ATS Scores Explained: What's a Good Score and How to Improve Yours

Every time you apply for a job online, your resume gets a score. Most applicants never see it — but it determines everything.

What Is an ATS Score?

An ATS score is a numerical rating (typically 0-100) that measures how well your resume matches a specific job posting. The score is calculated based on:

• Keyword match rate — How many required skills and qualifications appear in your resume
• Skills alignment — Whether your listed skills match the job requirements
• Experience relevance — How closely your work history relates to the role
• Formatting compatibility — Whether the ATS can actually parse your resume correctly

What's a Good Score?

Here's the general breakdown:

• 90-100: Excellent match. Few obvious ATS or relevance gaps.
• 75-89: Strong match. Worth applying after a final human review.
• 60-74: Moderate match. Close the largest keyword, parsing, or impact gaps first.
• 40-59: Weak match. Tailoring or formatting work is likely needed.
• Below 40: Poor match. The resume is probably missing core role evidence.

A targeted rewrite can move a weak match into a stronger band by fixing concrete gaps: missing skills, vague bullets, weak title alignment, and parser-unfriendly formatting.

How Scoring Differs by ATS

Here's what most people don't realize: different ATS systems score differently.

• Greenhouse focuses heavily on keyword matching and skills alignment
• Lever emphasizes experience relevance and role-specific qualifications
• Workday has strict formatting requirements — tables and columns often fail entirely
• Taleo uses older parsing technology and struggles with modern resume formats
• iCIMS weighs education and certifications more heavily than some competitors

This is why testing against a single system isn't enough. A resume that scores 90 on Greenhouse might score 65 on Workday because of a formatting issue.

5 Ways to Improve Your Score

1. Mirror exact keywords from the job posting — don't paraphrase
2. Use a clean, single-column format — avoid tables, columns, and graphics
3. Quantify every achievement — numbers are keywords too
4. Match the job title in your summary or headline
5. Test against multiple ATS systems before applying

Swiffit's multi-ATS simulation runs five ATS-style checks and shows where each platform pattern is likely to struggle.