Choose from a wide range of NEWCV resume templates and customize your NEWCV design with a single click.
Use ATS-optimised Resume and resume templates that pass applicant tracking systems. Our Resume builder helps recruiters read, scan, and shortlist your Resume faster.
Use professional field-tested resume templates that follow the exact Resume rules employers look for.
Create Resume
Use professional field-tested resume templates that follow the exact Resume rules employers look for.
Create ResumeMany candidates imagine recruiters carefully reading every line. That is not how high-volume hiring works.
A recruiter reviewing 100 to 300 applicants for a role cannot spend several minutes on each resume during initial screening. The first pass is usually a rapid pattern-recognition exercise.
The goal is not:
The goal is:
That distinction changes everything.
During those few seconds, recruiters are making fast judgments based on structure, relevance, and positioning.
A poorly organized but qualified candidate can lose to a less experienced candidate with a cleaner, more targeted resume.
Most candidates think recruiters start at the top and read line by line.
They don't.
Eye-tracking studies and recruiter behavior consistently show predictable scanning patterns.
Typical scan order:
Current or most recent job title
Company names
Dates of employment
Career progression
Skills or keywords
Education if required
Location
Evidence of measurable results
This scan determines whether the recruiter continues.
Here's what often happens mentally:
"Senior Marketing Manager."
"Five years at a SaaS company."
"Led growth campaigns."
"Matches B2B background."
"Has demand generation experience."
"Keep reading."
Or:
"Marketing background."
"Different industry."
"Hard to tell what they actually did."
"Resume feels vague."
"Move on."
The decision is frequently made before the recruiter reaches the bottom of page one.
Candidates often assume fast rejection means recruiters are careless.
Usually, the issue is clarity.
Recruiters are solving a filtering problem under time pressure.
If understanding your fit requires effort, you create friction.
Common reasons resumes fail early:
Generic headlines
Missing target job titles
Dense walls of text
Lack of measurable outcomes
Unclear responsibilities
No industry relevance
Keyword mismatch
Confusing formatting
Long summaries with no value
The strongest resumes reduce interpretation work.
The recruiter should not have to "figure out" your story.
Your title creates immediate expectations.
If someone is hiring for a Product Marketing Manager role and your resume says:
"Business Specialist"
you create uncertainty.
But if your experience aligns and your headline says:
"Product Marketing Professional | Go-to-Market Strategy | SaaS Growth"
you help bridge the gap.
Titles shape perception faster than many candidates realize.
Recruiters heavily weigh recent experience.
Experience from eight years ago rarely carries the same influence as your last one or two roles.
Candidates sometimes bury their strongest experience lower on the page.
That hurts scan performance.
Recruiters instinctively look for movement:
Expanded responsibility
Promotions
Larger scope
Leadership growth
Even lateral transitions can work if progression is clear.
Flat career narratives often create concern.
Metrics interrupt scanning patterns.
Recruiters notice:
Increased revenue by 32%
Reduced costs by $400K
Managed team of 18
Improved retention by 24%
Specific outcomes communicate value faster than descriptions.
Today resumes are filtered twice:
ATS systems
Human review
The ATS may surface resumes.
The recruiter still decides whether you stay.
Keyword relevance helps during both stages.
Candidates often obsess over beating ATS systems.
In reality, many resumes pass the ATS and fail human review.
The recruiter becomes the real gatekeeper.
ATS questions candidates ask:
Did I use enough keywords?
Is my formatting ATS friendly?
Recruiter questions:
Can I immediately understand this person?
Do they solve my hiring problem?
Are they relevant?
Passing ATS does not guarantee interviews.
Human clarity wins.
The first scan determines whether you earn additional attention.
Things that increase reading time:
Clear role alignment
Strong opening summary
Relevant keywords
Measurable achievements
Industry match
Leadership indicators
Specific expertise
Clean formatting
Results-driven professional with strong communication skills seeking opportunities to grow.
Problems:
Generic
No specialization
No market position
Says nothing meaningful
Senior Operations Manager with 8+ years leading multi-site logistics teams, reducing fulfillment costs by 21%, and managing teams of more than 100 employees.
Why it works:
Defines role
Shows experience level
Includes metrics
Establishes credibility
Creates immediate context
Recruiters instantly know where to place this candidate.
Not necessarily.
This question gets oversimplified.
Recruiters do not reject resumes because they are two pages.
They reject resumes because page two often contains weak material.
Strong two-page resumes work when content earns the space.
Examples:
Good reasons for two pages:
Senior leadership experience
Technical depth
Publications
Multiple relevant roles
Bad reasons:
Long objective statements
Excessive bullet points
Old irrelevant jobs
Filler language
The question is not:
"How many pages?"
The question is:
"How much valuable information?"
Hiring behavior changes under volume pressure.
For competitive roles:
Entry-level marketing
Remote jobs
Tech positions
Corporate roles at major companies
Recruiters may receive hundreds of applications quickly.
Under heavy volume:
Initial scan:
6 to 10 seconds
Secondary review:
20 to 60 seconds
Interview shortlist review:
Several minutes
Hiring manager review:
Often deeper than recruiter review
Candidates assume every reviewer behaves the same.
They don't.
Recruiters filter.
Hiring managers validate.
Executives evaluate fit differently.
Instead of writing resumes chronologically, think in terms of information hierarchy.
The top of your resume should answer:
Who are you?
What role do you fit?
What value do you create?
What evidence proves it?
A practical framework:
Headline
↓
Positioning summary
↓
Core skills
↓
Relevant achievements
↓
Experience details
↓
Supporting information
This structure aligns with real recruiter behavior.
These issues often survive multiple revisions.
Weak:
Responsible for managing social media campaigns.
Better:
Led paid and organic campaigns that increased qualified leads by 38%.
Important achievements hidden in paragraph text disappear during scanning.
Lead with impact.
Stuffing skills repeatedly creates unnatural resumes.
Recruiters recognize forced language immediately.
Most summaries sound interchangeable.
Your summary should explain positioning, not personality.
Candidates sometimes include:
Old certifications
Outdated software
High school details
Unrelated jobs
Noise reduces signal.
This is one of the biggest realities candidates miss.
Many resumes fail because recruiters cannot categorize the applicant.
Recruiters mentally organize candidates into buckets:
Mid-level project manager
Enterprise sales leader
Junior UX designer
Technical program manager
Healthcare operations specialist
If your resume creates confusion, you become harder to sell internally.
Clarity creates momentum.
Ambiguity creates risk.
Hiring teams avoid risk.
Strong candidates know resumes are marketing documents.
Weak candidates treat resumes like job history archives.
The goal is not:
"Document everything I've done."
The goal is:
"Convince someone I fit this specific opportunity."
That shift dramatically improves outcomes.
Candidates who consistently receive interviews usually:
Tailor positioning
Prioritize relevance
Quantify results
Remove unnecessary detail
Match recruiter scanning behavior
Make fit obvious
Recruiters usually spend 6 to 10 seconds during the first resume review. Those seconds are enough to decide whether your resume moves forward.
The biggest mistake candidates make is assuming recruiters read carefully from the start.
They don't.
They scan for fit.
The best resumes reduce effort, create immediate clarity, and make relevance obvious within seconds.
If recruiters can quickly understand your value, they keep reading.
If they cannot, the process often ends before page one is finished.
Upload Resume
Import from Linkedin
