Fitread help

Fitread reads your CV against one UK job advert and shows how well the two fit, with a match rate worked out by ContractorUK's own code.

The advert can be a live job on the ContractorUK board (contract, temp or permanent, in any kind of work) or one you paste in.

It checks the skills the advert asks for, the job title, the pay as the advert states it, and whether agency software and recruiter searches can read your CV.

It never applies for jobs for you and it never promises interviews.

PDF, Word (.docx) and plain text files, up to 5 MB.

You can paste your CV instead, up to 200 KB of text. A pasted advert can be up to 50 KB.

Older Word files (.doc) and scanned images cannot be read. Save your CV as .docx or PDF, or paste the text.

Checks that need the file itself, such as fonts and margins, cannot run on pasted text.

Any live job on the ContractorUK jobs board. Open the job and choose "Check my fit".

Or paste an advert from anywhere, and say whether it is contract, temp or permanent. If you leave the title out, the advert's first line is used.

Fitread started with contract roles because that is where most ContractorUK adverts are. It reads temp and permanent adverts too, in any kind of work.

No. Anyone can get a reading without signing in.

As a guest, your CV is read in memory and not stored. The reading stays at a private link for 24 hours and is then deleted.

With a free Fitread account your readings stay until you delete them, and you can save a CV to use again.

You can save a guest reading to your account later, from the reading itself, while its link still works.

No. A reading is counted only once it has been made and saved.

If the file cannot be read, the advert is missing or something goes wrong on our side, nothing is counted.

The message on screen says what went wrong. Each message has its own answer on this page.

Fitread only accepts a reading sent from its own page. Your browser either did not say where the form came from, or said it came from another site.

Reload the Fitread page and send the form again.

If it keeps happening, a privacy extension may be removing that information. Allow it for contractoruk.com, or try another browser.

Nothing was read or counted.

You signed in or out in another tab, or the page was open for a long time, so the form's security check no longer matches your session.

Reload the page and send the form again. Anything you pasted may need pasting again.

Nothing was read or counted.

Fitread limits how many readings one connection can start in an hour, so the service stays quick for everyone.

An office or other shared connection counts as one, so you can reach the limit sooner there.

Wait a while and try again. Nothing was counted against your free readings.

A CV file can be up to 5 MB, a pasted CV up to 200 KB of text and a pasted advert up to 50 KB.

Large files are nearly always large because of pictures. Save a copy without photos or graphics, or paste the text instead.

A pasted advert only needs its words. Leave out the rest of the page it came from.

Fitread reads PDF, Word (.docx) and plain text files.

In Word, choose File, Save As, then Word Document (.docx) or PDF. In Google Docs, choose File, Download, then PDF or Word.

Or open your CV, copy all of its text and paste it into the CV box.

A CV file can be up to 5 MB.

Pictures make most files large. Save a copy without photos or graphics, or save it as a PDF from Word, which is usually much smaller.

Or paste the text of your CV instead.

The file may be damaged, protected with a password, or a scanned picture of a CV with no text in it.

Open it on your own computer. If it opens, save a fresh copy as .docx or PDF and try that.

If it is a scan or a photo, paste the text of your CV instead. Agency systems read text, so a text version is worth keeping anyway.

Files ending in .doc use Word's old format, which Fitread cannot read.

Open the file in Word and choose File, Save As, then Word Document (.docx) or PDF.

Or paste the text of your CV instead.

The file opened but held almost no text. That usually means it is a scan or a photo, or the words are inside pictures or text boxes.

Paste the text of your CV instead, or save it again from the program you wrote it in.

A CV whose words are pictures is hard for agency software to read too, so the searchability checks in a reading will help.

This PDF has pages but almost no readable text. It may be an image: agency CV databases cannot read an image as CV text either. In Word, export or save the original document as PDF; in Google Docs, use File, Download, PDF Document. Or paste your CV text here.

Select and copy a line in the PDF to check whether its words are text.

A failed upload does not use a reading.

We could not recognise enough English text to read this CV reliably. Add an English version or paste its English text. Nothing was read or saved.

The language check uses word patterns, without asking an AI model.

Your CV has not been stored; you can paste an English version into a new reading.

This CV includes text our English checks cannot read reliably. Review the English text and confirm before continuing. No reading has been used.

Review the retained text and tick the confirmation box before sending it.

The original non-English lines are not used in the reading or translated.

The form arrived without a CV.

Upload a file, paste the text, or, if you are signed in, choose a CV you saved before.

