CV skills checker
Most advice about which skills to put on a CV is somebody's opinion. This is a count. Paste your CV, pick the field you are applying to — and narrow it to your corner of it — then see which of the skills those employers actually ask for your CV already names, and which it does not. Every skill opens to show what employers mean by it and one line showing it written down.
It stays in this browser. Nothing is uploaded, saved or sent anywhere.
399 graduate jobs, each with the named tools and methods that belong on a CV for it.
Counted from 3,219 live engineering adverts. Tap any skill to see what employers mean by it and one line showing it on a CV.
What makes engineering different
Asked for far more here than across graduate adverts generally. This is the half that is actually about your field.
What every employer asks for
The most common in engineering, and much the same in every field. Still worth naming — a recruiter searching for them searches the words.
Counted from 12,914 live UK graduate adverts on 5 November 2026.
Why checking the words is worth doing
It is a fair objection that a CV saying "teamwork" proves nothing. It does not. But the first pass over your application is often a keyword search: a recruiter with 300 CVs in a system types the words from their own advert and reads what comes back. A CV that describes the work without ever using those words can be a good CV that is never opened.
So the gap worth closing is where you have done the thing and not said so — not where you have not done it. Inventing a skill is the one change guaranteed to fail at interview.
How the numbers were made
We read 12,914 live UK graduate adverts, straight from employers' own careers pages, and counted how many name each skill. The percentages beside each skill are that count for your field, not for graduate jobs in general — assessment of the same CV changes a lot between engineering and marketing.
A skill only counts when an advert asks for it as a skill. An early version counted any mention and overstated leadership by 81%, mostly by catching job titles; 1,097 adverts say "flexible working", which is a perk rather than adaptability. The full breakdown, with what each skill looks like as evidence.
The other half: can the file be read at all?
This checks your wording. It cannot see your layout, and a CV in two columns can reach an employer with the words in the wrong order or missing entirely. Check how your file parses — also free, also no account.
What you get for applying through Gradovio
Matched to your CV
Up to 50 roles a week picked for what you studied and where you'll work, with a score for each.
A CV written for each advert
A tailored CV and cover letter against that specific job, plus answers to its application questions.
The form filled for you
The browser extension fills the application on the employer's own site. About 3 minutes instead of 30.