Will your resume survive the ATS filter?

What to upload

Start with the exact file you plan to send. The checker accepts a PDF or a Word .docx file up to 10 MB. If you keep your resume in Google Docs, use File, then Download, and pick PDF or Microsoft Word; that gives you the same kind of file an employer's portal receives.

A few files will not work, and each failure tells you something useful:

• A scanned PDF or a photo of a printed page. The checker finds almost no text, which is a strong sign that an applicant tracking system would not find any either. Export a fresh copy from the original document instead.
• An old .doc file. Open it in Word and save it as .docx or PDF.
• A password-protected file. Save an unlocked copy. Employers' systems generally cannot open locked files either.

If you have several versions of your resume, check the one you are about to submit, not the master copy. Small differences such as a new two-column template or a skills table added at the last minute are exactly what the check is meant to catch.

Why you should paste the job posting

You can run the checker with nothing but your resume, and it will still review layout, sections, contact details and the file itself. What it cannot do without a posting is tell you whether your resume answers the job you want.

When you paste the posting, the checker reads it for requirements and sorts them into two groups: Required and Nice to have. It then looks for each one in your resume and marks it as covered or missing. Where it finds a match, it quotes the line from your resume that covers it, so you can see why it counted. With a posting included, these job requirements carry the most weight in your overall score, because that is what recruiters search and screen on.

Paste the full text: the responsibilities, the qualifications and the "preferred" or "bonus" list. Leave out the company boilerplate about benefits if you like; it does not hurt, but it does not help either. If the posting is very short or mostly marketing copy, the checker may not find specific requirements, and the score will fall back to layout, sections and contact info.

What each part of the report checks

The report breaks your score into sub-scores, sorted so the area pulling you down the most comes first.

Job requirements. Shown only when you paste a posting. It counts how many required and nice-to-have items your resume covers. A missing item does not always mean you lack the skill; often you have it but described it differently or left it off.

Layout. Looks for structures that tend to scramble the reading order: multiple columns, tables, long blocks of text without line breaks and a page with no headings at all. One column with clear headings is what you want to see here.

Contact info. Checks for an email address and a phone number, and notes whether a city or location is present. A missing phone number is easy to overlook when you have been editing the same file for weeks.

Sections. Looks for a recognizable heading for each of Experience, Education, Skills and Summary. The Skills heading matters because it gives software and recruiters one obvious place to find your tools. The Summary is flagged as a tip rather than a hard error, since a two- or three-line opener mostly helps the human reader understand what you are applying for.

File format. Confirms whether the file is a text-based PDF or a Word document that software can read, and warns you when a PDF appears to be scanned.

How to read your score and what to fix first

Your overall score runs from 0 to 100 and falls into one of three bands:

• 75 and above, Strong. The file reads cleanly and, if you pasted a posting, covers most of what it asks for. Focus on the remaining missing requirements and on sharpening your bullets.
• 50 to 74, Average. The basics are mostly in place, but something important is missing, often several requirements from the posting or a layout issue.
• Below 50, Weak. There is a lot to gain. Usually a structural problem, such as columns, a missing section or a scanned file, is combined with low coverage of the posting.

Below the score you get a "What to fix first" list, in priority order and tagged Critical, Warning or Tip. Work through it from the top. A scanned file or a multi-column layout comes first, because if the text cannot be read reliably, nothing else in the report matters much. Missing contact details are next, since they take thirty seconds to fix. Then turn to missing requirements, which take the most thought.

When the report lists a missing requirement you genuinely have, rewrite an existing bullet or your skills line using the posting's wording. When it lists something you do not have, leave it out. The report lets you tick "I have this" next to requirements you meet, which only matters if you go on to build a new version with StudentCV.

A worked example: fixing a weak result

Jordan is a senior studying Information Systems who wants an IT support internship. Their first check, with the posting pasted in, comes back at 41, in the Weak band. The report shows three things.

First, the layout sub-score is low because the resume uses a two-column template with skills in a left sidebar. Second, there is no Skills heading the checker can recognize; the sidebar is titled "What I Bring." Third, the posting lists six required items, and Jordan's resume covers two: "customer service" and "Microsoft 365." Missing are "troubleshooting," "ticketing system," "Active Directory" and "documentation."

Jordan works through it in order. They move everything into one column and rename the sidebar to Skills. Then they look at the missing requirements one at a time. At their campus help desk job they reset passwords and set up student accounts in Active Directory, logged every request in the help desk ticketing system and wrote how-to guides for the shared printers. All three were true, just unstated. The old bullet "Helped students with tech problems" becomes "Troubleshot hardware, Wi-Fi and printer issues for students and staff, logging and closing requests in the help desk ticketing system." A second bullet covers Active Directory account setup, and a third mentions the printer guides as documentation.

The second check lands in the Strong band, at 78. One required item, "CompTIA A+ certification," is still missing. Jordan does not have it and does not add it, but mentions in the cover letter that they are studying for it. That is the right outcome: the score went up because the resume now shows what Jordan can actually do, not because words were added for the software.

Privacy: what happens to your file

Your resume is read in your browser. The checker extracts the text on your own device and runs the analysis there, and the file itself is not uploaded to StudentCV. The job posting is different: when you paste one, its text is sent to StudentCV so the requirements can be read from it. Your resume text is not part of that request.

The report is not stored. If you close the tab, it is gone, which is why there is an option to download it as a PDF. Downloading the PDF asks for your email address. Only if you choose to continue and build a new resume with StudentCV are your resume text and the posting sent to StudentCV to create it, and the page tells you so before you do.

What the checker can and cannot tell you

The score is indicative. It is based on the text in your file and on patterns that commonly cause trouble in applicant tracking systems, but every employer's system is configured differently, and no tool can reproduce all of them. A strong score means your resume is likely easier for software to read and better matched to the posting. It does not guarantee an interview, and a recruiter will still judge the substance of your experience.

The checker is free: you get 3 checks a day, and you can unlock 3 more by leaving your email address. A good routine is one check on your current resume, one after your fixes and one on the tailored version for your next posting. If you just want to see how it works, try the sample resume; it does not count toward your daily checks.

Next step: tailor your resume with StudentCV

Fixing layout issues is quick. Rewriting bullets to cover a posting's requirements, for every job you apply to, takes longer. That is where StudentCV helps. From your report you can go straight to the builder: it takes your current resume and the posting, and the AI rewrites your summary, bullet points and skills for that job in a clean template (pick a one-column one for the safest parsing). Requirements you ticked as "I have this" are included, and it works from your own experience rather than adding skills you do not have. You see and edit the full resume for free, and pay only if you want to download it as PDF or Word. Then come back to this page and run the new version through the checker to confirm the result.