Then send the form again.

The saved CV you chose has been deleted, or it belongs to another account.

Choose another saved CV, or upload your CV again.

Your saved CVs are listed in the CV manager.

The advert box was empty or held only a few words.

Paste the whole advert, including what the job involves and what it asks for. The skills and the title are what the match rate is built from.

For a job on the ContractorUK board, use "Check my fit" on the job instead, and nothing needs pasting.

The job has closed or been taken down since you opened it.

If you still have the advert's text, paste it with its title and job type.

Similar live jobs are on the ContractorUK jobs board.

The original reading may have expired or been deleted. A reading saved to an account opens only for that account.

Sign in to the account that owns it, or start a new reading with the advert and your CV.

We did not keep a guest CV, so you need to upload or paste it again. A new reading counts towards your reading allowance.

The reading failed because of a fault at our end, not because of your CV.

Nothing was counted against your free readings.

Please try again in a minute. If it keeps happening, tell us the time it happened and what you were doing.

ContractorUK's code works it out, never AI. It adds up to a hundred points.

70 points for the share of the advert's skills that your CV shows.

15 points for the job title: earned when your CV shows a skill named in the advert's title, or when its opening lines carry a title like the advert's.

15 points for the sector, which every reading gets because your CV is counted as being in the advert's sector.

The reading prints the sum for your CV, so you can check it.

Strong match: 70% or more.

Good match: 50% to 69%.

Partial match: 30% to 49%.

Low match: under 30%.

There is no pass mark. The band says how much of the advert your CV shows, not whether you will be shortlisted.

If the advert names fewer than 3 skills Fitread recognises, the rate is held at 49% at most, because there is too little to compare.

If your CV shows fewer than 2 of the advert's skills, the rate is held at 29% at most.

It is held there too when the advert names specific skills (not general ones such as customer service or data entry) and your CV shows too few of them: the one it names, or two when it names more. When the advert names only general skills, your CV needs at least 3 of them.

When a hold applies, the reading's working says so and gives the reason.

Some adverts outside IT name few skills Fitread recognises yet, so a good fit can read low. The reading says so when that happens.

The reading orders its fixes the same way every time. Fixes come before notes, then the most serious first, then the order of the sections on the page.

On the free plan the first fix in each section is shown in full, up to 5 a reading; the rest are counted. Pro shows every fix.

Add a missing skill or result only if it is true. The reading says so beside every one.

Fitread looks for the advert's skills by their names and the usual short forms of those names.

If your CV says it another way, or only inside a picture, a table or a text box, it may not be found.

Where it is true, use the advert's own wording, and write both the full term and its short form once.

The searchability checks point out pictures, tables and text boxes.

Figures about the market come from ContractorUK's own adverts, so each one says how many adverts it is based on and which month.

A skill's share of a role's adverts is shown only when at least 20 of that month's adverts for the role name skills and at least 5 name that skill.

A day-rate comparison is shown only when at least 20 adverts for the role give a day rate.

Below those numbers the reading says there are too few adverts, instead of showing a figure. These are advertised figures, not what people are paid.

The AI review is written by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, from your CV and the advert. It is labelled "Written by AI".

It is written around the match rate and cannot change it or any other figure.

Anything it says about you is checked against your CV. A sentence naming a skill, number, date or name that your CV does not contain is removed.

AI reviews are limited each day: 5 for a guest, 10 on the free plan and 60 on Pro. A limit never stops the reading itself.

They check that agency software and recruiter searches can read your CV.

The checks: contact details, location, section headings, profile or summary, education or qualifications, skills, objective, date format, full terms and short forms, text can be read, length, file type and file name.

Length is judged at 350 to 1,300 words and no more than 3 pages.

Each check says what it found and how to fix it. They do not change the match rate.

They are advice for the person who reads your CV after the software has.

The checks: measurable results, paragraph length, tone, overused phrases, repeated phrases, line openers, word count, UK conventions, web presence, job level, chronology, references, tense in dated roles, first-person line openings, repeated words, spaces and punctuation and skill names.

For measurable results, the reading looks for at least 3 lines with a number, a percentage or a pound figure.

They do not change the match rate.

Yes. Every new reading counts, including a second reading of the same CV and advert.

Changing your CV in the Editor and watching the match rate move never uses a reading.

The free allowance starts again on the first day of each month, UK time.

5 readings a month on the free plan, with no card needed.

