How Is My ATS Score Calculated? The 8 Factors, Explained
Your ATS score is made up of eight separate checks added together, each measuring something different. Knowing what each one covers tells you exactly where to spend your editing time.
The eight checks, by weight
Formatting and technical compatibility carries the most weight. A single-column layout with no graphics or text boxes scores highest; a two-column design or a Canva-style export loses points before the ATS even reads a word of content. Section structure is next: the system looks for five standard sections, contact details, summary, experience, education, skills, and scores you down for each one it can't find or can't label correctly.
Quantified results and experience descriptions both carry meaningful weight too. The checker looks at whether your most recent roles include numbers, percentages or amounts rather than just responsibilities, and whether each role has enough description to actually convey what you did. Skills quality checks how many skills you've listed: too few looks thin, too many looks unfocused, somewhere in the middle scores best.
Contact completeness, summary quality and generic phrases make up the rest. Contact completeness checks that your name, email, phone, location and LinkedIn are all present. Summary quality looks at whether you have a proper professional summary of a reasonable length rather than none at all, or one line. Generic phrases, "hardworking," "team player," "results-oriented," cost you a small amount each time they appear instead of something specific.
Why formatting matters more than any single content edit
Because formatting and structure carry more combined weight than any individual content check, a CV built with a creative template or a multi-column layout can score low even when the underlying experience is strong. Fixing the layout, moving to a single column, adding standard section headings, often raises the score more in one change than rewriting any individual bullet point.
What to fix first
Start with whichever check is lowest in your breakdown, not with the one that feels most important. If formatting is already solid, quantified results and skills quality are usually the next-highest-value fixes: adding numbers to two or three bullet points, or trimming an overloaded skills list down to the ones that matter, tends to move the score more than adjusting the summary.
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