How much should I be earning? This web tool can tell, from your CV

20 May 2015

ValueMyCV is a brilliant little tool developed by an online UK recruiter that, well, values your CV. Load it up, wait a few seconds, and find out if you’re underpaid.

“It’s in Beta at the moment,” explains Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, the online recruitment agency that developed this service.

It actually went live back in January, however the company has only really started shouting about it now, with tens of thousands of new users trying it out in the past week on the back of coverage in mainstream UK press.

Hunter, along with Adzuna’s other co-founder Doug Monroe, began developing this service more than a year ago, using the 10,000 CVs they had on file to train an algorithm on how to calculate salaries.

How much should I be earning?

And since then, the thousands of new CVs out in the wild that were loaded in have helped refine it ever more, with feedback crucial to the algorithm’s accuracy.

“If you’re in our sweet spot, earning between UK£18,000 and UK£80,000, our tool is quite accurate at predicting the value of CVs,” he says.

The software analyses up to 100 elements of your CV – anything from your academic background to the location you are working in. That’s understandable when you consider the earning disparities between the likes of London and Belfast.

Almost any type of CVs can be uploaded, with the tool allowing for PDFs, Word documents and a variety of layouts, but not “anything [that’s an] infographic”.

Soon to set sail?

As yet the tool is only available for those seeking their valuation in the UK, after a rather painless registration with the website – just pop in your email and upload the CV – however Hunter is looking to expand this outside those current borders

“The ‘job search’ engine of our site is live in 11 markets,” he explains. “We are seeing real traction for the tool so we will be making our best efforts to expand internationally, including Ireland.”

That expansion, though, is all down to numbers. If there’s enough interest, then it will make sense. Of course another option is by teaming up with another company, “finding a partner in a local market who can collaborate with us”.

Indeed it’s quite the exciting time for Hunter and his team, with a pretty unique crowdfunding campaign starting tomorrow whereby Adzuna is seeking a shift away from its current VC investment base.

“So that will be interesting,” he says.

More interesting, for us in Ireland, will be when it crosses the border.

CV image, via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt
By Gordon Hunt

Gordon Hunt joined Silicon Republic in October 2014 as a journalist. He spends most of his time avoiding conversations about music, appreciating even the least creative pun and rueing the day he panicked when meeting Paul McGrath. His favourite thing on the internet is the ‘Random Article’ link on Wikipedia.

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