LumiCV
Open methodology

The 16-Point Recruiter Rubric

The 16 checkpoints LumiCV uses to score your LinkedIn profile and resume — the way a recruiter actually scans them. Deterministic where possible, AI-graded where needed, open by design.

Run the free audit on your LinkedIn See all 16 checks
9
Deterministic checks
Code-evaluated. Sub-500ms. Zero AI cost.
7
AI-graded checks
Grounded in your profile. Cross-checked against the deterministic layer.
6
Sections covered
Headline · About · Experience · Skills · Completeness · Searchability

The 16 checks

Each check is a signal a recruiter has told us they look for. The list is the same one used in the free LinkedIn audit and in the resume tailoring flow.

Headline

3 checks

The 220-character headline is your top recruiter surface. Most candidates waste it on a job title that matches nobody's search.

1
Target-role keywords present
Boolean searches for your target role surface this profile.
2
Seniority signal present
Senior / Lead / Principal / Director — recruiters filter on these.
3
Differentiator or specialism named
Length sane (20–220 chars) and at least one specialism beyond the title.

About section

4 checks

Recruiters skim the first 270 characters. If there's no hook there, they bounce.

4
Length sane (300–2,600 chars)
Under 300 = thin; over 2,600 = clipped by LinkedIn.
5
Quantified outcomes
At least one metric (number, %, $, or timeframe).
6
Target-role keywords woven in
Not stuffed — present in narrative form.
7
Availability or call-to-action signal
"Open to roles in X" / "Happy to chat about Y" — moves passive readers to inbound.

Experience

3 checks

Experience bullets are where most profiles fail. "Responsible for" is filler; outcomes are signal.

8
Outcome-led bullets (not "responsible for")
At least one bullet uses a power verb: led, built, shipped, scaled, reduced, grew.
9
Quantification rate (≥50% of bullets)
Recruiters scan for numbers. Less than half quantified = generic profile.
10
Target-role tech / tool keywords across recent roles
Stack / tools matching the target role surface across the last two positions.

Skills

2 checks

LinkedIn weights the top 3 pinned skills heavily for recruiter-search ranking.

11
Top-3 pinned skills aligned to target role
The first 3 are the ones recruiters see — they must match the role you want next.
12
Total skill coverage vs role expectations
Compared against the live skill demand for your target role (O*NET + ESCO).

Profile completeness

2 checks

Missing photo or banner = profile flagged as low-effort. Location / visa surfacing affects recruiter shortlist eligibility.

13
Photo and banner present
Both supplied; basic profile-quality signal.
14
Location / remote / visa signals surface
Recruiter filters fail silently when these aren't set.

Searchability

2 checks

A profile that doesn't surface in boolean search for the target role is effectively invisible to inbound recruiters.

15
Boolean-search test for the target role
Simulates a recruiter's boolean query to confirm the profile would appear.
16
Keyword overlap with live JDs for the role
Cross-checks against live job descriptions for the same role family.

Where the rubric runs

LinkedIn profile audit

All 16 checks scored against your target role. Free deterministic score with no signup; full 16-point report after sign-in.

Run the audit

Resume tailoring

Outcome-verb detection, quantification rate, and target-role keyword overlap scored on every resume against any job description.

Tailor a resume

Methodology questions

Why 16 checks specifically?

The 16 checks cover the full surface a recruiter actually scans — headline, about, experience, skills, completeness, and searchability. Each check is one signal a recruiter has told us they look for. We stopped at 16 because every additional check below that line correlated weakly with whether a recruiter would shortlist the profile.

Are the checks deterministic or AI-graded?

Hybrid by design. 9 checks (the structural ones — length, presence of metrics, photo/banner, outcome verbs) run as deterministic code in under 500 ms with no AI cost or risk of hallucination. The remaining 7 (the semantic ones — keyword woven into narrative, role-aligned skills, boolean-search simulation) use AI, but the AI is grounded in your actual profile and rule-checked against the deterministic layer.

Where does the methodology come from?

The check set is built from in-house recruiter interviews and the patterns surfaced in 12 months of LinkedIn audit data. Skill demand is benchmarked against the O*NET (US Department of Labor) and ESCO (European Commission) taxonomies — the same lists labor economists and corporate recruiters use.

Where is the rubric applied?

Two surfaces today. (1) The free LinkedIn profile audit — paste your profile, get the 16 checks scored for your target role. (2) The resume tailoring flow — the same outcome-verb, quantification, and keyword-overlap signals score your resume against any job description.

Can I see the source?

The deterministic scorer is in our codebase at LinkedinDeterministicScorer.php. The full canonical check list lives in LinkedinFullReportService::CHECKS. We publish the methodology here so the score is auditable, not a black box.

See how your profile scores against the 16 checks

Free. No signup required for the headline-level score.

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