Fitread reads your CV against a real advert: the match rate, the skills it names, the title recruiters search for, and the day rate and IR35 exactly as stated. Contract first; temp and permanent adverts work too, in any sector.
The example reading is being prepared
Written for the UK
Most "applicant tracking system" advice is American, written for applying straight to an employer. In the UK, contract and temp work mostly goes through agencies and their databases.
In the systems we checked, every documented automatic rejection comes from a screening answer, such as right to work, clearance, DBS, a licence or availability. None comes from the words in your CV.
The claim that most CVs are rejected by software before a person sees them traces back to a CV-software vendor around 2012, which never published a study behind it. We don't use it.
Searchability
Your CV becomes a record in the agency's system. Recruiters search those records by title, skill words, location, pay and how recently they were updated.
Fitread checks
Hard skills
Every skill the advert names that Fitread recognises, whether your CV shows it, and how often this month's adverts for the role ask for it.
Newer AI screeners mark a requirement "unknown" when your CV doesn't state it plainly. If you have it, say it once, in the advert's words.
It never invents experience: if the advert asks for something your CV lacks, we tell you and ask whether you have it.
Read my CVContract, temp and permanent
A reading reads pay the way the advert gives it, and it never guesses.
The median is what adverts offer, not what contractors are paid.
Read my CVFormatting and recruiter tips
Guidance for a common UK parser asks for no tables, headers, text boxes, graphics or image files.
Fitread checks
After the reading
The Editor, Job Match and the Tracker pick up where a reading ends.
Editor
The match rate moves as you type, worked out by the same code that scored the reading. Add your own evidence for each missing skill, or leave it out. Suggestions come only from what each bullet already says.
Free: open the Editor and see the live score. Pro: suggestions and exports.
About the EditorJob Match
The same scorer runs across ContractorUK's live contracts or temp jobs, so you see which adverts your CV already fits, and why. Titles, companies and rates are shown exactly as the advert gives them.
Free: included. Pro: every live contract or temp job that fits.
About Job MatchTracker New
Save any job from a reading, contract, temp or permanent, and move it from Saved to Started. Each card keeps the reading, the CV version you sent, your notes and the pay agreed. Two weeks after you mark it Applied, it asks whether you got an interview.
Free on every plan, always.
About the TrackerOpener and cover note Free: 1 a month
A short message for the agency, and an optional cover note, drafted from your CV only.
Interview practice Pro
Ten likely questions for this job, with outlines from your own CV. For a contract, that includes the IR35 and rate questions contractors are asked.
LinkedIn check Pro, in the trial
Paste your profile text for the same skills table against the role you want next. No login, nothing posted.
Everything written by AI is labelled "Written by AI" and checked against your CV. A sentence that names a skill, number, date or name your CV doesn't contain is removed.
Pricing
Jobs, applying, job alerts and the tracker are free for everyone, on every plan, and always will be.
Compare the plans in full£0
No card. No account needed for your first reading.
£69.99 every 3 months
£23.33 a month. VAT included
Or monthly: £34.99 a month, no trial.
Everything in Free, plus:
7 days free, then £69.99 every 3 months. Cancel before the 7 days end and you pay nothing. One trial per account; you need a card to start it.
Our code compares the advert's skills with your CV's. The advert's skills your CV shows earn 70 points, the advert's title 15, and the sector 15, which every reading gets. The AI review can't change the number.
Agencies search their own systems (often called a CRM), and often job-board CV databases, by title, skill words, location, pay and recency. The system behind an advert usually isn't visible, so Fitread checks what every search relies on: your title, the advert's words and a readable layout.
In the systems we checked, every documented automatic rejection comes from a screening answer (right to work, clearance, DBS, a licence, availability), never from the words in your CV. In a November 2024 audit, the UK's Information Commissioner told recruiters not to reject on AI scores alone.
No. It reads any CV against any UK advert: contract, temp or permanent, in any sector. It started with contracts because that is where ContractorUK's adverts are.
Yes. A temp advert shows its pay exactly as stated, with shifts, start date and availability; a permanent advert, its salary band, notice period and start date. We don't hold enough permanent adverts yet to compare salaries. Job Match ranks live contract and temp jobs.
The median advertised day rate for the role on ContractorUK this month, shown only when at least 20 adverts give one, with the number of adverts and the month. It's what adverts offer, not what contractors are paid.
It doesn't guess. A reading shows what the advert states: outside IR35, inside IR35, or not stated, never inferred from the rate, the sector or the wording. [A reading isn't tax advice.]
Either. A Word file (.docx), or a PDF made from a word processor so the text can be selected, is accepted by every system we checked. Fitread reads both, and plain text, up to 5 MB.
Not if you're signed out: the file is read in memory and discarded, and only the reading is kept, for 24 hours, at a private link. Signed in, it's stored only if you tick "Save this CV", and you can delete it at any time.
To write the AI review and the opener, the text of your CV and the advert is sent to Anthropic, which runs the Claude AI model for us. Nobody else. How we handle your CV.
No. Applying is your own act: a reading links to the job page on ContractorUK, and you apply from there when you're ready.
No. Jobs, applying and job alerts are always free. Pro pays for tools: more readings, every fix, Editor suggestions, openers, LinkedIn and interview practice. You get 5 free readings a month, with or without an account.
Upload your CV, choose an advert and read the result.
No account needed.
