Resume examples that pass the 7-second screen

The 7-second screen

A recruiter decides in about 7 seconds whether to keep reading your resume. In TheLadders' eye-tracking study, 30 recruiters were watched over 10 weeks in 2012. They spent about 6 seconds on the first look. A 2018 update put it at 7.4 seconds. Almost 80% of that time went to your name, your current and previous titles and companies, the dates, and your education.

That number has a limit. It measures the first keep-or-toss look, not the full read. Pass it, and the rest gets read. And 30 recruiters is a small sample, so treat it as a pattern, not a law. Sources: TheLadders study (2012, PDF) and HR Dive on the 2018 update.

In Andrey's experience screening 10,000+ resumes, the first pass always looks the same. Nobody reads a resume top to bottom on the first pass. The eye jumps to the title, the years, the skills the job post asked for and one result that stands out. A strong resume shows in those seconds, because its first line already says who you are and what you're good at.

So in every example below, the title and summary carry the job post's words. Every job opens with a result, and skills sit in one labeled block.

6 full resume examples, annotated

Each one is a complete one-page resume in a single column, the layout that reads cleanly on a screen and in an applicant system. The numbered notes say why each line works. Pick the role closest to yours and copy the shape.

The pattern behind every example

All 6 resumes have the same 5 parts, in the same order: a header with your title, a summary, experience, education and skills. Jobs that need a license, like nursing and teaching, show it right under the name. That's where the recruiter looks first.

Keep it to one page until you have about 10 years of relevant experience. The reader stops where the page stops. Two pages make sense after that, or after many short roles.

Every resume answers two questions for the person screening it: why you, and why this company. The first is about standing out from other applicants. The second is the one most people skip. Your resume should make this job look like your obvious next step.

Think of a resume as a sales page for one product. The job post is the buyer's shopping list, so the post's words have to be on your page. The first screen may be done by a recruiter who doesn't work in your field, and by software that searches for those words. If the post says "A/B testing" and you wrote "experiments", change it. It's the same work in the recruiter's words.

A resume isn't your biography. It's the shortest proof that you can do this job.

Resume summary examples (professional summary)

A summary is 3 to 4 lines at the top. It tells the reader, at a glance, what kind of resume they are holding. Use this formula, in any order that reads well:

• Title
• Years
• 2 to 3 core skills
• One result

Use your title as the market calls it, not your company's internal name for it. Skip "seeking" and "hard-working". Write the summary last, after the bullets: your best bullet becomes its result line. The first card below shows the formula in color.

Resume objective examples

An objective says what you want. A summary says what you bring. Use an objective in two cases: you have no paid experience yet, or you're changing fields and your current title would confuse the reader. Everyone else should use a summary.

Keep it to 2 lines. Name the role, the one thing you bring and where you want to bring it.

Fix this bullet

The bullet formula has four parts in one line: accomplished X, as measured by Y, by doing Z. Our version adds the tools.

• Result
• Measured by
• What you did
• Tools

Lifted 30-day retention 6 points by running 40+ A/B tests on onboarding with the product team, using SQL and Python.

Two rules from 10,000+ screened resumes make the formula work for any job. First, if you can't measure the result, state the purpose. "Analyzed data" becomes "Analyzed funnel data to decide which 3 onboarding steps to cut. The product team shipped all 3." That's the purpose, plus what happened next.

Second, scale is a result. Users served, countries covered, requests a day, students a year. "Built a billing system" is a task. "Built the billing system that takes payments from customers in 140 countries" is a result.

Results come in 4 kinds. Every bullet should show at least one:

• Something went up: revenue, retention, speed.
• Something bad went down: bugs, tickets, wait time, cost.
• Someone's work got easier: a team, a client, a department.
• Your work reached a scale: users, sites, countries.

Each card shows a weak bullet and then its fix.

"Helped", "assisted", "participated" and "responsible for" read as "stood nearby". Say what you did, then add "with the product team" if it was a team effort. Everyone knows no project is one person's work.

Never add a tool, a title or a number you can't defend in the interview. The interview is where every bullet gets tested.

Skills for a resume

Put your skills in one block with 2 or 3 labeled groups at most: for example Technical, Tools and Languages, or Clinical, Systems and Leadership. The 3 or 4 skills the job post names first go first. Use the post's exact words. If it says "A/B testing", don't write "experimentation".

Three things never to do with skills:

• Rate them. Stars, "7/10", "basic" and "intermediate" tell the reader what you're bad at. The interview will test your level anyway.
• List everyday software. Word, email and "internet" take space and say nothing.
• Invent your own groups. "BI and code and other" gives the eye nothing to hold on to.

Skills to put on a resume, by role

The words that died

• team player
• detail-oriented
• hard-working
• results-driven
• good communicator

These were in every resume, so the eye now skips them. Show each one with a bullet instead. A cross-team result shows teamwork. A zero-error number shows attention to detail.

Resume action verbs

Here are 60 verbs, grouped by the kind of result they describe. Pick the group first, then the verb. The blue verbs come with an example bullet under their group.

Also skip rare, showy verbs like "spearheaded" and "orchestrated". Job posts don't use them, and your resume should read like the post. "Aligned" works when it means a result: "brought 3 teams to one plan".

Use past tense for past jobs and present tense for your current one. Start every bullet with the verb. One exception: "Fully responsible for" can mark an entire scope, at most once.

7 mistakes that cost the interview

In Andrey's experience screening 10,000+ resumes, these 7 come up again and again. Each one can cost the interview.

1. Formatting that fights the reader. Three fonts, two bullet styles, a third color, uneven spacing. Fix: one font, one bullet style, two colors, the same punctuation in every bullet.

2. Skills with ratings. Stars or "basic" tell the reader what you are bad at. Fix: list the skill or leave it out.

3. Typos and grammar slips. They turn up often, and they cost the interview. Fix: read it aloud, then have a tool or a friend read it.

4. Bullets nobody can picture. "Settled accuracy with investors." Fix: a finished story with a result, in plain words.

5. Process, no result. "Wrote code. Built reports. Ran tests." Fix: the bullet formula above. If there is no number, state the purpose or the scale.

6. Vague team words. "Helped", "participated", "several". Fix: your part, with a number.

7. Logic gaps. Different titles for the same work, or 6 years of an old career above 1 year of the new one. Fix: one title across similar roles, and more lines for the recent, relevant work.

Resume questions, answered

Related resume pages

• Resume templates you can fill in today
• Cover letter examples for the same 6 roles
• Interview questions, with a strong and a weak answer each
• How AirCareer tailors your resume to each job
• How AirCareer applies for you