ResumeGrade × Shortlist.Me

At a glance

Who each tool is built for

Where Shortlist.Me works well

• •Video interview preparation for students applying to graduate schemes where recorded video screening is standard. Getting comfortable with camera presence and structured responses is a genuine skill, and Shortlist.Me gives students a safe environment to practise before the real thing.
• •Communication skills development for students who need to work on how they present themselves, not just what they put on a CV. Particularly useful for first-generation students who have not had exposure to formal interview contexts.
• •Careers team analytics tracking which students are engaging with interview practice, at what stage, and where drop-off occurs. Useful for understanding engagement across a cohort and identifying students who are avoiding preparation.
• •Strong institutional adoption across UK and Ireland means students in many universities already have access without an additional procurement decision. The platform is embedded in careers service workflows at scale.

Where careers teams hit the ceiling with Shortlist.Me

• •No CV scoring. Shortlist.Me does not evaluate CVs. A student can complete every video module and arrive at a graduate scheme application with a CV that will not pass the initial screen. The careers team has no signal from Shortlist.Me about which students have this gap.
• •No pre-application cohort readiness view. Careers teams cannot use Shortlist.Me to see which students across a cohort have weak applications before the graduate scheme season opens. The visibility it provides is on interview engagement, not application quality.
• •Addresses a later stage in the pipeline. A student needs a strong CV to get to the point where interview practice is relevant. If the CV is not ready, the interview preparation does not help. Shortlist.Me has no mechanism to identify students who are failing at the earlier stage and will never reach the interview threshold.
• •No JD alignment or ATS readiness feedback. Students using Shortlist.Me receive no signal about whether their CV is positioned for the specific roles they are targeting or whether it will survive employer ATS filters before a human ever sees it.

How ResumeGrade fits alongside Shortlist.Me

• •Sequential stages in the same pipeline. Getting shortlisted requires a strong CV. Preparing for the interview that follows requires Shortlist.Me. These are not competing tools. They address distinct stages. ResumeGrade ensures students clear the first gate; Shortlist.Me prepares them for what comes after.
• •Filling the CV quality gap before interview stage. Careers teams using Shortlist.Me have good coverage of interview readiness. What most lack is a systematic view of CV quality across the cohort at the same time. ResumeGrade adds that layer without touching the existing interview preparation workflow.
• •At-risk identification before the application deadline. ResumeGrade flags students whose CVs are below readiness threshold with enough lead time to intervene. Careers advisors know which students need a CV session before they start applying to the roles where Shortlist.Me will eventually be relevant.
• •JD alignment tied to specific graduate roles. Once students know which graduate schemes they are targeting, ResumeGrade lets them score their CV against those job descriptions directly. The feedback is specific to the role, not generic career advice.

The bottom line

Shortlist.Me is genuinely good at what it does. Video interview practice and communication skills development are real gaps for many students, and the platform's reach across UK higher education means most careers teams already have it in their toolkit. If your institution is on Shortlist.Me, there is no reason to change that.

The gap is what happens before the interview stage. A student who cannot get shortlisted never reaches the point where Shortlist.Me matters. ResumeGrade addresses that earlier stage: CV quality, ATS readiness, and cohort-level visibility for careers teams who need to know which students are at risk before applications open. The two tools run in sequence. Institutions with both have coverage across the full pipeline, not just the interview half of it.