A recruiter spends about 7.4 seconds on the first scan of your resume — that is the average from a 2018 eye-tracking study by The Ladders. In those seconds they check your name, your current title and company, and your two most recent roles. If those match the job you applied for, you get a second look.

So the goal of a resume is not to tell your whole story. It is to make the match obvious in seven seconds, then give the recruiter easy reasons to keep reading. These are the 10 steps that do both.

1. Pick a format that software can read

Most resumes pass through an applicant tracking system (ATS) before a human sees them. ATS software parses text — it does not read columns, graphics, icons or fancy tables the way you do.

• Use one simple column. No sidebars, no two-column layouts.
• Standard headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills.
• Plain fonts (Arial, Calibri, Georgia) at 10–12 pt.
• No photos, logos, icons or infographic “skills meters” — they get stripped or misread.

Reverse-chronological order (newest job first) is the default for a reason: recruiters want your last five years, and ATS software orders jobs by date.

2. Tailor it to the job post — every single time

Generic resumes are the reason the “one resume fits all” advice is dead. ATS software matches keywords, and human recruiters search for specific terms like “project management” or “warehouse” before they even open your file.

• Copy the exact phrases from the job description into your resume where they are true.
• If the post says “led a team of four”, write “led a team of four” — not “managed staff”.
• Match the language of the industry and the company (e.g. “revenue” vs “turnover”).
• Delete anything irrelevant to that exact post. Every extra line dilutes the match.

One master resume with your full history is fine, but the version you send is always a tailored copy.

3. Lead with a two-line summary instead of an objective

A summary answers the recruiter’s first silent question — “who is this?” — in the top three lines of the page, exactly where the 7.4-second scan happens.

• “Senior warehouse operative with 6 years in 3PL distribution, covering inbound, picking and dispatch.”
• “Marketing generalist with 4 years in e-commerce, strong in email campaigns and SEO.”

Skip the objective (“seeking a challenging role where I can grow”). Objectives say what you want; summaries say what you offer. Use an objective only for your very first job application.

4. Turn duties into achievements

“Responsible for customer support” tells a recruiter nothing. “Cut first-response time from 3 hours to 40 minutes by rebuilding the ticket triage” tells them they would gain something.

The formula: [verb] + [what you did] + [how] + [measurable result].

• “Reorganised the warehouse layout, cutting picking time by 15%.”
• “Launched an Instagram channel that grew to 10,000 followers in 6 months.”
• “Reduced monthly car costs by 12% by renegotiating three supplier contracts.”

If you have no numbers, estimate honestly — “roughly”, “about”, “around” — or describe scale: “team of 8”, “120 orders per day”, “3 locations”.

5. Quantify everything that moves

Numbers are the fastest way to look credible, and almost every job can produce them:

• Sales: quota attainment, %.
• Customer service: satisfaction scores, response times, tickets per day.
• Admin: error rates, documents per week, time saved.
• Manual work: units per shift, waste reduced, incidents avoided.

One warning: never invent figures. Rounded, defensible estimates are fine in an interview; made-up numbers are a fireable offence once verified.

6. Write bullets the way a fast reader reads

A recruiter reading quickly will skip the middle of paragraphs and grab the first words of each line.

• Every bullet starts with an action verb: built, led, cut, launched, trained.
• One line per bullet, 3–5 bullets per role, newest role with the most.
• Put the most impressive achievement at the top of each role.
• No paragraphs in the experience section. Ever.

7. Get the header and contact block right

These five items are all a recruiter needs to reach you — keep the block clean and above everything:

• Full name (first and last, no nicknames)
• Phone number with country code
• City — not a full street address
• One professional email (firstname.lastname@ is better than crazycat1998@)
• LinkedIn or a portfolio URL, for office roles and creative jobs

Skip marital status, birth date, religion, or a photo — see the FAQ below. They add noise and can work against you.

8. Handle gaps and short stints honestly

Gaps are normal — the cover-up is what hurts. If your resume has a gap, use the same “achievement” language for what you did:

• Study, courses, certificates during the gap.
• Freelance, caregiving, volunteering, travel.
• “Extended family care, 2023–2024” is honest and needs no apology.

For short stints: keep dates as years (2023–2024), not months, if you have a stretch of other jobs. In interviews, one clean sentence about the reason (“the company closed its local branch”) is enough.

9. Build a skills section that survives a keyword search

Skills sections are cheap, fast matches for ATS and human search alike:

• List hard skills first — software, languages, machinery, certifications.
• Use the exact names the job post uses (“Microsoft Excel” not “spreadsheets”).
• Skip “team player” and “hard worker” — everyone writes them.
• Only list skills you could talk about for five minutes in an interview.

10. Format, proofread, save, name it right

• Save as a PDF — it looks the same on every device. (Word is only needed if the application demands it.)
• Name the file Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf. “Resume_final_v2.pdf” is a small professional signal you do not want to send.
• Check dates are consistent, tenses match within each role, and there are zero typos. A single typo at the top of the page can undo an otherwise strong match.
• Read it out loud and print it on paper — layout errors jump out far more on paper.

The three mistakes that get the most resumes deleted

1. Objective statements. Replace with a summary (step 3).
2. One resume for every application. The 10-minute tailoring pass from step 2 is the highest-return ten minutes in the process.
3. Second-page filler. If the second page holds only “Hobbies: reading, cycling”, delete it and go back to one page.

Once your resume is sending you interviews, the job interview prep guide covers everything that happens next — and when the offer lands, the salary negotiation guide walks through the conversation.

Hero image: Amtec Photos, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a resume be?

One page if you have under ten years of experience, two pages if you have more. Three pages is almost never justified — recruiters skim, so a shorter resume that is easier to scan beats a longer one. For senior roles with ten-plus years, two pages is the norm.

Should I include a photo on my resume?

In the US, UK and most of Scandinavia the answer is no — photos can trigger anti-bias rules and are often stripped by applicant tracking systems. In Germany, Austria and a few other countries photos are still common. When in doubt, leave it out; it never helps a keyword match.

How do I write a resume with no work experience?

Put education and skills first, then add projects, volunteering, school work and part-time jobs. Mirror the wording of the job post — if it asks for 'customer service', your cashier job is customer service. A one-page resume with two or three strong project bullets beats an empty sheet.

What is the difference between a resume and a CV?

A resume is a one-to-two-page marketing document tailored to one job. A CV is a full record — education, publications, awards — used in academia and in most of Europe. If the application says CV, write the longer version; if it says resume, keep it to one or two pages.