Reading your match report

The report answers one question: against this specific posting, what is on your resume and what is not.

You can read it in two places. The scan's own page opens on Match Report and carries everything, including Resume Checks. The panel beside your resume in the Smart builder carries a shorter version split into Report, Skills, and Job tabs, so you can keep it open while you edit.

Image coming soon

The match score

The ring at the top, labeled Match Score, is your score out of 100 with a one-line verdict under it. Aim for 80. See How your match score is calculated for the arithmetic and What match score should I aim for? for what to do with the number.

In the Smart builder the Auto Optimize button sits inside this same card, at its right edge.

The skills table

The Skills tab gives you one row per keyword the job description asked for, in five columns.

Read the last two columns together, because the pair tells you where the real gaps are. Resume 0 is the row worth fixing, since a keyword you never mention earns nothing at all. Resume 1, Job 4 looks like a shortfall but is not one, as a single mention already earns most of that keyword's weight.

Each row has a control to exclude that keyword, tooltipped Exclude Keyword, for terms that do not apply to you. Read Excluding skills and keywords before you use it, because an exclusion applies to your whole account rather than to this one scan.

Image coming soon

Degree match

The Degree Match card compares the highest degree found on your resume with the highest one the posting asks for, and tells you in a sentence, for example "Your resume shows you have a Bachelor's degree however the job posting requires a Master's degree."

The levels we recognize, lowest to highest: no degree, an Associates degree, a Bachelor's degree, a Master's degree, a Ph.D., and an Advanced degree.

It is worth 10 points if your degree meets or exceeds what the posting asks for, 5 if you have a degree but a lower one, and 0 if we found no degree at all. If the posting asks for no degree, you get the full 10.

Two things explain most surprising results here. Postings that name more than one level ("Bachelor's required, Master's preferred") are read as sitting between the two, so a Bachelor's on its own can land in the middle band and score 5. And if the card says no degree while your resume clearly has one, the likely cause is that your education section did not parse, so open your resume and check that section has content before you read the card as wrong.

Image coming soon

Job title match

The job title is worth 10 points and it is all or nothing, so the card only has three things it can tell you:

• Found: the card confirms the job title you entered was found in your resume.
• Not found: "The job title X was not found in your resume."
• No title entered: "To ensure accurate results, make sure to add the exact job title you're applying for."

The fix for the middle one is to put the posting's exact title into your resume, usually in your summary or as your current headline. It is one line of text for 10 points.

The impact cards

The Report tab groups your skills into three cards by how much they are worth, so the ordering on screen already matches the order you should work in.

• High Impact is your hard skills, worth 60 points.
• Medium Impact is your soft skills, worth 15.
• Low Impact is other keywords, worth 5.

Each card tells you one of three things: "Your resume includes all N type Skills", "N skills not found", or "N skills with frequency variance", which means those skills are on your resume but appear less often than the job description asks for.

Work top down, because the arithmetic is lopsided. Closing a single hard skill is worth more than clearing the entire Low Impact card.

Skills graph

Under Skills Graph are three expandable charts, Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Other Skills, each plotting what the job asked for against what your resume has. They are the same numbers as the table, laid out so you can see the shape of the gap rather than read it row by row.

The Job tab

The Job tab shows your job description with every keyword we matched marked in place, which is the fastest way to see why a keyword is in your report at all. A bar at the top steps you through the matches one at a time. Edit job details takes you back to the posting text if you pasted in too much or too little.

Resume checks

Below the score, the scan's own page lists the Resume Checks: word count, contact details, quantifiable accomplishments, and four writing checks. These describe how your resume reads rather than how well it matches, so none of them changes your match score. See ATS resume checks for what each one looks at.

If you are on the Smart Report beta

Available to beta program members, plus Military, Student, and Admin accounts. Turn the beta on in Settings.

The beta replaces the three impact cards and the Skills tab with a single list, so everything the job asked for sits in one place instead of three.

• Three thin meters at the top, Hard, Soft, and Other, showing how much of each tier's points you have earned.
• One filterable keyword list underneath, with chips for Needs review, Missing, Covered, and All, each showing a live count. "Needs review" is the default and means every keyword your resume uses less often than the posting does.
• Each row shows the share of that keyword's weight you earn and your count against the job's count, plus a status: "Not found in your resume", "In your resume, but less often than the job asks", or "Well covered in your resume".
• The list order is fixed: hard skills first, then soft, then other, with missing keywords ahead of present ones and alphabetical within that. There is no sort control.
• Row actions appear on hover: Copy keyword, Find in job description, Example bullet points, and Exclude from scoring.

Example bullet points opens sample bullets written for that keyword and this job title, to show you how the term reads in context. They are examples rather than claims about you, and the panel says as much: "These are examples. You will need to add quantifiable measurements you have tracked in your own experiences or roles."