TraceScout Quick guide
Download as PDFYour first ten minutes, and every day after
TraceScout reads the resume you upload, shows you honestly where you fit, and tailors a version for any role without adding anything you did not say. This page walks you through it.
Want the full picture?
Browse current help articles for step-by-step answers, troubleshooting, and each dashboard surface.
See how information is handled in our Privacy Policy.
Your first ten minutes
Five stops, in orderThe home page shows these five stops as a rail with check marks. Each one unlocks the next.
Tell us what you are looking for
Upload your resume
Check what was read
Confirm every line is true
See where you fit
Your career dashboard
Four zones, nine live surfacesAfter you finish the journey and attest your resume, Home becomes your ongoing career dashboard. Each zone answers a different question, and a problem in one summary does not stop the others.
1. Your week
A rolling seven-day look back at meaningful job-search activity, alongside what is current now. It is a recap, not an email or a score.
Your week
2. Act now
The changes and opportunities most likely to deserve attention today.
Opportunity Watch · Career Pulse
3. Keep moving
The practical work already in motion and the setup that shapes what TraceScout shows you.
Your Pipeline · Your search setup
4. Your search context
Career momentum, current market context, watched companies, and anonymous activity on links you shared.
Your progress · Around your search · Companies you're watching · Shared resume activity
Opportunity Watch
Open full viewHighlights top matches at or above your saved threshold. The full page lets you change the threshold and mark the current set reviewed. Watch state belongs to Opportunity Watch; it does not rewrite your matches.
Career Pulse
Open full viewShows meaningful changes since your last review, with a fuller timeline on the Career Pulse page. Its review baseline is independent from Opportunity Watch.
Your Pipeline
A read-only summary of applications, stages, matches, and prepared materials already recorded in TraceScout. Keep application stages current so the summary remains useful.
Your search setup
Summarizes the saved country, target roles, location preference, and active resume version that shape your search. Target roles are also the current role-follow equivalent.
Your progress
Open full viewRecords meaningful career actions such as applications and prepared materials. It is career momentum, not a login streak and not a judgement of effort.
Around your search
Open full viewSummarizes recent public postings using your saved country, target roles, location preference, and remote setting. Small samples may be unavailable or too limited for comparison. It does not estimate salary or infer skills. The market page also compares the last two weeks with the two before and adds plain notes on what that means for your search.
Companies you're watching
Open full viewTracks exact normalized company names you choose in Browse and shows recent public roles for those companies. It does not infer related employers or guarantee a role remains open.
Shared resume activity
Open full viewShows aggregate recent activity for public resume links. Activity is anonymous and unattributed: TraceScout does not know the external viewer's identity, employer, or recruiting role, and does not count unique people.
Every day after that
Use the dashboard to decide what is nextReturn when the search changes
Start with Your week, then check Opportunity Watch and Career Pulse for new items. Use Your Pipeline and Your progress to keep applications moving, Around your search and Company Watch for context, and Shared resume activity for anonymous updates on links you enabled.
Found a role somewhere else?
Job Bank, LinkedIn, an employer site, anywhere. Bring it in and TraceScout treats it like a match.
- On Matches, press Tailor for a posting you found.
- Paste the link, type the title, and paste the full posting text.
- Press Save and open. The card appears with a Your posting badge and is scored within seconds.
Tailor your resume for a role
On any card, press Tailor my resume for this role. It takes a few minutes because every line is checked against your attested resume.
- Reworded lines are marked in amber so you can see exactly what changed.
- Press Show all sources to see which of your lines each new line came from.
- You can create up to five tailored resumes and cover letters combined per day. The counter is on the card.
Get the rest of the pack
Once a role is tailored you can press Generate cover letter for a cover letter, and Build my plan for a 30, 60 and 90 day work plan. An interview preparation tools appear with the application when its status is Interview. A paid Interview Prep Kit is a separate, role-specific product unless an active Search Pass credit covers it. Each generated item is built from your attested lines and the posting; company alignment is not currently recorded for cover letters.
Apply, share, and track
Press Download PDF or Download Word for the tailored resume, then apply on the original posting (the View the posting link takes you there). Press Enable sharing and then Copy link if an employer wants to confirm it was checked. Applications keeps your list in one place.
The marks you will see on screen
What each one meansScore ring. How well the role fits your attested resume, out of 100. The sentence next to it explains why. It never changes colour; a 42 is as honest as a 92.
Verified banner. Every line in this document was checked against your attested resume. It also shows which version it was verified against.
Amber chips. This line was reworded or merged for the role. Click to see the original lines it came from. Unchanged lines carry no chip.
Your posting. A role you brought in yourself. It is private to you, scored like any other match, and never shown to anyone else.
Teal check and open circle. On a match assessment, strengths and gaps are model-reported guidance. A gap means the assessment needs clearer evidence; it does not establish that you lack the ability. Use the prompts to review only facts you can accurately add, then review and attest through Resume. This does not instantly change the score.
Show Evidence. On a tailored resume, this opens the exact attested source statements linked to that document line and names the source version. Match rationale has no line-by-line source map.
Employer wording to review. This shows a literal phrase shared by the posting and a fully sourced, verified tailored line. Wording overlap is not proof that you meet a requirement and is not an ATS score.
Resume design preview. Classic, Compact and Plain show your existing tailored content without changing its wording. The selected layout is also used for PDF and Word downloads.
Before and after wording. This read-only comparison appears only when every tailored line has complete links to a confirmed attested source version. Changes still go through Resume review and attestation.
Resume formatting check. This reviews only the parsed text and sections shown in TraceScout. It does not inspect the uploaded file’s visual formatting or certify ATS results.
Modified after verification. You edited a tailored document after it was checked. Tailor my resume for this role again before you share it, or the verification link will say so.
Draft did not pass verification. The first generated draft was not verified. Your attested resume is unchanged. TraceScout keeps checking for a verified version; you can also try again.
Daily counter. Tailorings used today. It resets every day.
Account, plans, privacy and records
What stays under your controlSign in and account
Sign in keeps your resume versions, applications and purchases with your account. Signing out ends the session on that device; it does not delete records. Preferences change your future search focus without deleting earlier work.
Plans, purchases and credits
Open full viewPlan and billing shows the current product, status, amounts and remaining one-time balance recorded on your account. Use the live pricing and billing screens for current eligibility. Resume-to-Job Tailoring is the discounted Resume Builder-owner path; Application Kit is the standalone path. Interview Prep Kit is a separate role-specific purchase unless an active Search Pass credit covers it.
Deleting a resume version
Read the confirmation carefully. Deleting a source version can retire related active matches, scores, generated outputs and sharing while preserving application history. It does not silently rewrite an assessment to use another source.
Privacy and security
Open full viewUse Privacy for current handling and processor details. Never put passwords or payment information in feedback. Public links expose only their intended resume view; match rationale, practice and private notes stay outside that page.