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ATS resume checker for developers

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) store and filter the resumes employers receive. ResumeOS scores your resume against a short checklist of common best practices, and tells you which item to fix next. This page lists every check, so you know what the score means.

The six checks

  1. Contact details

    An email address, plus a phone number or a location.

    15 points

  2. Summary

    A summary of at least 80 characters.

    15 points

  3. Work history

    At least one named role in the work-history section. An internship, campus role, volunteer role, freelance work or research can count if it is real.

    20 points

  4. Bullet points

    At least three bullet lines (one per line) across named roles. Project bullets are scored separately.

    20 points

  5. Skill groups

    Three skill categories, such as languages, frameworks and tools, earn all 15 points. One category earns 5 and two earn 10.

    15 points

  6. A certificate or a project

    At least one certification or project.

    15 points

The points listed above add up to 100 when every check applies. A score of 95 or more is graded A+, 85 or more A, 70 or more B, and 50 or more C. Anything lower reads "Needs Improvement". Each missing item that still applies comes with a written suggestion.

With no work history yet, Work history and Bullet points are not applicable and are left out of the total, so the score is the share of the checks that still apply. Add a real role (an internship, campus job, volunteer work, freelance, or research) when you have one. Projects and education cover that part of the resume until then. Skill categories earn partial credit until there are three: one category is 5 of 15 points and two are 10. Empty section rows do not earn points.

Matching a job description

In the builder you can paste a job description. ResumeOS looks for 52 common technology terms, such as languages, frameworks, cloud platforms and tools, and shows which of them appear in the posting and whether your resume also contains them. Matching is on whole words, so "java" does not match "javascript". This keyword list is a fixed set of common tools, so read the posting as well.

What the score does not tell you

  • It is a fixed set of rules, not a simulation of Workday, Greenhouse or any other specific system.
  • It checks that sections exist and have enough content. It does not judge how good your writing is.
  • A high score does not guarantee an interview, and a low score does not mean a human will reject you.

When you print to PDF, your resume is rendered as selectable text rather than an image, which is the part of the file you control.

Check your own resume

Sign in with your developerOS account to start a resume and see its score as you type.

Sign in to check a resume

Want to see the layouts first? Browse the five templates.