See exactly what an ATS reads from your resume
Our ATS resume test reads the text of your PDF back, the way any parser has to start, and names anything that did not come through. It is our own read-back, not a specific employer's system, and it shows you how to fix what it finds.
The read-back
What came through, and what was lost
When the builder renders your PDF, we pull the text back out of it and compare it with what you typed. Anything missing is named in plain words, so the fix is obvious: your phone number, the dates for one role, the icons in a sidebar.
Your own file
It reads the PDF your download will be, not a sample, so the answer is about the resume you are about to send.
Named, not counted
"The dates for Junior analyst, Northwind Labs" rather than "1 field lost". You know where to look.
Free, with no AI call
It is a text comparison, so it costs nothing and gives the same answer every time.
What it checks
Five things that go missing, and how to fix each
Every check below is one the read-back makes on your file. None of them needs a guess about a particular employer.
Contact details, as text
Your name, email, phone number and LinkedIn link must appear in the text of the file, not only in a picture of it. A header image, a name drawn as a graphic or a phone number split across two text boxes all come out missing.
How to fix it: Put your contact line in the body of the page as plain text. If a template draws it in a banner, try another template and check again.
Every role, with its dates
Each job title and employer has to be there, and so do the years you gave it. A date that sits in a separate column or a styled badge is the part most often lost.
How to fix it: Keep the dates on the same line as the role, or directly under it, as ordinary text.
Two columns read in the wrong order
We look for the first bullet of each role soon after the role itself. When it turns up somewhere else, a sidebar has been read across the page and the bullet has been separated from the job it describes.
How to fix it: Use a one-column layout for anything you upload to an application form. Keep the two-column design for a resume you hand over in person.
Icons and symbols
Icon fonts and some symbols are stored as private characters that a parser cannot map to anything. They come out as boxes or nothing, and occasionally take a neighbouring word with them.
How to fix it: Write "Phone" and "Email" as words, or leave the label out. A plain hyphen or a comma separates things just as well as a glyph.
Layout warnings
Two problems a reader notices even when every word survives: a role that starts at the very foot of a page with its first bullet on the next one, and a last page with only a few lines on it.
How to fix it: Trim a line above the stranded role so it moves down whole, and tighten a bullet or two to bring a short last page back.
Said plainly
An honest ATS resume test
An employer's system is private to that employer. Here is exactly what our test does, and what it does not.
What it is
- A read of the text layer inside your PDF, which is the first thing any parser has to work with.
- Checked against what you typed, so it can name the exact field, role or date that went missing.
- Run on the same file your download will be, every time the builder renders it.
What it is not
- A test against Workday, Greenhouse, Taleo or any employer system. We do not have access to them, and nobody outside those companies does.
- A prediction of whether a recruiter will shortlist you. That depends on the job, the other applicants and the person reading.
- A score. The free ATS score on the resume checker is a separate thing: an AI estimate, labelled as one.
Freshers and Naukri
Your first resume, and the file you upload
The same read-back applies whether you have ten years of experience or none yet, and whichever site you upload to.
ATS resume test for freshers
With little or no work history, every line has to come through. The read-back checks your internships and projects the way it checks a job: the title, the organisation, the dates and the first bullet under each.
- List internships, projects and part-time work under clear headings. Each one is read like a job, so give each a title, an organisation and dates.
- Put the dates of your degree as text beside it, not in a timeline graphic.
- One page and one column. A fresher resume rarely needs a sidebar, and it is the sidebar that scrambles.
- Name the tools you used in a plain Skills section, spelled the way the job post spells them.
Before you upload to Naukri
We cannot see how Naukri or any other job site processes a file, and we will not pretend to. What we can check is the part you control: whether the text inside your PDF is complete and in order before it leaves your hands.
- Upload a text-based PDF or a Word file. A scan or a photo of a printed resume has no text to read at all.
- Keep your name, phone and email in the body of the first page. Do not rely on a page header for them.
- Fill in the profile fields on the site too. Recruiters search those directly, whatever happens to the file.
- Use the same job titles and dates in the profile as in the resume, so the two do not contradict each other.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Find out what your resume says to a parser
Check the file you have now for free, or build a one-column resume and see the read-back every time it renders.
The read-back names each field, role and date that did not come through
A free ATS score with no account, labelled as an estimate
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