How to Find the Skill Gaps
on Your CV
Last updated 15 September 2026
Most people guess at what they are missing, and guess expensively. This is the method we built the product around: five steps you can do by hand in an afternoon, a clear test for telling a real gap from a badly described one, and a rule for picking the single gap worth closing first.
Two Things Get Called a Skill Gap. Only One Is
Start here, because getting this wrong is what makes the whole exercise expensive. There is the gap where you cannot do the thing, and there is the gap where you can do the thing and your CV never says so. They look identical on any report, including ours, and they cost completely different amounts to fix.
The second kind is a writing problem and takes an afternoon. The first kind takes weeks or months. In our experience of reading graduate CVs, most of what people arrive believing is the first kind turns out to be the second. Someone convinced they need a data course has run regressions for a dissertation and written the word Dissertation on their CV and nothing else.
So the test before spending anything is simple. Could you do this today if somebody asked you to, with a bit of looking things up? If yes, it is not a gap, it is a sentence you have not written yet. Go and write it.
The Method, By Hand
None of this needs our product. It takes about an hour and it is worth doing once manually, because afterwards you will know what any tool is actually claiming when it hands you a list.
1Collect five to ten real adverts, not one
Pick the actual job title you intend to apply for and gather a handful of live postings for it. One advert is one employer's wish list and will send you after something nobody else asks for. Five to ten lets you see which requirements repeat, and repetition is the only evidence you have about what the role really needs.
2Split essential from desirable, then count
Most postings separate the two and most readers ignore the separation. List every requirement and mark how many of your adverts state it. A requirement in eight of ten is the job. A requirement in two of ten is one team's preference and you can ignore it for now. This count is the whole analysis, and it takes about an hour.
3Mark each one against your own CV, honestly, in three categories
Evidenced means somewhere on your page a reader can see you have done it. Asserted means you claim it in a skills list with nothing behind it. Missing means neither. Be strict about the difference between evidenced and asserted, because a recruiter will be, and the whole method collapses if you flatter yourself here.
4Fix the asserted ones first, because they are free
Anything you can actually do that your CV only asserts is not a skill gap, it is a writing problem, and it costs an afternoon rather than a term. In our experience of reading graduate CVs this is most of the list. People arrive convinced they need six months of study and leave with three rewritten bullet points.
5What is left is your real gap list, and it should be short
Usually one to three items. Rank by how many adverts asked for it, then by how fast you can close it. Take the top one. Not the top three, the top one. Then decide whether it needs a course at all, or whether a project, a piece of volunteering or a better description closes it.
Step one is the part people skip because it is tedious, and nothing on this site can do it for you: the adverts have to be read by a person, and that person is you. Job Scout is a single model call about a job title and a country rather than a job board, so it reads no postings and counts no vacancies. What it returns is a pay band by experience level, a median, employers that hire for the role, the factors that move pay, the skills the model names as in demand for it and a confidence rating, which is worth having before you spend an evening on a title, but it is not the shortlist step two asks you to build.
What Is Not a Skill Gap
Five things that show up on gap lists, including automated ones, and should be struck off before you plan anything around them.
- A skill you have and did not mention. This is the single most common false positive, in our tool and in every other one. Check before you buy anything.
- A requirement one employer out of ten asked for. That is a preference, not a gap in you.
- A years of experience number. You cannot close that with a course and pretending otherwise wastes months. Apply anyway: the number is usually a filter the hiring manager set loosely.
- A tool that takes an afternoon to learn. If the gap is a piece of software rather than a body of knowledge, learn it in an afternoon and use it on something small. No certificate required.
- Something that only appears in adverts for a role one level above the one you are applying for. You are reading the wrong postings.
How Careery Does It, Precisely
Worth spelling out, because most tools that report skill gaps will not tell you what they are comparing against. Careery holds 18 profession standards, carrying 54 named gap areas between them. Each area has its own set of detection keywords. When you upload a CV, the product works out which profession it belongs to, then checks each of that profession's gap areas against both the body text and the named skills block. An area is reported as a gap only when none of its keywords appears in either place.
That design has one consequence you should know about, because it is the same false positive described above. It is a search for the absence of evidence, not a judgement about your ability, so a well described CV returns fewer gaps than a badly described one belonging to the identical person. That is a feature rather than a bug: if the words are not on the page, a recruiter and a keyword filter reach the same conclusion the tool does.
And when nothing is missing it stops talking about gaps. A strong CV used to get an empty panel, which helps nobody, so the product now reads the skills the CV names and suggests where each goes further or compounds with something next to it. None of that is presented as a fault, because a skill already on your CV is not one.
Both figures are counted from the profession standards the product ships, not estimated. There is no statistic on this page about interviews, callbacks or salaries, because we have not measured any of those.
The Gap Areas, and What Closes Them
Six professions, the areas the product looks for in each, and a course from our catalogue that covers one of them. These are the real gap areas, taken from the standards themselves rather than written for this page.
