Every rule, threshold and weighting the checker uses, and the evidence behind each one. It’s rule-based, not AI, so the same resume always gets the same result. It runs entirely in your browser.
Check your resumeWith a job ad: 40% ATS readability + 40% job match + 20% recruiter read.
Without one: 60% ATS readability + 40% recruiter read.
85 and above: Strong. 70–84: Good. 50–69: Needs work. Below 50: At risk.
Your results page shows the points behind each score under “How we worked out these scores”.
Starts at 100 across four areas: layout (35 points), contact details (25), headings and dates (30) and clean, searchable text (10). Points come off for each problem, and no area goes below zero.
When: A PDF with fewer than 100 characters of selectable text (a scan or an image export).
Effect: The overall score is set to 5, because an ATS can’t read anything else.
Why: Nearly every recruiter (99.7%) searches their ATS by keyword. A resume with no text layer can’t come up in any search.Source: Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025)
When: PDF: on at least a quarter of lines, a second block of text starts at the same point in the middle of the page, running down at least 30% of the page. Right-aligned dates don’t count. Word: page columns that hold more than short list items.
Effect: −15 layout. Short lists such as skills set in Word columns pass.
Why: Multiple columns were among the worst performers in Ladders’ eye-tracking study, and some parsers read straight across the page and mix the columns.Source: Ladders eye-tracking study (2018)
When: Any text inside Word text boxes.
Effect: −20 layout if more than 20 words, otherwise −6.
Why: Text boxes sit outside the main text of a document, and many parsers skip them. SEEK warns that layout elements like tables, headers and footers may not display correctly.Source: SEEK: How to write a resume in Australia
When: Your email or phone appears only in a Word header, footer or text box.
Effect: −15 contact. Other text that appears only in a header or footer: −4 layout.
Why: SEEK advises keeping content out of headers and footers. If the ATS misses your contact details, a recruiter can’t reach you even if you’re shortlisted.Source: SEEK: How to write a resume in Australia
When: Any table in a Word resume.
Effect: −6 layout.
Why: SEEK advises against tables because they may not display correctly, and older parsers jumble table cells.Source: SEEK: How to write a resume in Australia
When: Any image or graphic.
Effect: −3 layout.
Why: An ATS can’t read images, so skill bars, icons and logos are invisible. Photos aren’t expected on Australian resumes.Source: ELIRA recruiter insight
When: A PDF with a LinkedIn URL, “Page 1 of 2” style footers and LinkedIn’s sidebar headings.
Effect: −5 layout.
Why: Multiple columns were among the worst performers in Ladders’ eye-tracking study, and a profile export lists duties rather than the results recruiters look for.Source: Ladders eye-tracking study (2018) · ELIRA recruiter insight
When: Five or more unreadable characters (icons, symbol fonts) that aren’t decorative bullets.
Effect: −10 clean text. Decorative bullets alone are a note, with no points off.
Why: Icons and symbol fonts turn into junk characters when an ATS pulls out the text, which can break your phone number, email or headings.Source: ELIRA recruiter insight
When: A heading typed with spaces between the letters, such as “E X P E R I E N C E”.
Effect: −8 clean text.
Why: Ladders found clearly marked section headings help recruiters most. Letters typed with spaces between them can’t be recognised as a heading by a parser.Source: Ladders eye-tracking study (2018)
When: Common tools split or misspelt, such as “Sales force” or “Hub Spot”.
Effect: −4 clean text each, up to −10.
Why: Recruiters search by keyword (99.7%) and skills (76%). A search for “Salesforce” won’t match “Sales force”.Source: Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025)
When: No email anywhere; no phone number; the first line isn’t a name.
Effect: −15, −8 and −4 contact.
Why: Your contact details are the first fields an ATS fills in from your resume.Source: ELIRA recruiter insight
When: No recognisable Experience, Skills or Education heading. We recognise over 100 common variations.
Effect: −12, −5 and −3 headings and dates.
Why: Clearly marked section headings were a feature of the best-performing resumes in Ladders’ study, and parsers rely on standard headings to find your work history.Source: Ladders eye-tracking study (2018)
When: No date ranges for roles, or dates with years but no months.
Effect: −15 or −3 headings and dates.
Why: 44% of recruiters filter by years of experience, which the ATS works out from your dates. Hays recommends months as well as years, because years alone can be misread.Source: Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025) · Hays Australia: How to write a resume
How a recruiter would read your resume, out of 100. Sales, Customer Success and RevOps resumes are also scored on naming commercial metrics; other resumes put that weight on numbers instead.
