In short: Drop a PDF on rolebranch.com/ats-check and it shows the text a parser reads back, in order, with eight checks. It reads the document, not your career, and keeps the file for 30 minutes.
What it reads
The check opens your PDF with pdf.js, the reader many applicant tracking systems build on, and takes the text back out in the order a parser reads it. That order is the first thing it shows you: if your name comes after a date, or a column reads before your summary, a system reads it the same way.
The eight checks
- Your name is read first. The first line should be your name, not a label, a date or a photo caption.
- Email read in full. An address split by a line break or a column is an address nobody gets.
- Phone read in full. Spaces and brackets are fine; a number broken across two lines reads as two numbers.
- Headings read as headings. Experience, Education and Skills found as lines of their own.
- Text, not a picture. A scanned page, or a header saved as an image, reads as nothing.
- Fonts embedded. The font travels inside the PDF, so the text extracts the same everywhere.
- Readable size and contrast. Body text at 9 pt or more, in a colour dark enough on white.
- One or two pages. Parsers read every page; recruiters rarely do.
A check the file doesn't let us decide shows as not decided, never as a failure.
What it can't tell you
It reads your document, not your career. It doesn't judge your wording, compare you with other applicants or know the job you are applying for. For your content, the CV score in Rolebranch (free) runs twenty checks on what recruiters read first.
Every system differs a little. Treat the result as an estimate of what most of them get out of your file.
Your file
The file is kept privately for 30 minutes, for the check and for carrying it into an account if you continue, then deleted. Nothing is sent to anyone. Three checks an hour per visitor, and a bot check before the upload.
If a check fails
- A scan or a picture. Export the CV as a PDF from the original document, or import the DOCX in Rolebranch.
- A split email or phone. Keep each on one line; a non-breaking space holds a number together.
- Fonts not embedded. Export again with fonts embedded, or pick a standard font. Every Rolebranch template embeds its fonts.
- Small or faint text. Aim for 9 pt or more and a dark colour on white.
Continue from the result and the same PDF becomes your master CV, with what the check found one click away.