Check your resume against any job description

How ATS actually filter resumes

The scary version — a robot reads your resume and rejects 75% of applicants before a human sees them — is mostly a myth. It makes for good headlines and better sales pitches, but it's not how most hiring works.

The myth of the robot rejection

An applicant tracking system is really a database. Recruiters and hiring managers use it to search and filterthe applications they receive — much like you'd search your inbox. When a recruiter is filling a React role, they search their ATS for "React". If your resume never says "React", you don't show up in that search. You weren't rejected — you were invisible.

That distinction matters, because the fix isn't to game a robot. It's to make sure the real words a recruiter will search for are actually on your resume, where they can be found.

What a match score actually tells you

This tool ranks the most important terms in the job description and checks which ones appear in your resume. It matters that the wording lines up: most searches look for exact phrases, so "project management" and "managed projects" aren't the same to a keyword filter. Hard skills, tools and certifications carry far more weight than soft skills — nobody filters candidates by "team player". Treat the score as a proxy for how findable you are, not a grade.

What to do with your missing keywords

Work the missing terms into your resume only where they're honestly true of you — in your skills section, your bullet points, and your summary. Mirror the job's phrasing for skill names. And never resort to white-text keyword stuffing: parsers read it, humans see it when they paste your resume into a document, and it reads as exactly what it is.