Frequently Asked Questions

Note: If you are a user, then please refer to our help centre for frequently asked questions and support.

What is CareerSet?

CareerSet is a technology-enabled employability platform designed to help students and job seekers strengthen their applications, explore career options and stand out in competitive job markets. The platform includes a suite of products covering CV feedback (ScoreMyCV and ScoreMyCV AI+), application tailoring (TargetMyCV), cover letter feedback, LinkedIn profile optimisation, interview practice and career exploration (Career Map). Career Insights is available as an optional feature within TargetMyCV where enabled by the institution. Some core CareerSet products operate without third-party AI, while others incorporate AI-supported functionality where the institution has enabled the relevant product or feature. CareerSet combines intelligent feedback tools with powerful insights to deliver high-impact career support at scale.

Who does CareerSet work with?

CareerSet works with higher education institutions, careers teams and organisations supporting individuals throughout their career development. Our partners include:

• Higher education institutions such as universities, business schools and colleges looking to strengthen student employability at scale.
• Careers and employability teams seeking scalable, data-driven tools to support application improvement and career preparation.
• Employers and outplacement providers helping professionals strengthen their applications and transition into new roles.

How can CareerSet support our careers team?

CareerSet is your AI partner for employability, helping your careers team deliver consistent, high quality support while improving outcomes for every student or job seeker you support.

• Extended reach: Provide personalised CV, cover letter, LinkedIn and interview feedback 24/7 to support every student or job seeker.
• Stronger support: Give students and job seekers modern tools to tailor applications, improve relevance and perform better in recruitment systems.
• Improved sessions: Use feedback, analytics and user insights to focus appointments on what matters most.

Our services align with three primary strategic objectives that are typically top-of-mind for career centres:

• Increasing engagement: Our online solutions help career centres boost student engagement and reach all students in an efficient manner.
• Using data insights: We enable the use of data to monitor, understand, and improve student employability and graduate outcomes.
• Integrating employability: We help career centres embed employability as part of the curriculum and integrate it with courses, modules, and activities.

If you're interested in learning more about how our solutions can help your career centre achieve these strategic objectives, please don't hesitate to contact us.

What does an implementation process look like?

At CareerSet, we have designed our implementation process to be straightforward for our career centre partners. Our standard implementation is lightweight and does not require technical integration or IT resource from the institution. CareerSet provides an institution-specific access page and manages the standard setup, configuration and testing. A standard implementation can typically be completed in approximately one working week.

When we partner with a career centre, we launch a dedicated portal with a unique URL, such as careerset.com/institution. This allows us to offer certain customisations during the implementation process.

Optional SSO or system integrations may require involvement from the institution's technical team and should be scoped separately.

Once you have had a chance to evaluate our solutions, we can follow up with a proposal tailored to your specific needs. Our proposal will include a detailed implementation plan for your consideration.

Can you support our internal approval process?

Yes. Many of our customers operate within organisations where approvals are required across several teams, such as IT, data protection, procurement or legal. We are experienced in supporting these processes and aim to make them as straightforward as possible.

Once you decide to move forward, we can assist with completing approval documents, responding to technical or privacy questions, and working directly with relevant colleagues where helpful. Our goal is to help ensure a smooth and efficient path to implementation.

How does CareerSet compare to other CV or interview feedback tools?

CareerSet is a specialist employability platform. CV feedback and interview preparation are not simply features within a larger system for us. They are the core of what we do. This focus allows us to develop high-quality tools that meet the real needs of careers teams and deliver a strong experience for students or job seekers. Here is how we compare:

1. A broader employability suite: CareerSet supports the full application journey through CV feedback, application tailoring, Career Map for career insights and role exploration, cover letter feedback, LinkedIn profile optimisation and interview practice. Together, these tools help students or job seekers prepare more effectively for real recruitment processes.
2. Designed for learning and improvement: CareerSet is built to support learning and application improvement. The platform helps students or job seekers understand how to strengthen their applications step by step, rather than simply generating rewritten content.
3. Aligned with customer needs: CareerSet works closely with careers teams, higher education institutions and other customer organisations to ensure the platform aligns with their guidance and employability strategy. Customers can customise resources, scoring approaches and feedback guidance, supported by dedicated account management and continuous product development.
4. Responsible AI and data handling: CareerSet applies a controlled, product-specific approach to AI. Some core products operate without third-party AI, some AI features are institution-enabled and student-selected, and some products use AI as part of their core functionality once enabled by the institution. CareerSet currently uses OpenAI and Mistral AI under business/API arrangements where submitted CareerSet content is not used to train or improve their general-purpose models.

As a result, careers teams and other organisations can provide students or job seekers with high-quality employability tools that complement existing systems while maintaining confidence in the platform's reliability, privacy standards and ongoing development.

