How is a finance CV scored?

Your CV is scored 0–100 across six weighted criteria: metrics & quantification (25%), bullet point quality (20%), role-fit alignment (20%), structure & formatting (15%), education (10%), and skills & keywords (10%). Each is benchmarked against successful candidates at firms like Goldman Sachs, Citadel, and KKR.

Is this just generic CV advice?

No. Every point is specific to your CV — it quotes your actual bullets and explains exactly why each one is weak. The rubric also adapts to your target role, so an investment banking CV and a quantitative research CV are judged against entirely different criteria.

How is this different from my university careers service?

Careers services give general guidance like "use strong verbs". This gives you firm-specific feedback: your exact bullets rewritten in top-tier analyst voice, the precise ATS keywords your CV is missing, and a ranked action plan — all benchmarked to bulge-bracket and top-fund standards.

How long should a finance CV be?

One page for students and recent graduates; up to two pages once you have a few years of relevant experience. Bulge-bracket recruiters treat a two-page student CV as a red flag — fitting everything onto one page is itself part of the test.

What do I get for £19?

The full report: a scored breakdown of all six sections, three of your weakest bullets rewritten in top-firm voice, a role-specific list of missing keywords, a ranked action plan, and a benchmark against a successful candidate at your target firm tier. The score preview is always free.

Is there a money-back guarantee?

Yes — a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. If the full report does not help you improve your CV, email us within 30 days and we will refund the £19 in full.

Is my CV kept private?

Yes. Your CV is analysed in real time and is not stored after the analysis, never sold, and never shared for marketing. We keep only the email you provide to send your report and a short series of follow-up tips, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. See our Privacy Policy for full detail.

What file types do you support?

PDF and Word (.docx), up to 10MB. The PDF must be text-based rather than a scanned image, so the analysis can read your actual CV text. Upload takes about five seconds.

13 June 2026·6 min read

How to Get Your Finance CV Past the ATS (Step-by-Step)

A practical, step-by-step checklist for making your finance CV machine-readable — layout, keywords, headings, file type, and a 2-minute test to check yours passes.

At most large banks and funds, software reads your CV before a human does. If it cannot parse your CV, your qualifications never reach a recruiter. We covered the reasons finance CVs fail ATS screening — this is the practical, step-by-step fix.

1. Use a single-column, standard layout

Multi-column layouts, text boxes, tables, headers, and footers frequently fail to parse. The classic mistake: putting your name and contact details in the document header, which an ATS reads as a CV with no name. Keep everything in a single column of real, selectable text.

2. Match the job description’s keywords

The ATS scores your CV against the job description. Read it closely, note the recurring technical terms and tools, and make sure those exact terms appear naturally in your experience bullets. For an IB role that means terms like DCF, LBO, and comparable companies; for quant, backtesting and specific libraries. Match the language of the desk you are targeting — the system rewards the term being present, the human rewards it being earned.

3. Use standard section headings

Creative headings like “My Journey” confuse the parser. Use the conventional labels it expects: Education, Experience, Skills. Boring headings parse cleanly.

4. Submit the right file type

Submit a text-based PDF or a .docx where the text can be selected and copied. A scanned or image-based PDF is invisible to most parsers — if you exported your CV as an image, the ATS sees a blank page.

5. The 2-minute ATS test

Here is the fastest way to check: open your PDF, select all the text, copy it, and paste it into a plain text document. If the result is jumbled, out of order, or missing chunks, an ATS sees the same mess. Clean, in-order text means the parser can read you.

Your ATS checklist

Single column, no text boxes, tables, or header/footer content.
Standard headings: Education, Experience, Skills.
Role-specific keywords woven into bullets.
Text-based PDF or .docx — never a scanned image.
Specific tools named (Excel, Bloomberg, Python) rather than “Microsoft Office”.
Passes the copy-paste test cleanly.

Want to know which keywords your CV is actually missing for your target role? A free CV score flags them in 60 seconds.