Before you run a check: your file and the job advert
You need two things to get a useful result: the CV you actually plan to send, and the advert for the job you are applying for.
Use the final file, in the format you will upload to the employer's portal. If you normally edit in Word but submit a PDF, check the PDF, because the export is what the employer's system receives. The checker reads PDF and Word files. If your CV only exists as a design in a graphics tool or a scan of a printed page, the result will tell you straight away that very little text could be read, which is useful to know in itself.
Then copy the job advert into the box provided. Include the whole thing: the role description, the responsibilities, the "what we are looking for" section and any essential or desirable criteria. Leave out the company boilerplate about benefits and office locations if you like, but do not trim the requirements, because that is where most of the words a recruiter would search for are found.
You can run a check without an advert and still get feedback on format and structure. With an advert, the checker can tell you how closely your CV speaks the same language as the role, which is usually where the biggest gains are.
What each part of the check looks at
The result is split into separate checks so you can see where points were lost rather than staring at a single number.
Format and parsing. This is the foundation. The checker extracts the text from your file the way an applicant tracking system would and looks for signs that something has gone wrong: very little readable text, words run together, a layout that seems to jump between columns, or content that looks like it sits in images. If this check is weak, fix it first, because every other check depends on the text being read properly.
Contact details. It looks for an email address and a phone number in the readable text, and notes whether your name is clear. A warning here often means your details are in a page header, a text box or a graphic. Move them into the main body as plain text.
Sections. It checks whether it can find the sections employers expect, such as education, work experience and skills, under headings it recognises. If you have used unusual headings, or merged everything into one long section, this is where it shows.
Skills. It looks for a clear list of skills and, when you have pasted an advert, whether the skills the advert asks for appear anywhere in your CV. A skill mentioned only once deep in a paragraph may still count, but a dedicated skills section makes it easier for both software and recruiters to spot.
Personal profile. It checks whether you have a short opening profile and whether it says something specific. A profile that names your degree, the type of role and a couple of relevant strengths does better than a line of general adjectives.
Keyword match. With an advert pasted in, this compares the important terms in the advert with the words in your CV and lists the ones it could not find. This is the part that changes most between applications, and the part you should look at again for every new job.
Reading your score and deciding what to fix first
The overall score combines these checks into one indicative number. It is a summary, not a verdict. Two CVs with the same score can have very different problems, so always read the breakdown underneath.
Work through the fixes in this order:
- Anything that stops the text being read. A scanned file, a two-column layout that scrambles the order, or contact details the checker could not find. These are quick to fix and affect everything else.
- Missing or unclear sections. Rename headings to standard ones and split long blocks into Education, Work Experience and Skills.
- Missing keywords you genuinely have. Go through the list of terms the checker could not find. For each one, ask: have I done this? If yes, add it in the advert's wording to a relevant bullet point or your skills list. If no, leave it out.
- Your personal profile. Rewrite it last, once you know which strengths the advert cares about most.
Do not chase a perfect score. Some missing terms will be things you have not done, and that is fine. A CV that is honest and slightly below the maximum is far stronger than one padded with skills you cannot back up in an interview.
A worked example: fixing a low result
Tom Adeyemi is a fictional second-year Computer Science student at a university in Bristol, applying for a summer technology internship. He exported his CV from an online design template and pasted in the internship advert. His first result was 41.
The breakdown showed what had happened. Format and parsing were flagged because his CV used two columns and the extracted text mixed his module list into his job titles. Contact details were flagged because his email and phone number sat in a coloured banner at the top, which had been saved as an image. The keyword check listed several terms from the advert that it could not find, including "Python", "Git", "agile" and "unit testing".
Tom did three things. He copied his content into a single-column document with plain headings and exported a text-based PDF. He typed his name, email, phone number and GitHub link as the first lines of the page. Then he went through the missing terms one by one. He had used Python and Git throughout his degree and on a group project, so he named them in his skills section and in the project bullet: "Built a timetable app in Python with three teammates, managing code in Git and writing unit tests for the scheduling logic." He had never worked in an agile team, so he left that term out.
His second check came back at 79. The remaining gaps were genuine: experience he does not have yet. That is a useful result too, because it tells him what to mention as something he is keen to learn rather than something to claim.
Your file stays on your device
The checker reads your CV inside your browser. The file itself is not uploaded to our servers to produce the result, so you can check a CV that contains your phone number and address without sending the document anywhere. The text of the job advert you paste in is sent to StudentCV so the checker can pick out its requirements; your CV itself is not.
It is still sensible to check the final version of your CV rather than an old draft, and to note down the fixes you want to make before you start editing, so you can work through them in order and run a fresh check at the end.
What the checker can and cannot tell you
The score is indicative. Employers use different systems, set them up in different ways and search for different things, and no outside tool can see inside a particular employer's set-up. What the checker can do is catch the problems that are likely to cause trouble in many systems, and show you how closely your CV matches the wording of a specific advert.
It cannot judge whether your experience is strong enough for the role, whether your writing is persuasive, or how a recruiter will feel about your application. It also cannot guarantee that you will be shortlisted or invited to interview. Use it as a technical check and a keyword prompt, then read your CV through as a recruiter would.
You can run three checks a day for free, and three more by leaving your email address. That is usually enough to check, fix and check again for one or two applications.
After the check: tailoring your CV with StudentCV
If the result shows that your CV needs more than a few small edits, or you are applying for several roles and want a tailored version for each, StudentCV can help. Upload your CV or LinkedIn profile, or type your details in, then paste the same job advert. StudentCV rewrites and tailors the CV to that role in a clean layout and shows its ATS score against the advert.
You can see and edit the whole CV for free before deciding to pay. Downloads are one-off purchases with no subscription: a CV for £5.99, a CV plus LinkedIn profile for £9.99, or a Job Search Pack with five tailored CVs and cover letters for £12.99, all including VAT, with PDF and Word files. Whichever route you take, run a final check on the file you are about to send.