The count starts again on the first day of each month, UK time. Unused readings do not carry over.

Members are counted by their account. Guests are counted by a one-way code made from their connection, never the address itself.

Pro has no monthly count, only a fair-use limit of 300 readings a month.

A reading that fails is never counted, and the Editor never uses a reading.

5 readings a month, each with its AI review, within the daily AI limit.

The first fix in each section of a reading in full, up to 5, with every skill counted; the names of the skills that would raise your match rate most are in Pro.

1 opener a month for a recruiter, and Job Match.

The Tracker, the CV manager, jobs, applying and job alerts, which are never part of a paid plan.

Pro monthly costs £34.99 a month. Pro quarterly costs £69.99 every three months, which works out at £23.33 a month. Prices include VAT.

Pro adds unlimited readings (fair use 300 a month) and every fix in every reading.

It adds the Editor's AI suggestions and Word export, an opener for every reading, thank-you notes, LinkedIn drafts, interview preparation, and every live contract or temp job that fits in Job Match.

Jobs, applying, job alerts, the Tracker and the CV manager are never part of a paid plan.

The 7-day free trial is on the quarterly plan only, once per account, and needs a card at the start.

Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing. If you do not cancel, the first quarterly payment is taken when it ends.

There is no trial on the monthly plan.

Everything in Pro is in the trial.

Cancel from your plan page, which opens Stripe's billing page. ContractorUK never sees your card details.

Pro stays on until the end of the period you have paid for. Then your account moves to the free plan and your readings stay, showing what the free plan shows.

Take Pro again and a reading comes back in full if you saved its CV and its advert has not changed.

If a payment fails, Pro stays on for 7 days while you update your card.

Deleting all your Fitread data also cancels Pro at once, with no refund for the rest of the period.

No. Jobs, job pages, applying, job alerts, the Tracker and the CV manager are free on every plan and are never part of Pro.

Pro pays for tools that work on your CV. It never buys access to work.

Applying is always your own click on the job's page on ContractorUK. Fitread never applies for you.

The free plan includes 5 readings a month. The message shows the date they start again, which is the first day of next month, UK time.

As a guest, readings are counted for your connection. A free account keeps your readings in one place and can start a Pro trial.

Pro has unlimited readings within fair use.

What you typed stays on the page, so nothing is lost when you come back.

Pro's fair-use limit is 300 readings a month, which covers heavy use.

The count starts again on the first day of next month, UK time.

If you need more before then, tell us.

Fitread never shows your CV to a recruiter, agency or employer unless you send it to a specific advert or share it with someone you choose.

Your Fitread CVs are kept apart from the CV on a ContractorUK candidate profile, and Fitread never copies one into the other.

A test in Fitread's code lists every part of the site that reads Fitread's CV files and tables. It fails if ContractorUK's staff CV search, the contractor hire directory or any employer page is one of them.

Fitread is its own site with its own database, so nothing on ContractorUK's site reads your Fitread CVs.

Your CV file and its text are read in memory and not stored.

The reading is kept at a private link for 24 hours and then deleted. Anyone with the link can open it until then.

It holds the skills found, the figures and advice, the AI review and opener, and up to three short lines of your CV behind the opener.

"Delete this reading now" on the reading removes it at once.

Signed in, your CV is stored only if you tick "Save this CV to my account" or upload it in the CV manager.

It is kept as a private file for your account, not in the database.

Your readings and saved CVs stay until you delete them, or until your account has not been used for 5 years.

"Delete this reading now" on any reading deletes it at once.

"Delete all my Fitread data" on your account page removes, at once and for good, every reading, every stored CV file and its text, your tracker cards and notes, drafts written for you, your usage counts and your plan record.

Your Fitread account itself stays, so you can still sign in.

Deleting everything also cancels Pro at once, with no refund for the rest of the period.

A record of which trial emails we sent and when (never their text or your address) stays for 540 days, in case a payment is disputed.

Yes. Signed in, choose "Download my data" on your account page.

You get a zip file with every reading, stored CV and other record Fitread holds for your account.

Guests have nothing to download, because nothing about a guest is kept beyond the reading's own private link.

To write the AI review, openers and suggestions, the text of your CV and the advert is sent to Anthropic, which runs the Claude AI model for ContractorUK.

Nothing from your account, such as your name or email address, is added.

The match rate and every figure are worked out by ContractorUK's own code, not by AI.

The full notice is in ContractorUK's privacy statement.