Are you GDPR compliant (UK and Europe)?

CareerSet is fully compliant with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Where applicable, we also comply with the EU GDPR. We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZA557721.

We rely on appropriate lawful bases for processing personal data. For core platform functionality, the primary basis is performance of a contract with the user. Legitimate interests apply to security, support, administration and service improvement. Consent applies where used for genuinely optional features. Legal obligation applies where relevant.

We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risks associated with the data processed. CareerSet follows strict data minimisation principles, meaning we only process the minimum information required to deliver our services.

How does CareerSet handle data protection in the United States?

CareerSet applies strong data protection and security standards across its services, including data minimisation, appropriate technical and organisational security measures, and controls over how personal data is shared and processed.

Personal data is not sold or monetised, and users can exercise applicable rights in accordance with CareerSet's Privacy Policy and relevant law.

Where CareerSet works with institutions in the United States, institution-specific privacy or regulatory requirements can be reviewed as part of the approval and contracting process.

What does information security at CareerSet look like?

Users accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy before accessing the service. Users retain their applicable rights under UK GDPR, including the right to access, rectify and request deletion of their personal data in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

Under CareerSet's standard implementation, institutions are not required to provide or transfer student personal data to CareerSet. Students register independently via a dedicated institution login page and submit their own content directly to the platform. Institutions normally provide only their academic email domain or domains for whitelisting. Optional SSO or Career Centre Management System integrations may involve a scoped exchange of data and are implemented separately where requested by the institution.

In relation to user data, we implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risks involved. CareerSet works only with a small number of trusted infrastructure and technology providers required to operate the platform.

We follow strict data minimisation principles, meaning we process and retain only the information necessary to deliver our services. CareerSet works directly with careers teams and authorised organisations and does not monetise user data or generate revenue through third-party data use.

CareerSet can provide supporting documentation as part of any approval or procurement process, including an Information Security Key Points overview, a Data Processing Overview, Data Processing Information for DPAs, a standard Data Processing Agreement, an Information Security Policy, our Service Level Agreement, accessibility documentation and insurance evidence. Please contact us for further information.

What is your pricing model?

CareerSet works directly with higher education institutions, careers teams and other organisations supporting students or job seekers. We do not involve intermediaries or monetise user data in any way.

Our pricing is typically based on the size of the organisation, expected user numbers and any customisations required. We offer a range of standard plans and can tailor our approach to meet specific needs. For more information about pricing, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss the options with you.

What kind of checks and feedback do you offer?

CareerSet supports students and job seekers across the full application journey. Products include:

• ScoreMyCV: instant CV feedback on content, structure and impact.
• ScoreMyCV AI+: a separate configuration of ScoreMyCV designed for multilingual CV submissions and feedback.
• TargetMyCV: helps users tailor their CV to a specific role by comparing it against a submitted job description. Career Insights, available within TargetMyCV where enabled by the institution, provides additional AI-supported insights about the role and relevant skills.
• Cover Letter Feedback: feedback on writing quality, structure and relevance.
• LinkedIn Profile Optimisation: section-by-section feedback to help users strengthen their professional online presence.
• Interview Practice: personalised mock interviews and feedback based on the user's CV, target role and interview context.
• Career Map: AI-supported career exploration and insights based on a role, industry, job description or CV.

Users receive clear, actionable guidance to improve application quality, tailor documents to specific roles, strengthen their online professional presence and prepare for interviews through realistic, role-based practice and personalised feedback.

How does CareerSet help candidates navigate recruitment systems and ATS?

Many employers use recruitment systems and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter and rank applications based on how well they match a role. CareerSet helps students understand and optimise how application documents may be read and interpreted by recruitment systems, before they apply.

CareerSet's tools include machine-readability checks that assess whether a CV can be read clearly by automated systems, ATS-related analysis, job description tailoring through TargetMyCV to highlight relevant keywords and skills, and insights into how recruiters and automated systems may assess application documents. These tools help candidates better understand and align their applications with employer expectations.

What kind of customisations do you offer?

Institutions determine which CareerSet products and optional features are made available to their students. Optional AI features, including AI WriteCoach and machine-readability checks, can be enabled or disabled at institution level. ScoreMyCV and ScoreMyCV AI+ are separate configurations with different capabilities, allowing institutions to select the appropriate option for their student cohort.

To ensure our feedback aligns with your guidance and employability strategy, CareerSet also offers several customisation options across resources, scoring and feedback. Some institutions identify preferences during the trial phase, while others choose to refine these during the licensing period through regular business review meetings.

• Resources: CV templates can be replaced with your own templates and additional career resources can be made available to students or job seekers through the platform.
• Scoring: The strictness of scoring and the weighting of individual scoring criteria within the overall CV score can be adjusted based on institutional preferences.
• Language: Feedback wording can be adjusted where needed, provided it remains aligned with recognised CV writing best practices and employer expectations.
• Interviews: Custom interview templates can be created to support specific needs, including fixed questions, dynamic questions (generated based on a CV or job description), or blended interview formats.

