The human side

How long do recruiters look at a resume?

About 7 seconds on the first scan, according to a Ladders eye-tracking study. That is not the whole read; it is the triage that decides whether a longer read happens. The scan hunts for your current title, your trajectory, and anything concrete enough to catch on.

Seven seconds sounds insulting until you picture the pile it comes from. Triage is how a human survives volume, and it rewards a specific layout: the important facts where the eyes go first, the top third of page one, stated in plain nouns and numbers.

Write for the scan, then for the read. Your last title, your strongest result, and the skills the posting named belong up top. If those seven seconds find a reason to keep going, the rest of the resume finally gets its audience.

“You get 7 seconds, and your resume spends them on a paragraph about being a motivated self-starter.”

Gabe, Pursuit's truth-teller

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