# Is your resume actually a match for that job? Canonical URL: https://career1.ai/tools/resume-checker ยท Publisher: Career1 (Answerflix Ltd) Paste the job description, upload your resume, and get the honest score, plus the specific requirements you do not yet evidence. ## What does this ATS resume checker do? Career1's free ATS resume checker compares your resume with one job description. It gives a match score out of 100, marks up to six requirements as met, partial or missing, lists terms from the posting your resume lacks, and suggests edits. It is an AI review of your text, not a copy of any employer's ATS. It is instructed to judge only on evidence in the resume and to score a weak match low, so a skill named once in a list can come back partial where a line showing you using it would be met. A flattering number helps nobody deciding whether an application is worth an evening. ## How the checker works 1. It reads your file's text: a PDF's text layer (up to 30 pages), a Word file's visible text, or plain text. Under 120 characters, usually a scanned PDF, and it stops and says so. 2. It sends the first 8,000 characters, with the job description, to OpenAI's gpt-4o-mini model, told never to invent experience the resume does not claim. 3. It shows a score, a verdict, and up to four strengths, six requirements, eight missing terms and four edits. It does not split your resume into fields as an applicant tracking system does, cannot know how an employer set theirs up, and never sees your layout. It reads everything a Word file shows, including tables, text boxes, headers and footers, which some ATS parsers skip. ## What an applicant tracking system actually does An ATS is workflow software. A [Harvard Business School and Accenture report](https://www.hbs.edu/managing-the-future-of-work/research/hidden-workers-untapped-talent) describes it as a tool to "manage and track the pipeline of applicants in each step of the recruiting process". Many also parse your resume into fields, and that can fail: Greenhouse [lists the causes](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse), including images, tables, headers and footers, contact details in a text box, and columned layouts. Filters are set by the employer. Greenhouse's [auto-reject rules](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/360000653472-Auto-reject) act on answers to application questions, such as whether you hold a required licence. They can be blunt: in the same report, 88% of employers agreed qualified high-skills candidates are screened out for not matching the exact criteria in the job description. ## Myths worth dropping ### Myth: the 75% rejection figure The claim that 75% of resumes are rejected by an ATS before a human sees them has no study behind it. It was [traced back](https://hrtact.com/2020/10/05/your-job-application-was-rejected-by-a-human-not-a-computer/) to Preptel, a resume-services company that closed in 2013. ### "An ATS cannot read PDFs." Greenhouse's list names resumes uploaded as an image, not PDFs. A PDF with selectable text is generally fine; a scan is not. ### "Hide keywords in white text." Text extraction ignores colour. The hidden words show up in the text a recruiter searches and reads. ## How to read your result ### Start with the requirements. A must-have marked missing matters more than any keyword. Partial usually means the resume names something without showing it: often the quickest fix. ### Read the score as a band. 70 and above shows green, 45 to 69 amber, below 45 red. A 58 means some core requirements are not evidenced yet. ### Add missing terms only where true. Put each in a line about the work, not a longer skills list. ### Compare versions by status, not points. Scores can move a few points between identical runs. A requirement going from partial to met is the real signal. ## A worked example Illustrative examples: the people and figures are invented to show the pattern. Use your own. ### PostgreSQL performance tuning: partial - **Before:** Responsible for database maintenance and performance. - **After:** Cut p95 query time on the orders database (PostgreSQL) from 1.2s to 180ms by adding two composite indexes. Names the database the posting names, shows the tuning, and gives a result an interviewer can ask about. ### On-call ownership: missing - **Before:** Supported production systems. - **After:** Took a weekly on-call shift for the payments API and led the reviews of two incidents. The posting asks for ownership, and "supported" does not show it. Neither rewrite adds work the person did not do. The [resume bullet points generator](https://career1.ai/tools/resume-bullet-points) makes this change line by line. ## What happens to your resume The file is held only while the request runs. Its text goes to OpenAI's API to produce the result. Career1 does not save the file, the text or the result, so copy anything you want to keep. Our logs record that a check ran, its score, and the cost of the AI call, with none of your text. OpenAI's [API data policy](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/your-data) says API data is not used to train its models unless the customer opts in, and that abuse-monitoring logs are kept for up to 30 days. ## Questions people ask ### Is this ATS resume checker free? Yes. No account, no paid tier, and job seekers never pay Career1. Each address gets six checks an hour, because every check is a paid AI call. ### Does it work the same way as a real ATS? No outside checker can, because every employer configures its own system. This one judges the evidence for each requirement in one posting, which is the part you can fix. ### Which file types work best? PDF, DOCX or TXT, up to 10 MB. A PDF needs selectable text, so a scan will not work. Some applicant tracking systems skip Word tables, text boxes, headers and footers, so keep contact details in the main body. ### Why is my score lower than on another checker? Tools measure different things. Some count words your resume shares with the posting. This one judges whether each requirement is evidenced, and a weak match is meant to score below 50. ### What score do I need before applying? There is no cut-off, and no employer sees this score. If the must-haves come back met or partial and you can talk about each one, apply. ### Is my resume stored or shared with employers? No. Career1 does not save the file, its text or your result, and nothing is sent to employers. The text goes to OpenAI's API to produce the result. ## Where to go next - [Resume score](https://career1.ai/tools/resume-score): No job in mind? Score the resume on its own. - [Interview question generator](https://career1.ai/tools/interview-questions): Paste the same posting to see what the interview will test. - [Private practice interview](https://career1.ai/ai-mock-interview): Practise answering out loud, free, once a week, with written feedback. No video, no score, and never shared with companies. - [Get vetted](https://career1.ai/talent): A separate, single interview with no retakes. It becomes a profile companies can search, and you can hide it. ## Sources - [Harvard Business School and Accenture report](https://www.hbs.edu/managing-the-future-of-work/research/hidden-workers-untapped-talent) - [lists the causes](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) - [auto-reject rules](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/360000653472-Auto-reject) - [traced back](https://hrtact.com/2020/10/05/your-job-application-was-rejected-by-a-human-not-a-computer/) - [API data policy](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/your-data) ## About Career1 Job seekers use Career1 for free: they upload a resume, practise privately with the AI interviewer, then take one vetting interview whose verified profile companies hiring through Career1 can search, unless they choose to hide it.