How resume screening works here, beyond a resume parser

Step 1: what you upload

The job description and every resume you received. Job description can be a file or pasted into the message box. Resumes can be PDF or Word (.pdf, .docx, .doc), and also .txt, .rtf, .md or .odt. Up to 200 resumes per screening on Pro (60 on Starter), as separate files or one ZIP. Each file may be up to 100 MB, and an upload may hold up to 220 files.

Scanned, image-only resumes cannot be read reliably. They are listed on a "Not read" sheet instead of being guessed, so you know to open them yourself.

Step 2: say what matters

Mark the must-haves and the nice-to-haves, for example: Operations Coordinator, 2+ years scheduling field crews and QuickBooks Online are must-haves. Spanish is a plus. If you do not, the requirements are taken from your job ad. If the ad has no clear list, we derive four to six from its duties and show you the list in the Notes sheet so you can ask for a change.

Quick prompts are on the upload page: standard screening, strict must-haves (anyone missing one goes in a separate list with the reason), top 5 only, or pasted job ad.

Step 3: what you get back

Results usually arrive within the hour, by email and on the web.

How the scoring works

Each must-have counts the same and each nice-to-have counts half as much. Met counts as 1, partly as 0.5, not shown as 0, and the score is the share of weighted requirements met, out of 100. A candidate missing any must-have can score at most 60. Everyone stays in the file, tiered Strong, Possible or Weak, so nobody is rejected for you. What a resume does not say is marked "not shown", not "no".

Name, age, gender, race, photo, address, marital status and similar details are ignored and never scored, and are kept out of the quotes. Gaps in work history are a question to ask, never a deduction.

A real test run

We tested it before launch on a job ad with 25 resumes (PDF and Word) that included two duplicates and one clearly unqualified applicant. It returned the ranked Excel shortlist, one-page top 10 and interview questions in 2 minutes 46 seconds. A stress run with 122 resumes finished in about 2.5 minutes. We have not tested the full 200-resume limit yet. These are our own test inputs, not customer results, and runs can take longer when the queue is busy. Scores can vary slightly between runs on the same input, for example a requirement marked met in one run and "confirm in interview" in another.

Where it stops

• It prepares; you read the top 10 and decide who to call.
• It does not check references, run background checks or verify degrees and employers.
• It does not replace legal advice. Some places, for example New York City, regulate automated hiring tools; ask your lawyer.

Two rounds of changes are included, and a 14-day refund if it misses. Start a screening or see pricing.

Parsing is not screening

A resume parser pulls fields out of a resume: name, employers, dates, skills. It answers "what is on this page". Screening answers a different question: "does this person meet what this job needs, and where is the proof?" The first step for us is reading each file's text (PDF, Word and the other formats). The second is comparing each resume with your requirement list and writing down evidence. A parser alone cannot say that "scheduled 6 crews" meets "dispatching field crews"; reading for meaning does.

That is also why the output is evidence-first. Each Evidence row shows the requirement, the status and a short quote, so you can verify the judgement in a few seconds instead of trusting a number. We check each quote against the resume's own text, and a quote that does not match is fixed or dropped. We also check that ranks have no gaps and that the number of candidates matches the number of resumes minus duplicates and unreadable files.

What to prepare to get a better shortlist

1. A job description with a real must-have list. Three to six items beat twenty.
2. Your dealbreakers in the message box, for example "must have a valid forklift certificate".
3. One file per candidate, or a ZIP. Do not merge resumes into one big PDF.
4. Anything you want weighed differently, like "nice to have: bilingual".

Then check the Notes sheet, which lists the requirements and weights used, so you can ask for a change.

Questions

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