CV Checker
Recruiters skim. The first pass is seconds, not minutes.
Get your CV past the 30-second sift.
Upload your CV, scored on the five things recruiters actually check in 30 seconds. Sector-calibrated for investment banking, consulting, law and Big 4. Specific line-by-line fixes, not a vague "looks good" report.
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Starting from a blank page instead? Download the free Intervyo CV template and fill it in before you check it.
Sector-calibrated
What top sectors actually want from your CV
Generic CV advice gets you a generic CV. Each sector has a distinct format and impact pattern. Intervyo scores against the sector you target, not a one-size template.
Investment Banking
What they reward. Quantified financial impact, modelling exposure, prior bulge-bracket or boutique internships, technical finance vocabulary (DCF, comps, LBO, league tables).
“Constructed a 3-statement model for a £450M consumer acquisition, identifying £15M in operational synergies used in the strategic client pitchbook.”
Strategy Consulting
What they reward. Leadership outcomes, case competition wins, structured problem-solving stories, evidence of working with senior stakeholders, quantified team impact.
“Led a 6-person team to develop a market-entry recommendation for a £40M D2C brand, delivered to the founder and adopted in their Q3 strategy.”
Commercial Law
What they reward. Strong academic record (First or 2:1), commercial-awareness signals, mooting or debating, vacation scheme experience, drafting / written-argument examples.
“Authored a 12-page note on cross-border M&A regulatory risk for the Cambridge Commercial Law Society, presented to 40 attendees including 2 partners.”
Big 4 / Professional Services
What they reward. Academic consistency, ACA / ICAEW exposure, client-facing experience, cross-functional projects, leadership in societies, quantified savings or process improvements.
“Streamlined the society budget tracking process using Excel, reducing month-end close time by 40% and surfacing £1,200 in unbilled venue rebates.”
The basics
What does a CV checker actually do?
A CV checker scores your document against the criteria that graduate recruiters and applicant tracking systems (ATS) apply during the initial sift. Most major firms - Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, McKinsey, Deloitte - run every submission through an ATS (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Taleo) before a human ever opens the file. Photos, multi-column layouts, headers/footers and graphics break the parser, and the CV fails before a recruiter sees it.
Once a CV clears the ATS, a human recruiter scans it for around 30 seconds. They check Education first (target university, degree subject, predicted grade), then move down through Professional Experience looking for quantified outcomes. If the first three bullets do not produce a clear impact signal, the CV is moved to the no pile.
Intervyo simulates both passes. The ATS-readability layer catches structural fails: non-standard fonts, image-based text, broken parsing. The recruiter-scan layer scores content density, impact specificity and sector vocabulary. You get scored feedback per dimension plus the specific lines to rewrite, not a vague "consider quantifying your achievements" placeholder.
Unlike senior-career CV tools that optimise for the corporate executive market, Intervyo is calibrated for graduate finance applications in the UK and US. The one-page rule is enforced, the bullet format is checked against bulge-bracket standards, and the vocabulary database is matched to the UK graduate cycle.
The 30-second sift
How recruiters actually read your CV
- 01
ATS parses the file
< 1sThe applicant tracking system extracts text from your CV. Photos, columns, headers and graphics break the parser, dropping your file silently before a human sees it.
- 02
Education check
~3sUniversity, degree subject, predicted or achieved grade. Below a 2:1 (UK) or 3.5 GPA (US) is an instant reject for most front-office finance roles.
- 03
First three bullets
~8sRecruiters scan the top three bullets of your most recent experience. If those do not show quantified impact, the rest of the page does not get read.
- 04
Skill keyword scan
~5sEyes drop to the Skills section looking for sector vocabulary: modelling, valuation, Python for finance; consulting frameworks for strategy; commercial awareness markers for law.
- 05
Polish and decision
~3sTypos, formatting inconsistencies, awkward spacing. Any error in the polish layer flips a borderline yes into a no. The recruiter clicks Forward or Reject.
What gets you rejected
The lines that send a CV to the no pile
Documented across thousands of graduate applications. Most are easily fixed once you can see them.
- 1
Multi-page format for an undergraduate application
One page is non-negotiable for graduate front-office roles. Two-page CVs are filtered out at the automated sift before a human reviewer touches them.
- 2
Action verbs without quantification
"Assisted with financial modelling" or "helped organise the society conference" tells the recruiter nothing. Numbers tell the story: £-amount, %-improvement, headcount, hours saved.
- 3
High school content past first year of university
GCSEs / SAT scores belong on a first-year CV at most. By second year, every line should reflect your higher-education and professional progression.
- 4
Generic skills section
"Microsoft Office", "Teamwork", "Communication" reads as filler. Replace with specific tools (Bloomberg, Capital IQ, Python, financial modelling) and verified language proficiencies.
- 5
Inconsistent date formatting
Mixing "Sept 2025" with "06/24" with "June 2024" across the same document is a polish red flag. Pick one format and apply it uniformly.
- 6
Photos, columns, graphics or icons
Looks designed but breaks ATS parsing. The recruiter never sees it because the parser drops the file. Clean black-on-white single-column layout in a standard font.
- 7
Personal statement / headline summary at the top
For UK and US graduate finance applications, the personal statement is dead space. Save the narrative for the cover letter. Your CV opens with Education, not paragraphs about yourself.
- 8
Vague achievements without specifics
"Successfully delivered the project" is a sentence with zero information. Replace with what was delivered, to whom, and the measurable outcome.
Worked example
Weak CV bullet vs the rewrite
The single biggest score lift on a graduate CV is rewriting duty-based bullets into quantified-impact bullets. Three real before-and-afters, the same way the scored report rewrites your own.
Spring week / internship
Before
“Worked in a team to help with a research project on the energy sector.”
