User guide

1. Getting started

1. Sign in with your email. We send a six-digit code that works for 10 minutes. There's no password to remember.
2. Upload your CV on the Profile page: PDF, Word (.docx) or HTML, up to 5 MB. Claude reads your skills, platforms, deal types, sectors, roles and achievements, then gives your CV a score with "Fix first" suggestions. You can upload a new version at any time.
3. Set your search terms: target roles, disciplines, type of work, day-rate floor, IR35, the date you're available, locations, the most on-site days you'll do, travel, right to work and languages. You can also list sectors to avoid, and agencies or clients not to contact.
4. Your first search starts when you save. After that, it runs every morning at 06:00 UK time.

You can keep more than one search profile, for example one for programme director roles and one for interim CIO roles. On the Profile page, Show matches picks which one Today's matches shows, and you can Pause, Resume or End search on each.

2. Your matches

Where roles come from

We read the job pages of specialist interim and contract agencies every day, and run up to 5 targeted web searches a day for roles on other sites. We follow each site's robots.txt, never read LinkedIn, and always link back to the original listing. If an agency you use is missing, suggest it on the Profile page under Missing an agency?.

What we leave out

Before anything reaches you, we hide roles that:

• are closed, filled or taken down, or are past their closing date
• were posted more than 60 days ago, unless the agency still lists them
• pay below your day-rate floor, or don't match your IR35 choice
• need a language you haven't listed, or more on-site days than you'll do
• are with an agency, client or sector you asked us to avoid

The top of Today's matches says how many were hidden. Show why lists each one with its reason.

How each role is rated

• Strong: you've clearly done this kind of role at this scale.
• Partial: a real match with one notable gap.
• Stretch: plausible, but with a significant gap.

Each match says in one line why it fits and what the gap is, so you can decide quickly.

What you can do with a match

• Shortlist and draft adds it to your pipeline and drafts the application.
• Hide it removes it. Pick a reason, such as "Rate too low" or "Wrong location", and the next search takes it into account.
• More like this tells the next search to look for similar roles.
• View listing opens the original advert.

Search again runs a fresh search straight away, up to 3 times a day.

3. Application packs

When you shortlist a role, Claude drafts an application email (a subject line and 120 to 180 words) and a one-page cover letter. It uses only the facts in your CV and the listing, and takes about 30 seconds. The pack page also shows why the role fits and the gaps to address.

The claim check

A second check matches every sentence against your CV. Any sentence it can't support is removed. The pack then shows either Every claim traced to your CV or how many sentences were removed; open What the claim check removed to see them. Claude can still make mistakes, so read the pack before you send it. You're responsible for what you send.

Editing

Edit the email or letter in place and press Save as new version. Every version is kept, and you can switch between them. A version you've edited is marked "Edited by you", as a reminder to check any claims you've added.

Downloads

Download letter (.docx) gives you the cover letter as a Word file, and Download CV gives you the original file you uploaded.

4. Sending and following up

Send it from your own email

Open in Gmail, Open in Outlook and Open in Mail open a ready-made draft in your own email. Attach your CV and the letter, then press send. Replies come straight to you. If the listing has no recruiter email, add one in the To box. On a phone, Open in Mail is the most reliable, and it helps to download the CV and letter first.

If the role only takes applications through a web form, use Copy subject, Copy email and Copy letter to paste each part into the form. CareerVertex never submits forms or sends applications for you.

Mark as applied

Once you've sent it, press Mark as applied. That records the date and sets up your reminders.

Reminders

If you haven't updated the role 5 and then 10 working days later, we email you at 9am. Weekends and bank holidays don't count. Each reminder has:

• one-tap buttons: Interview, Rejected or Nothing yet. Each asks you to confirm, and the buttons work for 14 days.
• a ready-written chaser, with an Open in Gmail link

Today's matches also shows a Follow up card with Draft a chaser. Changing the role's status stops its reminders.

5. Your pipeline

Every role you shortlist moves through these stages: Shortlisted → Applied → Recruiter contacted → Interview → Offer → Accepted. It can also close as Rejected, Not pursuing or Filled or closed.

• Board shows each stage as a column. Table lets you change the status and keep a next step and notes for each role.
• Contacts lists the recruiters from roles you've shortlisted, with their roles and when you last contacted them.
• Export to Excel downloads your tracker: fit, role, agency, location, rate, why it fits, gaps, status, next step and notes, plus a Contacts sheet.
• Share with a helper makes a read-only link to your pipeline for someone helping your search. It's shown once, so copy it straight away. Making a new link turns off the old one, and Turn off the current link stops it at any time.

Accepted ends your search. When you mark a role as accepted, all your searches stop, so there are no more daily searches or emails. Your history is kept for 12 months.

6. Emails from us

We send three kinds of email, all from [email protected]:

• Sign-in codes, whenever you sign in. These always come.
• The daily digest, on mornings when the search finds new matches.
• Follow-up reminders, 5 and 10 working days after you apply.

Turn the digest or reminders off under Account → Emails, or with the link at the bottom of each email. With reminders off, the next chase still shows in your pipeline.

7. Free use and the Search Pass

• Free: a CV check and one search showing your top 3 matches.
• Search Pass, £49: 30 days paid once, with no automatic renewal. It includes the daily search, all your matches, 20 application packs and the pipeline. Only first drafts count towards the 20 packs; editing a pack doesn't use another.

Payment is by card through Stripe. The top of each page shows how many days your pass has left.

8. Your account and data

Your initials, top right, open your account. There you can change your name (it signs the chasers in your reminders; letters use the name on your CV), choose your emails, sign out or delete your account. Deleting removes your CVs, searches, matches, packs and pipeline straight away, and can't be undone.

Claude, from Anthropic, reads your CV to find your skills and to draft your applications. Anthropic doesn't use it to train its models. We never extract or store health, ethnicity, religion or other special-category details. Your data is deleted 12 months after your search ends. The privacy page has the details.

9. Common questions