Why your resume score isn't 100 (and why that's useful)

You upload your resume, paste a job post, and get a number out of 100. It's tempting to read that number as a grade on your career. It isn't.

The score describes the match between two documents: this resume and this job post. Change the job and the same resume can score quite differently. That's the whole point.

What the score looks at

Jiffy CV reads the job post and pulls out what it actually asks for. It groups those requirements into seven areas:

• Core requirements
• Experience and responsibilities
• Skills and technology
• Impact and results
• Seniority and scope
• Industry or domain
• Qualifications

The first areas carry the most weight: core requirements (30 points), experience (25) and skills (15), followed by impact (10), qualifications (10), seniority (5) and industry (5). If an area doesn't apply to a job, its points are shared out among the ones that do, so the total is always out of 100.

Each requirement is marked by how important it is (Critical, High or Medium) and how clearly your resume shows it (Strong, Moderate, Weak or Missing). The score is then worked out by fixed rules in our code — the AI never simply makes up a number.

A low score should come with reasons

A number on its own doesn't tell you what to do. So your results show what's behind it: how you did in each area, every requirement we found, the line from your resume that supports it, and how many points you're missing.

The biggest gaps are listed first. That helps you tell two very different problems apart:

• A weak requirement often means the experience is there, but buried or badly worded. Clearer writing can fix it.
• A missing requirement usually means the experience or qualification simply isn't in your resume.

What a rewrite can honestly improve

When you click AI Optimise, Jiffy CV prepares a tailored rewrite of your resume. Click Apply All and it improves what your resume can already back up: clarity, relevance, ownership, impact, wording and the order of your achievements.

It does not quietly turn a missing requirement into a new claim.

If there's honest wording that could cover a missing requirement, it's shown separately, and you decide whether it's genuinely true for you. Qualifications that wording can't fix stay clearly marked as unavailable.

Numbers work the same way. Jiffy CV may point out up to three bullets where a real number would help, but you type in the number yourself — and adding it doesn't change your score.

Why 100 is rare

A score of 100 means your resume strongly shows every important requirement for that job. Most honest candidates have a mix of strong, moderate, weak and missing — and no tool should pretend otherwise.

The goal isn't to force the number to 100. It's to see which gaps are about presentation, which need your input, and which are real experience you don't have yet.

How to use your score

1. Start with the biggest gaps. Open each one and read the evidence.
2. Click AI Optimise and look through the tailored rewrite.
3. Confirm only the suggestions that are genuinely true for you.
4. Use Show Changes to see exactly what changed, then download your PDF or Word file.

Your score is a guide, not a hiring promise. It helps you make the experience you already have clearer for the job you actually want.

Tailor your CV for free or see how it works.