How to Get a 90+ ATS Score on Your Resume (Step by Step)

A 90+ ATS score means your resume matches the job description closely enough to clear virtually every automated filter and land on a human recruiter's screen. Getting there takes more than sprinkling a few buzzwords — it takes structural precision.

Here is the step-by-step framework to push your resume into the elite 90+ bracket without making it sound like it was written by a keyword-stuffed machine.

Not sure where you stand today? Scan your resume for a free ATS score and the exact deductions before you start optimizing:

Step 1: Match your job title to the posting exactly

Make your most recent job title mirror the exact title in the posting — Applicant Tracking Systems weight previous job titles heavily. If you are applying for a "Senior Product Manager" role but your resume says "Product Lead," the ATS deducts points on a direct-match check. If you genuinely did the work, bridge it (e.g., "Product Lead / Senior Product Manager") so the match registers without misrepresenting your role.

Step 2: Use boring, standard section headers

Use the plainest possible section headers — creative ones quietly tank your score. If the parser sees "My Journey" or "What I Bring to the Table" instead of a standard heading, it can't map your experience at all. Stick to the absolute standards:

• Work Experience / Professional Experience
• Education
• Skills

Step 3: Exact-match the hard skills

Pull every hard skill, tool, and methodology straight from the job description and use the exact wording. "Amazon Web Services (AWS)" beats a vague "cloud experience"; if the posting asks for "Agile," the literal word "Agile" needs to appear in your bullet points, not just an allusion to sprints.

Step 4: Strip out complex formatting

Remove anything a parser can choke on, because unreadable text scores zero no matter how strong it is. To score 90+, your text must be perfectly machine-readable, which means:

• No multi-column layouts
• No tables or text boxes
• No progress bars or graphics for skills
• Save and submit as a standard PDF (unless DOCX is explicitly requested)

How do you check your ATS score before applying?

You can't reliably eyeball a 90 — you need to score the resume against the parser itself. JobTether's free ATS score checker is built into every roast: it grades your resume across ATS compatibility, formatting, impact, and role fit, then points to the exact missing keywords or formatting errors keeping you under 90. Calibrated across thousands of resumes, it flags the issues that are easy to miss on your own.

Already scoring high but stalling once you get in the room? A great ATS score gets you the interview, not the offer — read why strong candidates get interview calls but still get rejected, and how to fix it. And if a 90+ resume keeps getting cut before anyone calls, here is why a high ATS score still gets rejected.

Ready for a 90+ Score?

Don't guess what the robots want.

See your real score right now.Get your free ATS score and roast on JobTether and follow the actionable feedback to push your resume past 90.