The 48-second resume screen

We asked hiring managers on our client side how long they spend on a first-pass resume review. The average answer: under a minute. Here is what fits inside that minute.

The three lines that get read

Current title and company, the last two roles, and one or two achievement lines with numbers. That is the honest core of a first screen. Everything else — skills lists, summaries, certifications — gets skimmed at best.

Design for the skim

One column, generous white space, role titles in bold, achievements starting with verbs and ending with results. If a recruiter cannot extract "what they did, where, with what result" in ten seconds, the resume did not do its job.

Frequently asked questions