When: The share of experience bullets that include a meaningful number. Dates and years don’t count; training lines aren’t expected to have one.
Effect: 25 points (35 for non-GTM resumes), full marks at 40% or more.
Why: Measurable achievements were the top factor that makes a resume stand out (58% of recruiters). SEEK and Hays both say to quantify results: “facts not fluff”.Source: Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025) · Hays Australia: How to write a resume · SEEK: How to write a resume in Australia
When: Sales, CS and RevOps resumes only: how many of the metrics hiring managers judge on are named (quota attainment, ARR, pipeline, NRR, churn, win rate and others).
Effect: 10 points, full marks at four or more.
Why: These are the numbers GTM hiring managers judge performance on, and what ELIRA looks for before putting a candidate forward.Source: ELIRA recruiter insight
When: Bullets that open with a duty (“responsible for”), a weak verb (“supported”, “helped”), present tense in a past role, or no verb at all.
Effect: 20 points × the share of bullets without these problems.
Why: Harvard’s guide says to start bullets with action verbs in active voice, and Hays says to focus on results rather than duties.Source: Harvard career services resume guide · Hays Australia: How to write a resume
When: Over 150 or under 30 words, overused words, “I” or “my”, no headline result, written as an objective, or (with a job ad) not mentioning the role.
Effect: 10 points, minus 2 per problem (minimum 2). No summary: 0.
Why: An overview at the top was a feature of the best-performing resumes in Ladders’ study. Hays recommends 50–150 words tailored with keywords from the ad.Source: Ladders eye-tracking study (2018) · Hays Australia: How to write a resume
When: Page count: up to two pages, or three with 12+ years’ experience. Word count for files without a page count.
Effect: 10 points within the limit, 7 one page over, 4 beyond. Very short resumes are capped at 5.
Why: Hays recommends around two pages, SEEK says one or two pages suits many applicants, and the Queensland Government suggests 1–3 depending on experience.Source: Hays Australia: How to write a resume · SEEK: How to write a resume in Australia · Queensland Government: How to write a resume
When: How many bullets there are and how many run past 30 words.
Effect: 6 points for six or more bullets (3 for three or more), plus 4 if fewer than one in five bullets are too long.
Why: Bold job titles with bulleted accomplishments performed best in Ladders’ eye-tracking study; long sentences performed worst.Source: Ladders eye-tracking study (2018) · Queensland Government: How to write a resume
When: Gaps of six months or more between roles, or since your last role, that aren’t covered by study dates.
Effect: 10 points, minus 4 per gap. Labelled career breaks are recognised and count as covered.
Why: Some hiring systems are set to rank down people who haven’t worked for six months. Hays advises explaining gaps, and 52% of hiring managers think candidates should.Source: Harvard Business School & Accenture, Hidden Workers (2021) · Hays Australia: How to write a resume · LinkedIn career break survey (2022)
When: Common resume misspellings, such as “consultive” or “liason”.
Effect: 5 points, minus 2 per mistake.
Why: Spelling mistakes are an easy reason to move on, and misspelt skills won’t match a recruiter’s keyword search.Source: Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025) · ELIRA recruiter insight
When: Two or more roles under a year, US spelling, personal details (date of birth, marital status and similar), an overseas recent role with no work rights stated, “references available on request”, no LinkedIn URL, and the same opening verb on three or more bullets.
Effect: Shown as advice only. Personal details and a missing LinkedIn are marked as worth fixing.
Why: SEEK advises leaving out date of birth, age, marital status, religion and nationality unless an application lawfully asks for them.Source: SEEK: How to write a resume in Australia
Only when you paste a job ad. Benefits and “about us” sections are ignored. Out of 100: keywords (45), requirements (35), job title (10) and years of experience (10). If a part doesn’t apply, for example the ad gives no years, the others are scaled up to 100.
When: Skills, tools, methods, titles and metrics from our GTM vocabulary of 150+ terms (with synonyms), plus words the ad repeats. Terms the ad repeats or lists as requirements count up to three times as much.
Effect: 45 points × the weighted share found on your resume.
