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What Is a Match Score and How Does Klickapply Calculate It?

3 min read·By Klickapply Team

What Is a Match Score?

A match score is a percentage (0-100%) that shows how well your profile matches a specific job listing. Every job in your Klickapply feed has one. It's designed to answer one question immediately: is this role worth your time to apply to?

What Goes Into the Score

Klickapply's match score is calculated across three dimensions:

Skills match

Your skills (from your profile and parsed resume) are compared against the required and preferred skills in the job description. Skills that appear in the JD and your profile increase your score. Skills gaps — things the JD requires that you haven't listed — are identified and shown separately.

Experience level match

Your years of experience and current seniority level are compared against the role's requirements. A senior role matched against a junior profile, or vice versa, reduces the match score significantly.

Location match

Your preferred locations (set during onboarding) are compared against the job's location. Remote roles, roles in your preferred city, and roles in your preferred country all score higher than roles requiring relocation to an unpreferred location.

What a High Match Score Means

A score of 85%+ means your profile strongly aligns with this role's requirements. These are the jobs worth prioritizing — your resume will score higher on ATS, and your application will be more competitive.

A score of 60-85% means decent alignment with some gaps. These roles are worth considering, especially if the gaps are skills you're developing.

Below 60% means significant misalignment — either in skills, experience level, or location. These roles aren't worth your time unless you have context the system doesn't.

How to Improve Your Match Scores

  • Complete your profile fully — skills, work history, education, and preferences all feed into scoring
  • Upload your resume — parsed resume data gives the system more to work with than manual entry
  • Set accurate preferred locations — vague or missing location preferences reduce location match scores
  • Keep your skills list current — add skills as you learn them

Match Score vs ATS Score — What's the Difference?

The match score tells you how well you fit the role before you apply. The ATS score tells you how well your generated resume is optimized for that specific JD after generation. Both scores are visible in Klickapply — use the match score to prioritize, use the ATS score to optimize.

Frequently asked questions

Is the match score calculated by AI?

Yes — Klickapply uses a combination of skill-matching algorithms and AI to calculate match scores across skills, experience, and location.

Why is my match score low?

Common reasons include incomplete profile, missing skills, mismatched experience level, or location preferences not set. Complete your profile to improve scores across all listings.

Can I see what's dragging my score down?

Yes — the match score breakdown shows skills gaps and experience/location mismatches so you know exactly what’s affecting your score.

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