Data Science
Python and data libraries, SQL and databases, statistical analysis, data visualisation
Marketing
Digital advertising on Google and Meta, analytics and data, SEO and content strategy
Computer Science
Cloud computing, machine learning, data structures and algorithms, DevOps and CI/CD
Project Management
Agile and Scrum, formal certification
Finance
Financial modelling, accounting and financial statements, Excel for finance, professional certifications
A course is one way to close a gap and often not the best one. Before enrolling, read are online certificates worth it, which sets out when the credential does real work and when a weekend project would do more. If you decide a course is right, Course Path orders your gaps and names one course against each.
Close One, and Finish It
The most common failure in a graduate plan is not picking the wrong gap. It is picking four and finishing none. A gap closed and demonstrated changes what you can claim on your CV. A gap half closed changes nothing, and four of them take longer than one.
Finished means there is something to point at. Not a certificate, a thing: a small analysis, a repository, a plan, a piece of work for somebody who needed it. That is what turns a closed gap into a line on your CV a reader will believe, and it is also what you will be asked about in the interview.
- How to write the closed gap onto your CV. The entry needs a second line naming what you produced, or it reads as attendance.
- How to improve your CV, in the order that matters. Six steps, with closing a gap deliberately last, because the first five are free.
- Job adverts are not vacancies. Step one asks you to read five real adverts rather than a monthly total, and this is why the total would have misled you.
- How to choose the job to aim for. If you are not yet sure which role you are measuring yourself against, this comes first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a skill gap on a CV?
The distance between what a role expects and what your CV can currently show evidence of. Two things get called a skill gap and only one of them is. If you can do the thing and your CV does not mention it, that is a description problem and it is fixed in an afternoon. If you genuinely cannot do the thing, that is a real gap and it costs weeks or months. Working out which one you have, before spending anything, is the entire point of doing this properly.
How do I find out what skills I am missing?
Take five to ten real adverts for the job you want, not one. Write down every requirement each of them states. Anything that appears in most of them is a genuine requirement of that role rather than one employer's wish list, and that shortlist is what you compare your CV against. One advert tells you about one employer. Five tell you about the job.
How does Careery find skill gaps?
It matches your CV against a standard for your detected profession. There are 18 profession standards in the product, holding 54 named gap areas between them, and each area carries its own detection keywords. An area is reported as a gap only when neither the body of your CV nor your named skills mentions any of those keywords. It is deliberately a search for absence of evidence rather than a judgement about you, which is why a well described CV returns fewer gaps than a badly described one with identical experience.
What if the analysis finds no gaps at all?
Then it stops calling them gaps and shows what to build on instead. A strong CV with nothing missing used to get an empty panel, which is useless. The product now reads the skills your CV actually names and suggests where each one goes further or compounds with something adjacent. None of that is described as a fault, because it is not one.
Which skill gap should I close first?
The one that appears in the most adverts and that you can close soonest, in that order of priority. A requirement in eight of ten postings that takes six weeks beats a requirement in two of ten that takes six months, even if the second sounds more impressive. Close one properly and produce something with it rather than starting three.
Are skill gaps the same as missing keywords?
No, and confusing them is expensive. A missing keyword can mean you have the skill and used a different word for it, which is a rewrite. A skill gap means the capability is not there. Keyword tools that report both as the same thing send people on courses for skills they already have. Check whether you can do it before you accept that you cannot.
Do I need a course to close a skill gap?
Often not. A gap you can close with a weekend project, a piece of volunteer work or a better description of something you already did is cheaper and more convincing than a certificate, because it ends in evidence. A course is the right answer when the gap is a body of knowledge you do not have and cannot pick up incidentally, and when you can name the advert that asks for it.
How many skill gaps should I try to close at once?
One. Closing one gap and producing something demonstrable with it changes what you can claim. Starting four and finishing none changes nothing and takes longer. This is the most common failure we see in graduate plans, and it is a discipline problem rather than an information problem.
More on your CV and your job search
- How to Choose Which Job to Aim For After GraduatingWork backwards from real job adverts rather than forwards from your degree. Five steps to a target you can reach.
- How to List Online Courses on Your CV in 2026Where the certifications section goes, the five parts of one entry, and worked before and after examples.
- What to Put on a CV With No ExperienceThe four things that fill a graduate CV, the order to put them in, and where a course actually helps.
- Best Online Courses to Change Career in the UKEight UK destinations, the domestic credential each needs beside the platform certificate, the funded routes, and the ONS advert count for every occupation.
- How to Plan Your Career Path with Online CoursesA practical method to map your direction, close skill gaps, and change careers.
- How Language Certificates Boost Your CV in 2026Which language certificates employers recognise and how to present language skills professionally.
Get the list instead of guessing at it
Upload your CV with the advert you are aiming at. Careery marks every requirement as evidenced, asserted or missing, so you can fix the asserted ones for nothing and spend only on what is genuinely absent.