EXECUTIVE CV SCREENING AUDIT · £245
Executive CV Screening Audit
Somebody looked at your CV for a few seconds and cut it, and you never found out why. The reason is rarely complicated. It is that nobody in the process is paid to tell you.
Pre-paid. No discovery call. Diary access straight after checkout.
The diagnosis
What the first screen is actually doing
The industry says it is an ATS problem. Keywords and formatting. That story suits the people selling templates.
What actually happens at director level and above is a manual screen. A human being with a pile of profiles and a handful of slots, looking for a reason to cut. The screen runs on title, sector, scale, geography, tenure and money, and it runs before anyone reads for value.
Three questions get answered in that first glance.
If page one leaves any of them open, the reader moves to the next document, and the decline you receive says nothing about your capability, because capability never got a hearing. The gate closed first.
That gate is fixable, because it runs on the paperwork rather than on you.
The difference
Why a headhunter and why this one
Most CV services are run by copywriters. They will tighten the language, improve the layout, perhaps add a personal brand statement.
Reasonable work, and it changes nothing at the gate, because a better-written document still fails the same screen. It does not get past the filter, and it does not put you in front of the board or the person who decides. The people doing that work have never sat on the hiring side of a screen, so they are polishing a document for a reader they have never been.
I have spent thirty years running the employer's side of senior appointments. Shortlisting meetings, board advisories, cross-border searches. I know what the reader is looking for in the seconds you get, because I have been that reader. This audit restructures your document around the decision being made about it.
Deliverables
What you leave with
This is a working audit rather than a feedback session. You leave with four things.
Five-Point Risk Score
Your CV assessed against the five criteria the hiring side actually weighs: positioning clarity, scope and scale, proof density, credibility under interrogation, and signal against noise. Scored and annotated.
Page-One Reconstruction
In the session we work through the top half of page one together, live on a shared screen, so you see what the first scan has to find. Your level, your commercial weight, your value proposition, visible before the reader decides.
Evidence Bullet Formula
The framework used in search documentation to turn responsibility statements into quantified, defensible claims. You build four to six in the session, from evidence that already exists in your career. Nothing invented, because everything must survive interrogation in a live interview.
Screening Hygiene Check
A structure that reads fast and travels reliably through human and automated screening. No design gimmicks and nothing that breaks in transit.
The process
How the audit works
01
Pre-session audit
I assess your CV and target role against the five-point framework before we speak, so the session opens on a diagnosis rather than on introductions.
30 minutes, before we meet
02
Live working session
Zoom, screen shared. We work through the risk score, rebuild the top of page one and build your evidence bullets in real time.
45 minutes, live
03
Fix Map
The annotated score and every recommendation, prioritised and specific enough to execute without further help. The rewriting from there is yours, and the map is built so you can do it.
Inside one business day
In practice
The difference, on the page
A real example from a client engagement, moving one line from role description to decision-ready evidence.
Before
"Led transformation programme across finance and operations."
Common, plausible and weak. It states a responsibility and proves nothing.
After
"Led finance and operations transformation across six countries and fourteen sites, on a £240m cost base with an £8.5m programme budget, redesigning order-to-cash and procure-to-pay. Result: £12.4m run-rate benefit and a nineteen-day improvement in cash conversion within twelve months."
Every figure existed already in the client's career. The audit selected the evidence and structured it so the reader's decision became obvious.
No invented metrics.
Everything in your document must survive interrogation in a live interview. Where the evidence for a claim is missing, we mark it, and I tell you which data points to gather before your next application.
Who conducts your audit
Mark Ross Roberts
Founder and Principal, Headhunters International.
Three decades in international executive search and senior advisory, on the hiring side of the table. Four published books on executive positioning and career strategy. Wharton Executive Education in Executive Presence and Leadership and in Neuroscience in Leadership, and a Harvard Medical School credential in Lifestyle and Wellness Coaching.
Principal-led means exactly that. Mark Ross conducts every audit himself, with nothing delegated and no associates involved.
Questions
Before you book
Why does my CV keep getting rejected when I'm well qualified?
Because qualification is not what the first screen tests. At senior level a human reader with a stack of profiles and a few slots scans for title, sector, scale, tenure and money before reading for value, then cuts on the first reason found. A capable executive whose page one does not answer those questions fast enough gets declined without the capability ever being read. It is a paperwork problem and it can be fixed. The audit shows you what your screen is doing and how to clear it.
Do headhunters charge candidates a fee?
Almost never, because the employer pays them, and that is the part most people miss. A headhunter working a live role is paid by the company filling it, so the service is built around the client who pays, which is not you. Headhunters International works the opposite way. You are the client, the fee is yours, and the findings answer to your interests rather than an employer's brief. The Executive CV Screening Audit is £245, paid by you, conducted by Mark Ross Roberts.
What does a headhunter actually look for in a CV?
The same three questions every senior screen runs on. Whether you operate at the level of the role, where the commercial evidence sits, and whether appointing you could be defended to the board. Most CVs answer the first weakly and leave the other two to guesswork. The audit is run by someone who has made that judgement from the hiring side for thirty years, so you read your own document the way the decision-maker reads it.
Is this a CV rewrite?
No. It is a diagnosis of why your document is being cut at the first screen, with the fix mapped. We rebuild the top of page one together in the session so you see what the first scan has to find, and the Fix Map gives you every remaining change, prioritised. The rewriting from there is yours. Where an executive wants the full document built rather than mapped, that is the Career Memorandum, which is a different service at a different depth.
Why would I pay for this when headhunters have always been free?
Every headhunter you have ever dealt with was paid by the employer, which is why the service cost you nothing and why it was never built around you. In a senior process the panel is buying, the consultant is selling to the panel, and nobody is paid to tell you why your document keeps failing the screen. This audit is the opposite arrangement. You are the client, and the findings answer to you alone.
How do I know the assessment is honest rather than a sales pitch for more services?
The Fix Map is specific enough to execute without further help, and it says so on this page because it is true. If your document scores well, I tell you that too, and the session becomes about the one or two things holding it back. There is no discovery call before checkout because there is nothing to be sold on one.
What happens after the Executive CV Screening Audit?
You leave with the Fix Map and you execute it yourself. If your situation needs the full document built, or representation into the market, those services exist and I will tell you plainly whether they fit. There is no obligation and no follow-up sales call. Most people take the map and get on with it.
What do you need from me before the session?
Your current CV and the role or type of role you are targeting. I complete a structured assessment against the five-point framework before we speak, so the 45 minutes opens on findings rather than on introductions.
Is it confidential?
Entirely. Most clients are in role and cannot be seen to be looking. Nothing is shared, nothing is public, and the session sits in a private diary.
Who actually conducts the audit?
Mark Ross Roberts, in person, every time. Nothing is delegated and there are no associates on delivery.
Get started
Find out what the reader is actually seeing
The screen does not announce itself. It just keeps closing, application after application, while you conclude the problem is you. Forty-five minutes tells you what the reader is actually seeing.
£245
Pre-paid · No discovery call · Diary access straight after checkout
If you would rather ask a question first, email Mark Ross directly at ross@headhunters-international.com