What is the 7 second rule in resumes?
How do recruiters scan resumes? What is this shit?
It's a made-up concept (though to be fair all concepts are made-up) that resume reviewers spend an average of 7-ish seconds initially scanning a resume to decide if they should look into a candidate further.
7 seconds to make a 'maybe' or 'definitely no' decision. People always wonder how long recruiters look at a resume. 7 seconds is generous.
Fair? Probably not.
Realistic given their job? Totally.
Those who are in this position are not reading but scanning. Is this person in the ballpark? Most importantly, would the hiring manager (or person I'm scanning resumes for) want to talk to this person based on what they see on paper? Best case is still just a maybe, but it's not a no. I'll still talk to them first to make sure they're not crazy.
Presentation matters. Consistent formatting matters. Relevance matters. The resume is both a summary of what you have done professionally and an artifact of your creation in and of itself. Make it clear. Make it relevant. Make it intriguing. Make it you.
Sure AI or whatever dumb old ATS might scan it first for keywords but regardless, at the end of the day it's going to be a human that gatekeeps your opportunity to talk to someone. This is your target audience. This is your chance to set the table for the conversation that you want to have.
Brevity is the soul of wit. Don't put every little thing on your resume. Intrigue but don't overexplain; you want to be able to expand on your bullet points in your interview. Your resume and bullet points should provide the interviewer with a good context about what you've done, highlight the shit they might care about, and guide them on what to dig deeper into.