Your Resume Has Six Seconds. Here's How to Survive Them.

The first pass on your resume isn't a read; it's a scan. Role, company, dates, one or two numbers — that's what a recruiter absorbs before deciding whether to keep going. If those anchors aren't findable in six seconds, the rest of your resume never gets its turn.

The fix isn't more content, it's hierarchy. Titles and outcomes belong at the start of every line. 'Cut invoice processing time 40% by rebuilding the AP workflow' survives a scan; 'Responsible for accounts payable processes' does not.

Quantify even the unquantifiable: team size, cadence, scope, volume. Numbers are the only thing a scanning eye reliably stops on.

And before any human sees it, the ATS does. Match your keyword architecture to the role you want — not the role you had — and keep formatting boring: standard headings, no tables, no columns. Clever layouts are where good resumes go to die.