What a resume parser test shows you
A score tells you something is wrong; a parsed profile shows you what. The parser test lays out your resume’s text in the order a simple parser reads it, then lists the fields extracted from it. If your name is missing, a job has no title, your dates are blank or your skills are jumbled, you see it immediately and can trace it to the cause: a column, a table, a heading or a date format.
Fields that are empty or wrong are highlighted and labelled “an ATS may not find this”, which is the point where a recruiter’s search would fail to find you.
What the parser looks for
- Name — usually the first short line without digits or symbols.
- Email, phone and LinkedIn address — found anywhere in the text.
- Jobs — a title, a company and a date range, usually on the same line or the lines around a date.
- Education — a degree name and an institution.
- Skills — terms from a built-in vocabulary found anywhere in the resume.
An approximation, not any vendor’s parser
Real parsers use different rules and often machine learning, so results differ between systems. This test uses simple, transparent rules so failures are easy to understand. If something is extracted correctly here, it is a good sign; if it fails here, it is likely to fail somewhere.
How the score is calculated
The score starts at 100 and each issue removes the points listed here. Nothing is hidden or weighted behind the scenes.
- Multi-column layout — 15 points
- Text only in images (no readable text) — up to 60 points
- Tables or grid layouts — 8 points
- Contact details only in a header or footer — 8 points
- Unrecognised section headings — 4 points each, up to 12
- No Experience section found — 12 points; no Education or Skills — 6 points each
- Dates in a non-standard format — 8 points
- Garbled text from a font encoding problem — 25 points
- No email — 20 points; no phone — 8 points
- Very little text — 10 points; a page count over two for under ten years of experience — 5 points
How to use it
- Drop your resume onto the box.
- Open the “What an ATS extracts” tab.
- Compare the reading-order text with the extracted fields, looking for red labels.
- Fix the cause in the source document, export again and re-test.
Frequently asked questions
What is a resume parser?
Software that converts a resume file into structured data — name, contact details, employment history, education and skills — so it can be stored and searched by an applicant tracking system.
Why is my job title blank in the parsed output?
Usually the title and company share a line in an unusual format, the date is on a separate line, or a column or table has separated them. Put title, company and dates on consecutive lines in a plain layout.
Is this the same parser Workday or Greenhouse uses?
No. It is an independent, simplified parser meant to expose common failures. It does not simulate any specific vendor.
Is my resume uploaded to a server?
No. The file is read by code running in your browser and is never sent anywhere. The site records only an anonymous count of checks with the file type, page count, the codes of the issues found and the score — never your text, name or contact details.
What does the score mean?
It starts at 100 and loses the points shown next to each issue, so you can see exactly how it was calculated. It measures how likely your file is to be read correctly, not how good your career is or whether you will get an interview.
The parsed output is an approximation of a typical resume parser and does not simulate any specific applicant tracking system.