How to improve your ATS score
Tyler, a fictional example, scored 52 because his skills line said Team player and Fast learner and never named SQL, though his jobs used it. Six fixes, all drawn from his own experience, took it to 86.
Score your resume
Drop your resume into the ATS resume checker as a PDF or a Word file, or paste the text. It returns a score from 0 to 100 and a band: under 50 needs work, 50 to 69 is fair, 70 to 84 is strong, and 85 or more is excellent.
Tyler's came back at 52, Fair. It had no summary, bullets that read as duties rather than results, a misspelled word, and a skills line made of personality traits.
Find the part dragging it down
The breakdown scores four qualities (ATS formatting, impact, contact details and structure) plus every section your resume has. The overall is a weighted average of them, so the lowest score has the most room to lift it.
Tyler's lowest was Skills, at 18 out of 100. Impact sat at 44 because only 2 of his 9 bullets had a number, and Projects at 35.
Read why, and what it should say instead
Open any part to see why it scored low, with each fix shown as a before and after. Tyler's skills line read: Microsoft Office, Communication, Team player, Hard working, Problem solving, Time management, Fast learner.
His jobs, meanwhile, named SQL, dbt, Looker, Python and R. Recruiters read the skills line to see what you can use, and his named none of those tools. The fix puts those five tools at the top, grouped as technical tools, and keeps the soft skills underneath. Nothing is invented: every tool in the fix already appears in his experience.
Apply the fixes, then score it again
Press Fix my resume and the editor opens with every fix waiting. Fix all applies the six together: grouped skills, a new summary, rewrites of all three jobs (one also corrects forcasting), and a tighter project bullet. Or apply them one at a time.
Scored again, the same resume came back at 86, Excellent. The facts did not change: the same jobs, numbers and tools, now written where an ATS and a recruiter look for them.
What moved the score
List the tools you already use
If your bullets name a tool, your skills section should too. It is the line a recruiter reads to see what you can use.
Swap the duty for what you did
Tyler's "Responsible for stock-loss reporting for finance, automated it, this saves them roughly a day a week" became "Automated stock-loss reporting for finance, saving roughly one day of work per week."
Add a summary if you have none
Two or three sentences on your field, your level and your main tools. Tyler had none, and the fix wrote his from his own experience.
Fix the spelling
A recruiter searching the ATS for forecasting will not find forcasting. Spelling is part of being found.
Transcript
Tyler's resume scored fifty-two, Fair. One round of fixes later, eighty-six, Excellent.
Here's how, with the ATS resume checker at jobsprout.ai.
Drop in your resume, as a PDF or a Word file.
Tyler's comes back at fifty-two out of a hundred. Fair.
The breakdown shows where he's losing points. His skills score lowest, at eighteen.
Open any part to see why. Each fix shows what the resume says now, and what it could say instead.
Here it points out that his skills never list SQL, dbt, Looker, Python or R, though his jobs use all five. The fix adds them.
Press Fix my resume, and it opens in the editor with every fix waiting.
Fix all puts them in, the five tools included. Then he scores it again.
Eighty-six. Excellent.
Check your own resume at jobsprout.ai.