Your free allowance is counted against your account or, for a guest, against a one-way code made from the connection, never the address itself. These counts are deleted after 13 months.

Fitread's own statistics are counts only, such as how many readings were made in a day, with nothing that identifies you.

"Did this answer it?" on this page is counted the same way: a yes or a no for that answer, and nothing else.

A Fitread account of its own, separate from any ContractorUK account. You sign in with a code sent to your email, or with Google or Microsoft.

Sign in from the top of any Fitread page. If you do not have an account, you can create a free one.

Everything Fitread keeps for you (readings, saved CVs and your plan) belongs to the account you were signed in with.

Yes, while its private link still works, which is 24 hours from when it was made.

Sign in, open the reading's link again and choose "Save this reading to my account".

If you are creating an account, confirm it by email first, then come back to the link.

Pro belongs to the Fitread account that was signed in when you paid.

Check which account you are signed in with. Your plan page shows the plan on that account.

If you have more than one account, for example one made with a different email address, sign out and sign in with the other.

If Pro is still missing, tell us, with the email address on your payment receipt.

"Delete all my Fitread data" on your account page removes everything Fitread holds for you, except a record of which trial emails we sent and when, kept for 540 days in case a payment is disputed.

Closing your whole Fitread account is a separate step. Your account page says how, and whether it also removes your Fitread data.

If you are not sure, delete your Fitread data first, then close the account.

Yes. Fitread reads contract, temp and permanent adverts, in any kind of work.

Contract comes first because that is where most ContractorUK adverts are.

The match rate works the same way for all three. What changes is the pay part of the reading.

A contract shows its day rate and its IR35 status as the advert states them. A temp job shows its pay as stated, and a permanent job its salary as stated.

A contract reading puts the advert's day rate beside the median advertised day rate for the role this month, and the middle half of those rates.

It shows the comparison only when at least 20 adverts for the role give a day rate, with the number of adverts and the month.

These are advertised rates, not rates paid.

On a contract reading, the IR35 status is the one the advert states (inside or outside IR35), or "not stated".

Fitread never guesses a status from the rate, the sector or the wording.

For a pasted advert, only the words "inside IR35" or "outside IR35" count as stated.

IR35 appears on contract readings only. Nothing in Fitread is tax or legal advice.

It shows the pay exactly as the advert states it, for example by the hour.

Fitread does not compare temp pay with other adverts yet, and the reading says so.

The rest of the reading (skills, job title and how readable your CV is) works as it does for any advert.

It shows the salary exactly as the advert states it.

ContractorUK does not hold enough permanent adverts yet to compare a salary with the market, so the reading says so instead of showing a figure.

Everything else in the reading works as it does for any advert.

Yes. Fitread reads adverts in teaching, health and social care, construction and trades, logistics and driving, finance, legal, HR, admin, sales, hospitality, the public sector and energy, as well as IT.

Some adverts outside IT name fewer skills that Fitread recognises yet, so a good fit can read lower than it should. The reading says so when that happens.

The searchability and recruiter checks work the same way for every kind of work.

Open the Editor from a reading to change your CV and watch the match rate move as you edit.

Re-scoring in the Editor never uses a reading.

AI suggestions for your lines, and saving your edited CV as a Word document or a print-ready page, are part of Pro. Suggestions only use what your CV already says.

Job Match lists live contract and temp jobs on ContractorUK that fit your saved CV, scored the same way as a reading.

Pro shows every job that fits.

To see matches, save a CV in the CV manager, or tick "Save this CV to my account" when you run a reading. Without one you can still search live jobs by keyword; they show no match rate.

Applying is always your own click on the job's page. Fitread never applies for you.

A board for the jobs you are going for, free on every plan.

Its stages: Saved, Applied, Interviewing, Offered, Started and Closed.

Add a job from a reading or by hand, and move it along as things change. Save it from its reading and the match rate comes with it.

Fourteen days after you apply, the board asks whether you got an interview.

Each card's Interviews tab shows the day to follow up, counted in working days (Monday to Friday; bank holidays are not skipped). Change the delay on the card, or set it to 0 to turn it off. It shows on the card and the board and is never emailed.

A short message to the recruiter, drafted by AI from your CV and the advert, and labelled as written by AI.

The free plan includes 1 opener a month. Pro has one for every reading.

It only uses what your CV says. Read it and change it before you send it.

LinkedIn drafts a headline and a summary from your CV.

Interview preparation lists likely questions for the advert and the parts of your CV that answer them.