No action, no scale, no result. "Helped" hides what you actually did.
After
“Co-authored a 20-page sector report on European energy transition for a 4-person team, presented to 30+ society members and cited in the following term's careers panel.”
Specific deliverable, quantified scale, verifiable outcome.
Part-time / society role
Before
“Responsible for managing the society budget and organising events.”
"Responsible for" describes the job title, not the achievement.
After
“Managed a £18k annual budget across 12 events, cutting per-event cost 22% by renegotiating venue contracts and growing attendance from 40 to 110.”
Numbers prove ownership; the percentage shows judgement.
Technical / modelling
Before
“Built financial models in Excel and did some valuation work.”
"Some" and "did" are filler; no recruiter can assess the skill.
After
“Built a 3-statement DCF and trading-comps model for a mock £450M acquisition, presenting a valuation range and synergy estimate in a one-page pitch.”
Names the methods and the artefact, exactly the vocabulary the sift looks for.
The scored report flags every weak bullet on your CV and drafts a quantified rewrite you can edit. These three are the pattern it applies.
Feedback that helps
How Intervyo scores your CV
Every upload is scored across five dimensions, the same five the demo above reports. You get a per-dimension score plus the specific lines to rewrite, not a vague verdict.
Layout & Structure
Single-page discipline, clean parser-friendly formatting, Education then Experience in a scannable hierarchy. Photos, columns and headers/footers fail ATS sift before a human sees the CV.
Quantified Impact
Quantified outcomes in every bullet. "Led a team" is filler; "Led a 6-person team that delivered £400k of revenue" is signal.
Relevance
Does the content answer the role you are applying for? The most relevant experience leads, specific accomplishments beat listed duties, and the filler that dilutes them gets cut.
Academics
University, degree subject and grades, presented where recruiters look first. Education is the opening check on a graduate application, so the section has to carry its weight.
Industry Fit
Vocabulary calibrated to the target sector. Banking CVs use DCF, comps, league tables; consulting uses MECE, frameworks, structured problem-solving.
Compare your options
CV review: your options
The honest comparison. Intervyo is calibrated for graduate finance. Nothing else covers all four sectors with sector-specific scoring.
| Feature | Intervyo | Generic CV checker | University careers | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sector-calibrated scoring (IB / consulting / law / Big 4) | ||||
| ATS readability check | partial | |||
| Line-by-line rewrite suggestions | partial | |||
| Five-dimension breakdown | ||||
| Quantification scoring | ||||
| One-page enforcement | partial | |||
| Graduate finance vocabulary | partial | |||
| Rescans after edits (10 a month on the Monthly plan) | partial |
How it works
Three steps. Under two minutes.
Upload your CV
Drag-and-drop your PDF or .docx. We parse it the same way an ATS does, so what we see is what the firm sees.
Add your target role and sector
Tell us what you are aiming at: banking, consulting, law or Big 4. Each is scored against a different rubric because each sector reads CVs differently.
Get the scored report
Five dimensions scored, with the specific lines to fix and model rewrites for the weak bullets.
Keep going
Related features
FAQ
CV questions, answered
How long should my CV be for investment banking?
Strictly one page. Two-page CVs are automatically rejected for junior campus positions at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and other bulge brackets. The expectation is that you can compress every experience into impact-driven bullets that fit on a single side.
Does my CV need to be ATS-friendly?
Yes. Most major firms screen CVs through an applicant tracking system (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Taleo) before a human sees them. ATS systems can fail on photos, columns, graphics, headers/footers, and non-standard fonts. A clean single-column black-on-white layout in Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman parses reliably.
What gets a CV rejected at the 30-second sift?
Typos, inconsistent date formatting, paragraph blocks instead of bullets, vague action verbs ("assisted with", "helped"), missing quantification ("led a team" not "led a 6-person team that delivered £400k"), high school achievements after first year of university, photos, and exceeding one page in length.
Should my CV include a personal statement at the top?
For UK and US graduate finance applications: no. Headline summaries and personal statements take up valuable space without telling recruiters anything new. Save the narrative for the cover letter / motivation answer. The first thing recruiters want to see is your Education section with your degree, university, and predicted or achieved grade.
How does Intervyo score my CV?
Intervyo scores CVs across five dimensions: Layout & Structure (ATS readability, one-page discipline, a hierarchy scannable in 30 seconds), Quantified Impact (measured outcomes in every bullet, not vague claims), Relevance (content that answers the role you are applying for), Academics (university, degree and grades presented where recruiters look first), and Industry Fit (vocabulary and experience matched to the target sector). You get a per-dimension score and the specific lines to fix.
Do I need a different CV for each firm?
Same base CV for all firms in the same sector. Reorder the bullets to lead with the most relevant experience for each application. Investment banking CVs lead with finance internships and modelling skills; consulting CVs lead with leadership and case-style problem-solving; law CVs lead with academic achievement and commercial awareness exposure.
Should I include grades on my CV?
Yes for investment banking, consulting and law. Include your A-Level grades, predicted degree classification, and any university-level academic prizes. Strong 2:1 is the unofficial floor; First is highly preferred for front-office banking. Big 4 audit is slightly more flexible on grades but still expects strong academics.
How is Intervyo different from a free online CV checker?
Generic CV checkers run grammar and ATS readability checks. Intervyo does both plus: scores against the sector you're targeting (banking vs consulting vs law have very different bullet styles), suggests specific rewrites with model alternatives, and flags content patterns that fail at the 30-second sift across UK and US graduate recruiting. Built for graduate finance, not for senior corporate roles.
Your CV is the first filter.
Make sure it lets you through.
Free scan, scored against the sector you target, with the specific lines to fix. Recruiters spend 30 seconds. Yours need to count.
Score my CVFree to start, no credit card