Your resume score explained
Your score is completion multiplied by content quality, not an average of the two. Here is the full breakdown and a worked example.
How is the total calculated?
Your resume score is two scores multiplied together rather than averaged:
Completion score × Content score ÷ 100
Both halves run from 0 to 100, which is why the total does too.
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Why is my total lower than both halves?
Because of that multiplication, which is the single most surprising thing about the number, so here it is with real figures.
A resume with a completion score of 90 and a content score of 50 scores:
90 × 50 ÷ 100 = 45
An average would call that resume a 70. The total says 45, because a resume that is complete but weakly written is still a weak resume, and averaging would let that hide behind the half that is doing well.
The arithmetic works the same way in your favor once a half is perfect. A resume scoring 100 and 78 lands on 78, and one scoring 100 on both lands on 100.
Where should I spend my time?
On whichever half is lower. The multiplication makes that mathematically true rather than merely good advice, and the difference is larger than it looks.
Take the resume above, at 90 and 50:
- Push completion from 90 to a perfect 100, and the total goes from 45 to 50. 10 points of work bought 5.
- Push content from 50 to 70 instead, and the total goes from 45 to 63. The same 20 points of work bought 18.
What the completion score measures
Completion asks whether the facts are on the page at all. Nine checks, and the weights add up to exactly 100:
Completion deliberately ignores how well anything is written, because that is the content score's job and counting a weak verb in both halves would penalize the same sentence twice.
Why doesn't my score move when I fill in a section?
Because only 5 of your 14 editable sections feed completion at all: your header fields, summary, experience, education, and skills.
The other 9 (profiles, projects, volunteer, awards, certificates, publications, languages, interests, references) contribute nothing to the completion score, so adding 3 certificates will not move it by a point.
That does not make those sections pointless. Projects and volunteer entries are read by the content quality checks, and everything you fill in is rendered in your export. But if you have been working through sections and watching the number sit still, this is why.
How work experience is scored
Each role is scored out of 100 and the section takes the average across your roles, which is why one thin entry drags down four good ones.
A current role with no end date is not penalized, as long as it is your latest start date or you have switched Current Position on.
How education is scored
Education is averaged across entries the same way, each one scored out of 100:
- Institution, 25
- Degree, 25
- A start date or an end date, 50. Either one earns the full 50.
How skills are scored
Skills is close to all or nothing, with a single middle state. At least one group with keywords in it scores 100, groups that exist but are all empty score 50, and no groups at all scores 0.
What the content score measures
Content measures how the resume is written. Twelve checks, weighted:
Each one, and exactly what makes it pass, is in Every content quality check, and how to pass it.
What the colors mean
80 and above is green, 60 to 79 is amber, and below 60 is red. The score bar paints the 80 to 100 stretch as the target zone, so you can see how far you have to go without doing the arithmetic.
Why does a check show a score but not a tick?
A check is only marked as passing at exactly 100, so anything short of that stays open. A check sitting at 96 still shows its score in the header as Score: 96/100, and it still lists what is costing it the last 4 points.
Why is one half showing as unavailable?
If content scoring cannot run, the panel says so directly and your total falls back to your completion score alone rather than dropping to zero. Nothing about your resume data changes.
When does the score update?
On a paid plan it updates by itself, shortly after you stop editing.
On the free plan you refresh it yourself. A notice appears over the preview reading Your score and checks need a refresh, and the score you are looking at stays as it was at your last save until you press Save resume.
What free accounts see
Free accounts see the total, both half scores, and the score on every individual check. What is held back is the detail inside the content checks: instead of the specific bullets and words, you get a count of issues and a See what to change button.
Improvement tips stay free on the completion checks. A missing email is already visible to you, so charging to explain it would be petty.
How this relates to ATS scoring
Your resume score is ours, not a number handed to you by an applicant tracking system, and no tool can show you that one. The ATS resume checker page explains what those systems actually measure.