What Recruiters Actually Skim in the First Ten Seconds
They aren't reading your life story
Most screeners are looking to determine whether this is the right type of role, whether they can interview you due to the dates, and whether they see one line that proves you did the role. They won't care about your adjectives and if you hide the answers to these three questions in a paragraph about being a passionate go-getter then you've lost your window.
When we test templates we have a stack of printed sample PDFs. The ones that pass have a boring header, current role with dates on the right hand side, and one bullet point that shows the name of a tool or amount. The ones that fail have a photo, a two line address, and a generic summary.
Scanning behaviour you can design for
- Name and City. Can I email this person?
- Current/Latest Role. Does this match the requirement?
- Dates. Any gaps?
- First Bullet Point. Is this work or fluff?
- Skills. Two or three tools from the post.
Everything else is for the interview. Put this below everything else. Don't waste time designing a skills bar. No one in a rush will believe your self-assessed Excel score of 90%.
10 second scan
Eye-tracking studies continually show that the first points people look at are the top left corner (name section). They then scan down the left hand side like a zipped motion. Finally they have one jump to the right, usually on the dates. This means:
- Left column — Roles/Companies. You should use the honest and searchable terms you expect a stranger to see, not the fancy internal terms you use (Accounts Executive vs Associate II, Revenue Pod).
- Right column — Dates. This is why having consistent dates is trusted. Having "2022-Present" and "Jun'21 Mar'22" makes me think you didn't double check your document.
- Centre of page — Only scanned if the left and right column match. This is why you will see the oldest sad truth in recruitment — a brilliant third bullet point will go unread. We designed the entire page around this scanning behaviour in our formats article, but the main takeaway is that the design of your resume should be doing a lot of work for you to help this stranger read your resume really quickly.
Is this the right type of role?
Screeners don't judge your career. They are just comparing your resume to their small dictionary of roles. They will decide whether or not you are the type of person they were told to find in about 3 seconds, comparing your current role, company type and one or two key nouns to their requirement. This is the first gate. This means that many of your rejections will be unfair if you're applying for a "Product Marketing Associate" role but your role is "Content Writer". Even though your bullets match perfectly you don't match their dictionary. We can easily fix this by being honest with our parenthesis (Content Writer — B2B SaaS positioning & launch collateral). This means you're still using the honest terms but you're telling them you match. We also tell you to mention your target role family in the first five words of your summary. This is because the dictionary will be checked before they read a sentence.
Gaps in dates
Everyone is worried about gaps, but screeners won't care if you have a clean gap. If you have messy gaps they will notice. If you have four roles in three years with no pattern they'll stop reading and wonder what's going on. If you have two gaps that overlap with an unmentioned period it becomes a puzzle and they'll solve it by not interviewing you. Lastly, if your dates don't match up you'll lose them. If your role ends in "2023" but your skills list says "Jan 2022" you've created a gap they won't notice. Fix all three issues cheaply by using month and year throughout. Use one format. If your history is a bit bumpy add one line in your summary or underneath explaining why (contracts through an agency, redeployed three times at the same ICU). Messy gaps with an explanation look like they happened in real life. Messy gaps with no explanation look risky. See our career gap guide for exact wording.
First bullet point under current role
If you passed the previous three gates the first bullet point under your current role will be read. It will be read fully in their head. Everything else is optional. This means you need to include your one best honest match. This is the sentence that covers the most overlap between your work and the problem this post is trying to solve. Don't include your most senior achievement or oldest responsibility. Include your most relevant one and reorder it to be at the top. "Own the weekly revenue report used by the VP on Monday mornings" is a much better bullet point than "assisted with reporting tasks" even if you did both. When writing this bullet point, use the camera test from our editing walkthrough — how would you look on camera? What would you be doing at your desk? Mention the object, tool and amount. Your second and third bullet points can be quieter. Just include one strong bullet point per role and you'll have a page full of balanced bullet points.
Second scan
If they passed the ten seconds they will come back later and give you about two minutes. This is when the rest of your resume will be read. Your second role, education, projects, skills and any important certification. This is why we don't want to include too many backup details. We are writing them for the person who actually comes to read them. Most design discussions will be resolved by making your second scan a pleasant experience. Don't compromise the first scan. If your resume looks beautiful in minute two but confusing in minute one it will never be seen. This is why your summary block should be written for the ten second scan but will need to be readable in two minutes. This is why we only include one number and no decoration.
Agencies, In-House HR and Founders will scan differently
When you hear the term recruiter there are actually three different people. In-House HR will be scanning for compliance-based requirements. They'll be looking for your degree, years and required certifications. They'll be checking off boxes. Agency recruiters will be scanning for sellable information. They'll be looking for your current role, company brand and numbers that can be pitched to a client in one line. They'll contact you if your first bullet point is brilliant but your resume is messy. Founders/Hiring Managers will be scanning for the role. They'll know what work looks like as they've done it before. They'll pick up on specifics you wouldn't if you were checking off boxes (Fixed the reconciliation that breaks when a vendor changes GST rates). You can't write three resumes per application but you can write one resume that includes specific facts so all three will pick up on their own signal. This is real audience-aware writing. This is why we use the keyword method in our ATS article.
Test it yourself
Close your document. Get a piece of paper and time how long it takes you to scan through. Write down your three facts that you remembered (Try printing it out. Or use your phone.) Compare your three facts with what you want them to remember. Almost everyone will be surprised by the same two things. They won't have picked up on your proudest achievement and they'll have focused on something minor. These are ordering issues and can be fixed in minutes. Try this every time you make a big change to your template. Even if you know what's on the page your eye will be drawn to different parts. Hiring teams do this to each other. Show your page to a colleague that doesn't work in your field. Give them ten seconds and ask them what I do. This is a free performance review of your first bullet point.
ATS vs Human
The parser wants editable text and standard headings. The human wants the same facts in a relaxed order. These don't conflict. A MineResume Classic layout will achieve both. Pretty columns look premium in a screenshot but messy when parsed.
If you only do one thing after reading this article change your first bullet point under your latest role to start with a verb and mention the actual object you worked with. Export and try the ten-second test with a colleague that doesn't work in your field.