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What the star rating represents

The star rating is the AI’s summary of how well a candidate’s resume matches the role, shown as 1–5 stars. More stars = stronger overall fit. It’s a holistic signal: the AI weighs the candidate’s full resume against the job, not any single requirement. For the per-requirement breakdown that sits behind it, see Requirement Matches.

What affects the rating

The AI considers everything that would normally inform a recruiter’s first read of a resume:
  • Relevant work experience and how recently it was done
  • Skills, tools, and technologies the role calls for
  • Qualifications, certifications, and credentials
  • How closely the candidate’s prior roles match the kind of work being hired for
  • Any previous candidate-stated preferences that conflict with the job — for example a location mismatch, schedule mismatch, or compensation expectation that’s far from the posted range — pull the rating down
The star rating and the requirement matches are related but not interchangeable. A candidate can have a strong star rating yet still fail a specific Required match, or vice versa. They are independent signals that the job’s configuration combines into an above/below threshold decision — see Configuration.

Reasoning on hover

Every star rating has a hover-to-reveal explanation in plain language describing why the AI gave it the rating it did. Use this when you want context behind a particular score.

The Missing Requirement badge

The resume rating cell shows a red Missing Requirement badge instead of stars in two cases: the candidate has at least one Required importance requirement in No match (see Requirement Matches), or the AI judged the candidate a disqualifying mismatch for the job overall and gave a 0-star rating. The underlying star rating is still computed for scoring and filtering — the badge replaces the star display so the disqualifying gap is obvious at a glance. The CSV export follows the same rule: the Resume Rating column shows Missing Requirement for both cases instead of a 1–5 star count.

The greyed-out state

When the entire star rating is rendered in grey instead of gold, the candidate’s rating is below the minimum star rating configured for the job. The stars are still shown so you can see the rating, but the muted treatment signals that they did not pass that threshold. See Configuration.
Examples of star ratings in different states

Star rating states

The dash () state

If a candidate has no resume on file, the star UI shows a dash () instead of stars. Resume review needs a resume to run.

Filtering by star rating

On a job’s Candidates tab, add the Resume Rating filter to narrow the list to specific ratings. Pick any combination of 1–5 stars — for example 4 and 5 stars to see only the strongest resumes, or 1 and 2 to review the weakest — or Missing Requirement for candidates who failed one or more Required items or whom the AI rated a disqualifying mismatch (0 stars). A few things to know:
  • The filter is a multi-select. Nothing is selected when you first add it, so the list stays unchanged until you tick at least one option.
  • Star buckets (1–5) only include candidates who did not fail Required items and were not rated 0 stars. Candidates with the Missing Requirement badge are matched only when Missing Requirement is selected.
  • While any option is selected, candidates without a resume score are hidden — the ones that would otherwise show a dash (), as described above.
  • The selection is stored in the page URL, so a filtered view can be bookmarked or shared with a teammate.
  • Resume Rating is available on a job’s candidate list only; it is not offered on the Notifications page.
  • The filter is offered on every job, including jobs that don’t have resume review enabled. On those jobs no candidate has a resume score, so selecting any option hides the whole list.

Sorting by resume rating

When the Candidates table is sorted by resume rating, candidates with a Missing Requirement badge sort below all star ratings — including 1-star — in both directions. Within each group (meets required vs missing), order follows the underlying score.
  • Requirement Matches — the per-requirement breakdown that drives the Missing Requirement badge
  • Configuration — set the minimum star rating and the other failure thresholds
  • Overview — where star ratings appear in the product