Is a CV checker the same as a resume checker?

Yes, for everyday job applications. CV is simply the word used across the UK, Europe, Australia, India and much of Asia and Africa for the document Americans call a resume. The screening software is the same, so the checks are the same.

How long should a CV be?

Two pages is standard in the UK, Ireland and Australia once you have a few years of experience. One strong page is right early on. The American one page rule does not apply, and padding to reach two pages is worse than a full one.

Should I put a photo on my CV?

Not in the UK, Ireland or Australia, where it is discouraged and can work against you. In Germany, France and parts of the Gulf it is still common. Follow the convention of the country you are applying in, not the country you are in.

Is the CV check really free?

The first one is, with no account and no card. After that it is a single payment for unlimited checks rather than a monthly subscription, and the price shown is the price in your own currency.

Do you check CVs in languages other than English?

The analysis is written for English language CVs at the moment. The parsing check works on any file, so it will still tell you whether your document reads correctly, but the wording advice assumes English.

Free CV checker, with a score and the fixes

Most of the world says CV, not resume. Same document, same screening software, but the conventions differ enough that advice written for America can quietly cost you an interview.

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The parsed version
You see the text pulled out of your file, so you can tell whether your details survived the trip.
Written for CV conventions
Two pages is normal here, and nothing will tell you to cut it to one page because an American template said so.
Specific rewrites
Not a note saying be more impactful. The actual line, rewritten, for you to accept or ignore.
One payment
The first check is free and costs nothing to try. There is no subscription to remember to cancel.

If you are in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, the Gulf or most of Europe, you call it a CV. If you are in the United States or Canada, a CV means something else entirely: an academic document running to many pages with a full publication list.

This matters more than it sounds, because almost all the resume advice online is written for the American meaning and then read by everybody else. Some of it is harmless. Some of it is actively wrong for where you are applying.

What is actually different

	US resume	UK, EU, AU, India CV
Length	One page, strictly, early career	Two pages is normal and expected
Opening	A short summary, or none	A personal profile of three or four lines is common
Photo	Never	Never in the UK, Ireland or Australia. Common in Germany, France and parts of the Gulf
Personal details	Name and contact only	Same, and in the UK leave off age, marital status and nationality
Education	Short, at the bottom	Often fuller, and graded results are expected in India
Referees	Not on the document	Available on request, or named, depending on the country

The one piece of advice that travels unchanged: the software reading it behaves the same everywhere.

The screening software does not care what you call it

Applicant tracking systems are used across all of these markets, often the same handful of products. They do not know or care whether your document is titled CV or Resume. What they do is extract the text and try to work out which part is your name, which part is a job and when it happened.

So the failures are identical wherever you are. A two column layout confuses the reading order. A table merges your job title into your dates. A text box can be skipped entirely. Contact details in a document header sometimes never arrive. The full list, with what to use instead, is here.

One thing worth knowing if you have been told otherwise: the old rule about never sending a PDF is out of date. A text based PDF is read correctly by the systems in common use. The longer answer explains the one case where Word is still the safer choice.

What you get back

The extracted text. What a parser actually got out of your file. If your phone number is missing here, that is the most important thing you will learn today.
A score, with the reasoning. Six dimensions rather than one number, so you can see whether the problem is the structure, the wording or the impact.
What a recruiter concludes in the first few seconds, which is the real filter and the one nobody shows you.
The weak lines, rewritten. Specific replacements you can paste in or argue with.
The terms your field expects and your CV does not use, so you are findable when somebody searches the database.
Your GitHub and portfolio, if you linked them. Most CV tools stop at the document. What that involves.

Two pages, and when to use the second one

The one page rule is American and it does not apply to you. Two pages is the normal, expected length for a UK or Australian CV with a few years behind you. Early career, one well filled page is fine; stretching to two with padding is not.

What matters is the order rather than the count. A reader decides whether to keep going within a few seconds, and that decision is made on the top third of page one. Whatever makes you right for the specific job belongs there. Everything on page two is evidence for a decision that has already started.

Before you send it anywhere

Do this yourself, free, whatever tool you end up using. Select all the text in your CV, copy it, and paste it into any plain text editor. What you are looking at is close to what the software receives. If your name and number are there, the sections are in order, and nothing has merged together, your file is fine and you can go back to worrying about the words.

By role

Screening looks different from one field to the next, and the credential rules differ most of all.

Questions people ask

Is a CV checker the same as a resume checker?: Yes, for everyday job applications. CV is simply the word used across the UK, Europe, Australia, India and much of Asia and Africa for the document Americans call a resume. The screening software is the same, so the checks are the same.
How long should a CV be?: Two pages is standard in the UK, Ireland and Australia once you have a few years of experience. One strong page is right early on. The American one page rule does not apply, and padding to reach two pages is worse than a full one.
Should I put a photo on my CV?: Not in the UK, Ireland or Australia, where it is discouraged and can work against you. In Germany, France and parts of the Gulf it is still common. Follow the convention of the country you are applying in, not the country you are in.
Is the CV check really free?: The first one is, with no account and no card. After that it is a single payment for unlimited checks rather than a monthly subscription, and the price shown is the price in your own currency.
Do you check CVs in languages other than English?: The analysis is written for English language CVs at the moment. The parsing check works on any file, so it will still tell you whether your document reads correctly, but the wording advice assumes English.

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