Why: 99.7% of recruiters search their ATS with keyword filters. Ladders found keywords work best in context, because a person reads the resume next.Source: Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025) · Ladders eye-tracking study (2018)
When: Each requirement or responsibility line is matched to the best evidence on your resume. Shown means the key terms appear in your roles; partly shown means they’re only in your skills list or summary, or some are missing.
Effect: 35 points: shown counts 1, partly shown or “check” 0.5, missing 0.
Why: A tailored resume is the second biggest standout factor for recruiters (55%). SEEK and Hays both say to tailor every application.Source: Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025) · SEEK: How to write a resume in Australia · Hays Australia: How to write a resume
When: Whether the advertised title, or a closely related one, appears on your resume.
Effect: 10 points for the exact title, 7 for a related one, 0 otherwise.
Why: Recruiters looked at job titles more than anything else (Ladders), and 55% filter by title. Resumes with the target title had a 10.6× higher interview rate in Jobscan’s data.Source: Ladders eye-tracking study (2018) · Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025)
When: The years the ad asks for, compared with the years covered by your dates.
Effect: 10 points if you meet it, 5 if within a year, 0 otherwise.
Why: 44% of recruiters filter by years of experience, and hiring systems often rank on experience requirements.Source: Jobscan State of the Job Search (2025) · Harvard Business School & Accenture, Hidden Workers (2021)
When: A skill from the ad that appears in your skills list but in none of your roles.
Effect: A warning with no points, so you can add it to a bullet.
Why: Parsers like Textkernel and RChilli link skills to the jobs they appear in, to work out when and how long you used them. A skill that’s only in a list has no job or dates attached.Source: Textkernel CV parser documentation · RChilli CV parser documentation
The line-by-line suggestions follow fixed rules, so you can see exactly why a line changed.
We’d rather be clear about the limits than oversell the score.
Your resume is read inside your own browser. It isn’t uploaded, stored or seen by anyone, and the PDF reader we use is hosted on our own site rather than a third party’s.
We only receive your resume if you choose to send it to us at the end. The “Wrong?” feedback buttons send the name of the rule and your comment, and only include the line from your resume if you tick the box to share it.
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Where a source is a company that sells resume tools, or a survey with a small sample, we say so. Rules marked “ELIRA recruiter insight” are our own recruiters’ judgement.
Recruiters spent an average of 7.4 seconds on a first scan and looked at job titles more than anything else. Simple layouts with clear headings did best; multiple columns, clutter and long sentences did worst.
Survey of 384 recruiters: 99.7% use ATS filters; 76.4% filter by skills, 55.3% by job title, 44% by years of experience. Measurable achievements were the top factor making a resume stand out (58%). 73% check LinkedIn. Across 2.5 million applications, resumes with the target job title had a 10.6× higher interview rate (a correlation, from a company that sells resume tools).
Over 90% of employers using recruitment systems use them for the first cut. Filters such as ranking down people who haven’t worked for six months screen out capable candidates.
Avoid tables, headers and footers, which may not display correctly. One or two pages suits many applicants. Use action verbs and quantify results. Leave out date of birth, age, marital status, religion and nationality.
Around two pages. Quantify your accomplishments (“facts not fluff”) and focus on results rather than duties. Explain gaps and include months, not just years. Keep the summary to 50–150 words, tailored with keywords from the ad.
Start bullets with action verbs, use active rather than passive language, leave out personal pronouns like “I”, quantify where possible, and keep the format consistent and easy to scan.
Textkernel’s parser links each skill to the jobs it was found in and infers when it was last used from your work history.
RChilli records where each skill was found (such as your experience section), when it was last used and for how many months.
LinkedIn’s analysis of member profiles found the most overused words globally were expert, motivated, passionate, creative, driven, extensive experience, responsible, strategic, track record and organisational.
Global survey of 22,995 people: 62% have taken a career break, and 52% of hiring managers think candidates should raise and explain it.
Aim for 1–3 pages depending on experience, and use headings and dot points to make it easy to read.
How ELIRA’s recruiters, who have worked in GTM teams, read resumes every day.
The sales motion, deal size and sales cycle, attainment in context (territory, ramp, quota) and fit with the company’s stage.
Ownership of commercial outcomes (renewals, expansion, NRR), the size and shape of the book, and high-touch vs scaled CS.
Systems owned, not just used; building from scratch vs improving; and partnering with Sales, Marketing, CS and Finance.
Use the “Wrong?” button next to any result, or email hello@elirarecruitment.com. We review every report and update the rules.