Both are part of Pro, both are labelled as written by AI, and both use only what your CV says.

Every sentence is written from your CV (for a thank-you note, also the notes you type), and shows the CV line behind it.

A line that would add a skill, employer, date or figure your CV does not show is taken out, and the draft says how many.

What Fitread cannot know stays a marker, like [YOUR NAME]. Copy and Download stay off until you accept the draft and fill every marker.

Contract letters state IR35 only as the advert does. Temp and permanent letters never mention IR35 or a day rate.

Letters are kept in your account until you delete them. Fitread never sends one; you copy it, download it or open it in your own email app.

"Pick it from the advert" reads the advert and picks the usual UK format for it, shown as Suggested. You can change it.

An agency message is a short note to a recruiter with your CV, for the apply box or an email. It is the usual choice for contract and temp work through an agency.

A cover note is about 250 to 350 words, for an employer hiring directly. A formal letter is a full UK business letter, only when the advert asks for one.

A supporting statement sets out your evidence against each behaviour or criterion, when the advert asks for it.

With a reader's name the letter opens "Dear Ms Carter," and closes "Yours sincerely,". Without one, it opens "Dear Sir or Madam," and closes "Yours faithfully,".

Plain rules on your letter and the advert, with no score and no AI. Your paste is checked in memory and Fitread keeps no copy.

Missing advert words are not a checklist to stuff into a letter. Use a term only when you can support it.

A text check cannot establish whether a claim is true, or whether a recruiter will choose you.

Fill [COMPANY LINE], [URL] and similar markers yourself. The check leaves them unchanged.

Plain rules on the headline, About and roles you paste, free for members. They check writing and completeness; they do not predict what a recruiter will do.

The length checks use LinkedIn's own limits. Figures you paste are not independently verified.

Advert counts need a role, a matching work type and enough current adverts on the ContractorUK jobs board, and show their sample size and month. Permanent roles have no board sample.

Fitread never logs in to LinkedIn or fetches anything from it. Your paste and answers are read for that request only, then discarded.

Headline and About drafts are part of Pro and use only what your CV says.

A chat that answers questions about Fitread and your own reading. It is written by AI from Fitread's product notes and, when you ask about a reading, its figures.

Your questions are sent to Anthropic to write each answer and are not stored by ContractorUK. The chat is gone when you close the tab.

Guests can ask 10 questions a day, free members 30 and Pro members 100.

"Talk to a person" keeps your message and email address for 180 days so the Fitread team can reply.

Use the Builder to arrange your own work history, skills and qualifications into a CV.

Keep names, dates and results factual. A suggested phrase is something to review, not evidence that you did the work.

Read the preview before exporting or using the CV in a new reading.

Choose a saved CV, or upload one and save it, and paste the advert. Fitread reads your CV against it like any other reading (it counts as one), then opens the Editor on its Tailor tab.

With Pro, your profile and bullet lines go a few at a time to Claude (an AI model by Anthropic), which suggests a rewording where the advert's words fit what a line already says. Fitread checks each one and shows the words of your CV it came from.

Each rewording keeps every name and number in its line and never adds a skill. Lines about pay, dates, a clearance, licence or card, notice, shifts, availability, or a client or agency are left as you wrote them.

Accept, edit or reject each change, and answer the question about a missing skill only if you have used it. Nothing is saved until you save a new version.

Without Pro, the tab shows what the pass would read. Editing, the live match rate and saving versions stay free.

Upload your CV, choose one you saved, or upload the PDF LinkedIn makes of your profile. It is read in memory, the file is not kept, and nothing is sent to an AI.

You then see what we read (each role with its dates and length, your skills and qualifications) and correct anything in the wrong place. Nothing is added or reworded.

Lines with no place in the builder are listed for you to copy, and anything a UK CV leaves out is listed with its reason.

From LinkedIn come your name, headline and location, your About text, each role with its dates, education, top skills and certifications. We then ask once for what LinkedIn does not hold, such as your right to work, when you can start, a clearance, a driving licence, or a CSCS card or DBS check.

To get the PDF, open your LinkedIn profile on a computer, choose More (or Resources) under your name, then Save to PDF.

It opens in the builder as a draft only you can see. As a guest, nothing is stored.

The gallery creates a sample Word document and reads its words back out to check that they survive in order.

Its proof describes that sample document. It cannot guarantee how every agency system will read every CV you create.

Choose a template, keep your own facts accurate and check the document before sending it.