Does a higher ATS score mean I am more likely to get the job?

No. It means you are more likely to pass the initial keyword screen. Getting the job depends on your interview, your references, your actual qualifications, and whether the hiring manager believes you can do the work. The ATS score is step one of a long process. It matters, but it is not the whole game.

Can I just copy keywords from the job description into my resume?

You can, and it will raise your score. It will also make your resume unreadable and the hiring manager will reject it within ten seconds. Put keywords in your resume where they belong: in the bullets that describe your actual accomplishments. If a keyword does not match your experience, do not use it. Getting caught misrepresenting your skills is worse than a low ATS score.

Why did my ATS score change when I scanned the same resume for different jobs?

Because each job description has different keywords. A logistics manager job description and a project manager job description might share 50 percent of keywords but the other 50 percent are different. That is why you should tailor your resume for every application. The same base resume gets a different score for every job because every job asks for different things.

What is the difference between a free ATS scanner and GetVetsHired?

A free scanner tells you your score. That is useful information but it is not a solution. GetVetsHired tells you your score and then tailors your resume to raise it. The tool translates military experience into civilian keywords, rewrites your bullets to match the job description, and shows you exactly what changed. A scanner diagnoses the problem. A tailoring tool fixes it.

What Your ATS Resume Score Actually Means (And How to Improve It Fast)

By GetVetsHired · August 2026 · 5 min read

You uploaded your resume to an ATS scanner. It gave you a number. Maybe 62 percent. Maybe 78 percent. Maybe 34 percent. Now you are staring at that number wondering if it means you are qualified or if your resume belongs in the trash. Here is the truth. That number matters less than you think. And improving it is simpler than most people make it sound. This guide explains what an ATS resume score actually measures, what score you should aim for, and the fastest way to raise yours without rewriting your entire work history.

What an ATS score actually measures (and what it does not)

An ATS resume score is a keyword match percentage. That is it. The scanner looks at the job description, extracts the skills, qualifications, and keywords the employer listed. Then it looks at your resume and counts how many of those keywords appear. Match 60 out of 100 keywords and your score is 60 percent. It is not measuring your experience. It is not measuring your judgment, your work ethic, or whether you would actually be good at the job. It is a keyword overlap calculation. That means a high score does not guarantee you are qualified. It means your resume talks about the same things the job posting talks about. That is useful information. But it is not a verdict on your career.

What is a good ATS score, honestly

Most ATS systems do not publish a minimum score because there is no universal standard. Some recruiters screen at 50 percent. Some at 70 percent. Some do not use a score at all and manually review every resume. Here is what the people who build these tools say in practice. Above 80 percent is excellent. Your resume is tightly aligned with the job description. 60 to 80 percent is solid. You are in the conversation. Below 50 percent means your resume is probably missing keywords the employer cares about. But here is the part nobody tells you. A 100 percent match is suspicious. A resume that contains every single keyword from the job posting looks like keyword stuffing. Recruiters have been doing this a long time. They know what a stuffed resume looks like. Aim for 70 to 85 percent with natural, honest keyword integration. That range gets past the screen and still reads like a human wrote it.

Why your ATS score might be lower than you expect

If you are a veteran with strong experience but a low ATS score, the problem is almost always translation. The job description lists civilian keywords. Your resume has military terms that mean the same thing but use different words. The scanner does not know that 'managed a property book' means 'inventory management.' It does not know that 'supervised a squad' means 'team leadership.' It does not know that 'executed convoy operations' means 'logistics coordination.' You are not missing the experience. You are missing the keywords because your resume is still in military language. The fix is not to pad your resume with buzzwords. It is to translate your existing experience into the language the employer used in the job description.

The fastest way to raise your ATS score (under one hour)

Here is the process. Step one: copy the job description and paste it into a document. Step two: highlight every skill, tool name, certification, and qualification mentioned. These are your target keywords. Step three: go through your resume and find every place your experience matches one of those keywords. You did not use the civilian term? Change it. You have the experience but never put it on your resume? Add it. Step four: integrate each keyword naturally into your existing bullets. Do not add a skills section that just lists keywords. Do not stuff them at the bottom. Weave them into your accomplishments where they actually happened. Step five: run the scan again. In most cases, a veteran who does these five steps sees their score jump 20 to 40 points. The experience was there the whole time. It just was not speaking the employer's language.

The one thing ATS scores get wrong about veterans

ATS scores are designed for civilian career paths. A civilian who has worked at three companies doing progressively senior versions of the same job. Your career path does not look like that. You have moved across functions. You have held leadership roles earlier than your civilian peers. Your job titles do not map neatly to civilian titles. An ATS scanner does not understand any of this. It sees a job title like 'Platoon Sergeant' and does not know that it means 'Operations Supervisor with 30 direct reports.' It sees 'Brigade S3 NCOIC' and has no idea what to do with it. This is not your fault and it is not the scanner's fault. It just means you have to do the translation work before the scan happens. A veteran who runs their raw military resume through an ATS scanner is testing a translation they have not done yet. Run the scan after you translate, not before.

What to do after you get your score up

You improved your ATS score. Now do the human test. Read your resume out loud. Does it sound like you? Does it sound like something a real person would say in a conversation? If every bullet starts with the same verb and every sentence has the same structure, it does not matter what your ATS score is. A human is going to read it next and they are going to notice it was written for a machine. The ATS is the gatekeeper, not the decision maker. Your resume has to pass the scan and then convince a human. The best way to do both is to use a tool that handles the translation for you, then edit the output until it sounds like you. That is the workflow that gets veterans from a low ATS score to an interview.

Tailor My Resume

FAQ