ATS Simulator

Will your resume make it past the ATS?

Upload your resume and get an instant score, the pitfalls that get resumes filtered out, and specific fixes to improve your chances.

What is an ATS, and why does it matter?

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is the software employers use to collect, store, search and sort job applications. Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS and Taleo are common examples. When you click "Apply", your resume almost always goes into one of these before a person sees it.

What happens to your resume

  1. 1

    Parsing

    The ATS pulls the text out of your file and tries to split it into fields: contact details, job titles, employers, dates, skills and education. Layouts with columns, tables, text boxes, icons or images can scramble or drop information at this step.

  2. 2

    Searching & ranking

    Recruiters search the ATS for keywords like job titles, skills, tools and certifications, and many systems rank or match candidates against the job description. If the right terms aren't in your resume, you won't show up in those searches.

  3. 3

    Screening questions

    Some postings add knock-out questions (work authorization, required licences, years of experience) that can filter applications automatically.

  4. 4

    Human review

    A recruiter then skims the parsed profile or your resume, often for only a few seconds, before deciding who moves forward.

Why it matters

  • Nearly every large employer uses an ATS, and so do many small businesses through job boards and HR software.
  • If your resume doesn't parse cleanly, the recruiter may see missing jobs, jumbled dates or an empty skills section, even if your real resume looks great.
  • Popular roles can get hundreds of applicants. Recruiters lean on keyword search to narrow them down, so missing the right terms can mean nobody ever opens your resume.

A common myth

You may have heard that "robots reject 75% of resumes". In reality, most ATS don't silently auto-reject people because of formatting. The bigger risks are a resume that parses badly, or one that doesn't match the keywords a recruiter searches for. Both are fixable, which is what this tool helps with.

Quick wins for an ATS-friendly resume

  • Use a simple, single-column layout
  • Stick to standard headings like "Experience" and "Skills"
  • Keep contact details in the main body, not the header
  • Mirror the job posting's key skills (where they're true)
  • Write skills as text, not icons or rating bars
  • Save as a text-based PDF or DOCX, not a scanned image
What are you applying for? (optional)

Tell us and we'll score your resume against it instead of guessing.

Paste a job description (optional) Get a job match score and see exactly which keywords from the posting you're missing.

Stored with your results and deleted with them.

0 / 15,000

Held for 7 days

We keep your resume privately for 7 days after your latest upload so you can keep improving it, then it's deleted automatically.

Delete anytime

One click on your results page permanently removes your resume and every result. No account needed.

Revise & recheck

You get a private link to your results. Come back with a revised resume and track your score as it improves.