# The Gates — JobFoo

Every job application passes through three sequential filters before a human ever reads your resume end-to-end. JobFoo's Match Analysis scores your candidacy against all three.

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## Gate 1 — System (25% weight)

**What it is:** An Applicant Tracking System that parses, scores, and ranks every resume before a recruiter sees it.

**What it checks for:**
- Keyword and skill match against the job description
- Resume formatting and parse-ability (no tables, graphics, or non-standard fonts)
- Section completeness (experience, education, skills)
- Explicit requirements: degree level, years of experience, certifications

**What kills you here:** Missing keywords that appear verbatim in the JD. Over-designed resumes that break parsers. Generic summaries that don't mirror the role language.

**JobFoo's System score:** 0–100. Below 60 typically means the resume doesn't advance without a manual override.

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## Gate 2 — Recruiter (30% weight)

**What it is:** A recruiter or HR coordinator doing a 15-second skim of the resumes the System passed through.

**What they check for:**
- Career trajectory — does the progression make sense?
- Title and company calibration — have you done something comparable?
- Compensation signals — will you fit the band?
- Red flags — gaps, too many short stints, mismatch in seniority

**What kills you here:** A resume that reads like a job description list rather than a record of outcomes. Unexplained gaps. A title that's 2–3 levels off the posted role.

**JobFoo's Recruiter score:** 0–100. The recruiter is pattern-matching fast — your score reflects how quickly your story reads as worth a phone screen.

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## Gate 3 — Manager (45% weight)

**What it is:** The actual decision-maker reviewing final candidates.

**What they check for:**
- Domain expertise — can this person solve the specific problem I have?
- Evidence of impact — not duties, outcomes. Numbers, scale, before/after
- Team fit — will this person integrate with how we work?
- Risk calibration — is this a safe hire or a bet?

**What kills you here:** Responsibilities without results. Generic claims without context or numbers. A resume that shows what you did but not what changed because you did it.

**JobFoo's Manager score:** 0–100. This is the hardest gate to pass without a strong, tailored story.

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## The fit verdict

JobFoo combines all three gate scores into a single verdict:

| Verdict | Score range | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| **Unicorn Fit** | 95–100 | Rare alignment across all three gates — apply immediately |
| **Strong Alignment** | 90–94 | High probability of advancing — minor calibration recommended |
| **Needs Targeted Evidence** | 70–89 | Qualified, but evidence gaps need surfacing |
| **Stretch Pivot** | 40–69 | Reachable with the right framing — significant tailoring required |
| **Lower Priority Target** | 0–39 | Fundamental gaps — energy may be better spent elsewhere |

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## The blind spot

Match Analysis surfaces your **blind spot** — the single biggest reason your application is likely to stall. This is the one thing that, if fixed, most improves your odds.

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*Run a Match Analysis at [jobfoo.co/analyze](https://jobfoo.co/analyze)*