Making the most of CareerSet – the online CV and cover letter checker

Joshua Crofts
Friday 15 October 2021

CareerSet lets you get immediate, AI-generated feedback on your CV and cover letter.

By scoring your CV out of 100, it provides advice on how you can improve it, and lets you upload a job description to help tailor your CV to a specific opportunity. CareerSet is easy to use and can be accessed at any time, from anywhere. Consider the following tips to make the most out of it.

Numbers aren’t everything

CareerSet provides a single number to score your CV. This helps you get a quick idea of the quality of your CV, and to what extent it has improved over time. But you should be careful to look at the detailed feedback CareerSet provides on how to improve.

We recommend uploading your CV to CareerSet at least once and aiming to achieve a score of 70%. Don’t worry if you get a lower score – simply follow the tips CareerSet gives you before re-submitting.

Every line of your CV is analysed for its impact, brevity and style. This includes your use of action words, the length of your bullet points, and whether your CV is in reverse chronological order, among much more. By paying close attention to the advice CareerSet provides, not only will you improve your score, but you will also enhance your knowledge of what makes a strong CV.

Tailor your CV

You should tailor every CV you submit to the opportunity you’re applying for. Though CareerSet can score your CV on its own, it’s most effective when given a job description to compare your CV against.

To do this, select ‘Target my CV’ from the main menu, and paste the job description into the box. Make sure you only include the description of the job you are applying for, like qualifications needed, skills required and desirable experience. You should exclude things like salary details and company information. CareerSet will then score your CV out of 100 on its relevance to the job description and tell you whether it is well-targeted to the job or not.

To help you target your CV better, CareerSet will pick out key words from the job description, and let you know which are missing from your CV. Further, it will identify ‘soft skills’, such as communication and teamwork, that the job description calls for, and advise you to evidence these on your CV by talking about your achievements or previous work experience.

Cover letters

For many job applications, you will need to submit a cover letter with your CV. CareerSet can also help you improve this.

To do this, select ‘review my cover letter’ from the main menu, and paste the job description into the box. Make sure you only include the description of the job you are applying for, like qualifications needed, skills required and desirable experience. You should exclude things like salary details and company information. You will then upload your cover letter.

CareerSet will then score your cover letter out of 100 against its relevance to the job description and general standards for cover letters, such as the presence of correct salutations, overall length and use of buzzwords. Look at this feedback carefully to improve your cover letter, especially when trying to aim your cover letter at this job in particular.

What CareerSet doesn’t do

Although CareerSet is a powerful tool, it has limitations.

CareerSet is designed to check standard CV formats. This means that if your CV has unusual formatting or layout, or is more unconventional (such as being creative, skills-based or academic), CareerSet may be less useful to you. Likewise, CareerSet cannot provide you with the collaborative feedback and advice that you will receive from a one-to-one appointment. In these circumstances, you may find it more helpful to book a CV advice appointment.

You should also note that CareerSet primarily gives CV advice applicable to the UK, US and other English-speaking countries. If you are thinking for applying for a job elsewhere and would like help with your CV, consider visiting our Jobs outside the UK page.

How to access CareerSet

Students can sign-up using their university email address. On your first login, your account is created and you will be asked to accept the privacy policy and terms of use.

Alumni can sign up with their personal email address by entering an access code – please email [email protected] to request the code.

Related topics

Share this story


Leave a reply

By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website.