How we score your resume
The JobSprout resume score is a single 0 to 100 number, with a score for each category and the reason it lost points. The full report is free to see.
Four quality aspects, plus the sections you have
Every resume is scored on four quality aspects, then on the sections it contains, such as Work Experience, Education and Projects; a section you leave out is simply not scored.
ATS & Formatting
Whether the text of your resume reads cleanly: standard section names, consistent entries, correct spelling and no repeated phrases. We score the text an applicant tracking system extracts, so fonts, colors and layout never count for or against you.
Impact & Quantification
Whether your bullets show results rather than duties. A line that names an outcome, a number or a scale reads as evidence; "responsible for" reads as filler.
Contact Information
Whether your name, email, phone, location and a professional link such as LinkedIn or a portfolio are all there.
Completeness & Structure
Whether the resume has the sections a strong resume at your stage needs, each with enough depth.
Five levels per category, weighted for who you are
Each category is one fixed question with five written levels, from missing to excellent. Your resume lands on a level, or between two, and that sets the category's points: Missing 0, Poor 25, Basic 50, Good 75, Excellent 95.
The overall score is a weighted average of the categories your resume has. The weights depend on whose resume it is: education counts three times as much for a student as for an experienced hire, and publications count far more for an academic than for anyone else. We pick the profile from your resume, and you can change it in the editor. A change applies when you score again, and only the weights move.
| Category | Student or graduate | Academic | Business and finance | Creative | Experienced |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work Experience | 14 | 16 | 22 | 18 | 22 |
| Impact & Quantification | 12 | 8 | 18 | 12 | 15 |
| ATS & Formatting | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Completeness & Structure | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Education | 16 | 14 | 8 | 5 | 5 |
| Skills | 8 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| Projects | 10 | 6 | 6 | 16 | 6 |
| Professional Summary | 6 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Contact Information | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Publications | 1 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Volunteering | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Awards | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Certifications | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Languages | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| References | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Weights are relative. Categories your resume does not have drop out and the rest share their weight.
Parsing comes before any human sees it
Most mid-size and large employers route applications through an applicant tracking system before a recruiter opens them. Tools like Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors, Ashby, Workable, SmartRecruiters and BambooHR read a resume by extracting its text and trying to map that text into fields: name, contact details, work history, skills, dates.
Extraction is where good resumes quietly lose out. Multi-column layouts can interleave into nonsense, text baked into an image is invisible, contact details in a header or footer are often skipped, and unusual section titles ("Where I've Made an Impact" instead of "Experience") can stop a parser recognizing a section at all.
Our score reads the same kind of extracted text, which is why ATS & Formatting judges the text and never the layout.
Re-checking the same resume barely moves the score
We fingerprint the exact text of your resume. Check the same text again within a day and you get back the identical result. After that it is scored afresh, and the same resume usually lands within a point of where it was.
The overall does move when you change who the resume is for, because the weights change. When we change the rubric itself, older scores are worked out again under the new one.
What each band means
Of the 427 resumes scored on JobSprout so far, the median is 67 out of 100 and 6% reach the top band, measured in the Resume Index.
Results with numbers in most bullets and nothing missing. Ready to send.
Solid. A few targeted fixes move it into the top band.
Readable but underselling you, usually with bullets that list duties rather than results.
Usually a missing section, missing contact details, or bullets with no results. The breakdown shows which.
What the score can and cannot tell you
No tool can tell you the exact score a specific employer's system will give you. Each company configures its own rules, keywords and weightings, and most never expose a number at all. Any tool claiming a precise "ATS pass rate" is guessing.
Suggested rewrites never add a number you did not give. Where a figure would make a line stronger, the rewrite leaves a gap in [brackets] for you to fill with the real one.
See where your resume loses points
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