Can you customise the actual feedback?

We are able to accommodate customisations in the categories above, but we look for generally applicable best practices in the market when it comes to the actual feedback. We are more than happy to consider customisations as long as they are relevant to other institutions in the market as well. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our solutions and add new checks, and would be glad to learn more about your specific requirements. If you have any questions about our customisation options, please don't hesitate to contact us.

What is your authentication method?

By default, CareerSet uses secure passwordless (magic link) authentication. Your institution's academic email domains are whitelisted, and students log in simply by entering their email address to receive a unique one-time link. Clicking the link authenticates them for one session. This approach requires no IT resource from the institution, no passwords are stored, and access automatically becomes unavailable when a student's institutional email is deactivated.

For institutions that require Single Sign-On, CareerSet supports SAML 2.0 SSO and has experience implementing direct integrations with Shibboleth, Microsoft Entra ID / Azure AD, Google SSO and OpenAthens. SSO integrations require a scoping conversation with the institution's technical team. Please reach out to us to discuss your requirements.

What kind of customer support do you offer?

We offer various channels for user support, including our 24/7 online help centre, as well as email and phone support from 09:00 to 17:30 UK time, Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays. Our team takes care of all support-related issues for users.

For careers teams, we provide a dedicated account manager. Customer success is a top priority for us, and we ensure this through quarterly business review meetings, as well as remaining available for ad-hoc support. We support our partners with the necessary marketing material to promote CareerSet to their students or job seekers. Our account managers are focused on helping customers get the most out of our solutions, optimise engagement and achieve their goals.

Is CareerSet available in other languages?

Yes. CareerSet now supports multilingual CV feedback through ScoreMyCV AI+.

ScoreMyCV AI+ is a separate configuration of ScoreMyCV designed to support CV submissions and feedback in multiple languages.

CareerSet's wider platform and other products may remain primarily English-language depending on the product and configuration. If multilingual support is important to your institution, please contact us to discuss the required languages and the most appropriate CareerSet configuration.

What sort of analytics do you offer?

Career centre admin accounts contain two functions: analytics and student search.

The analytics dashboard provides visibility of activity across the products enabled for the institution. Depending on product and activity, this can include user sign-up and registration counts, submission and upload counts, submission dates, scores and feedback reports. Data can be filtered by relevant date ranges, including upload date and join date, and is displayed graphically for easy review.

The student search function allows careers staff to search for individual students by name or email address and view their activity and results per product. Authorised careers staff can access individual student feedback reports at any time, enabling them to prepare for and personalise career guidance sessions.

Data is fully exportable in CSV or Excel-compatible format for further analysis or use with institutional systems and BI tools. Where cohort, course or campus-level reporting is required, the recommended approach is to match exported CareerSet activity data against the institution's own authoritative student data source.

What type of integrations do you offer?

Student activity and results can be viewed at any time via the career centre admin account. CareerSet does not offer a general-purpose public API, but supports optional integrations with Career Centre Management Systems where requested by the institution. Current examples include Symplicity CareerHub and Group GTI / TARGETconnect, which can support embedded access, activity and score synchronisation, and workflow design. These integrations are optional and are not required for CareerSet's standard implementation. Usage data can also be exported in CSV or Excel-compatible format for use in institutional systems or BI tools. Any new integration involving student personal data is separately scoped and may require a privacy and data-protection review. If you have specific integration requirements, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss the options.

Which CareerSet products use third-party AI?

CareerSet uses a product-specific AI model:

• No third-party AI required: core ScoreMyCV, TargetMyCV and Cover Letter Feedback.
• Optional AI features: AI WriteCoach, Machine Readability / AI Checks and Career Insights. The institution determines whether the feature is available and, where enabled, the student chooses whether to use it.
• AI integral to an enabled product: ScoreMyCV AI+, LinkedIn Profile Optimisation, Interview Practice and Career Map. The institution controls whether these products are made available to students.

CareerSet currently uses OpenAI and Mistral AI for the relevant AI-supported functionality. CareerSet uses these providers under business/API arrangements under which submitted CareerSet content is not used to train or improve their general-purpose models.

Could you offer us a trial?

Certainly! We would be happy to offer you a trial of CareerSet. Our trial program gives you unlimited access to our platform for a fixed period of time, so you can invite as many colleagues and students as you like to try it out. Please note that trial accounts don't include analytics, but we can share the trial results with you manually.

To learn more about our trial program and to schedule a demo, please contact us. We will be happy to discuss the details with you and help you get started with CareerSet.

Anything else?
If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, please get in touch via email.