by 5 to 15 points.
Workday, Taleo and the older parsers read top to bottom in one stream. A right column with dates or contact info either ends up appended after the body or gets dropped entirely.
Move to a single column. If you need visual flair, keep it for the human-facing PDF you send after the ATS gate. Read the full ruleset in our [ATS-friendly resume guide](/hub/ats-friendly-resume).
Many parsers skip the header and footer regions of a Word or PDF document. Your name, email and phone disappear before a recruiter ever sees them.
Put name, email, phone and city as plain text at the top of the body. Remove the header bar entirely.
Layout tables are still common in design templates. Most parsers read tables cell by cell, scrambling skill lists and timelines into a flat run of fragments.
Use bullet lists for skills and a simple top-to-bottom flow for experience. Reserve tables for the rare case where you genuinely need a grid.
Visual ratings make sense to a designer but the parser cannot extract "intermediate" from a 60 percent filled bar. The skill effectively does not exist in the record.
Use a comma-separated skills list, optionally grouped by category. Add a proficiency word if it matters: Fluent, Native, Working knowledge.
These tools sometimes export text as a series of disconnected glyphs or, worse, as a flat image. The screen reads fine, the parser sees gibberish or nothing at all.
Export from Word or Google Docs, or use a template you have verified by copy-pasting the PDF into a plain text editor. If the text does not paste back as words, the ATS cannot read it either.
A 2025 LinkedIn analysis found resumes with optimised keywords saw 35 percent higher callback rates than generic ones. Without the exact terms the spec uses, your CV sits below the keyword-matched candidates.
Paste the job spec next to your CV and mirror its language for tools, methods and seniority. Do not stuff white-space with hidden text, modern parsers detect and penalise it.
Upload your CV and get a full breakdown across six dimensions in under a minute. No sign-up to see your first score.
Everything we get asked about ATS scoring, parsing and how our checker works.
ATS optimisation
The 2026 guide to writing a CV applicant tracking systems can actually read. Seven rules, real parser behaviour, before-and-after examples.
ATS optimisation
A free Word and Google Docs resume template engineered for Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Taleo and SmartRecruiters. Single-column, parser-tested, with sections you can fill in.
AI resume tools
Can ChatGPT review your CV? Real data on what it gets right, where it fails, and how a purpose-built AI scoring tool compares for ATS feedback.
How applicant tracking systems actually work, what they extract, and where they cut your CV.
Read articleThe skills that score highest in 2026 and how to phrase them so a parser picks them up.
Read articleWhy typography matters for parsing, and the six fonts that always work.
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