27 Sep 2026 · 8 min readCareer

How to Write a Resume People Actually Read

Most resumes are rejected in the first six seconds, and the reading is not a careful one. This guide covers what a screener is actually looking for during that scan, how to write bullet points that show impact rather than duties, and the specific mistakes that end a strong application early.

The six seconds are real

For most roles, a person spends about six seconds on a resume before deciding whether it is worth a longer look. That is not carelessness — it is volume. The scan looks for: current title, years of experience, whether the skills match, and evidence of scale. If those are not visible in the first third of the page, the careful read never happens.

Put your name, current role and total years of experience at the top, plainly.
Match the job title wording where it is honest. It is not gaming, it is making you findable.
Front-load the most relevant skills, not all of them.
One page for under ten years' experience. Two pages are fine beyond that; three never is.
Use a format that survives being read on a phone, because a surprising number are.

Bullets that show impact

The most common weakness is describing duties. 'Responsible for the sales team' tells a reader nothing. Impact is scale, speed, money, or a problem that was genuinely solved.

Weak: 'Managed customer support'. Strong: 'Cut average first-response time from 9 hours to 40 minutes by moving to a ticketing system.'
Weak: 'Worked on the website'. Strong: 'Rebuilt the checkout flow; conversion rose 18% over two months.'
Weak: 'Helped with reports'. Strong: 'Automated the weekly report, saving about six hours per week across the team.'
Include a number wherever one honestly exists. 'Improved performance' is not a claim; 'cut load time from 4s to 1.2s' is.

💡 Pro Tip: Use past tense for roles you have left and present for the current one. It is a small signal that you know where you are in time.

What ends it early

A photo, date of birth, gender, marital status or nationality — not expected in most markets and a reason for rejection where they are.
Skills listed at a level you cannot defend in an interview.
Filler. 'Hard worker', 'team player' and 'detail oriented' appear on every resume, so they carry no information at all.
Design that sacrifices legibility. If the reader has to hunt for the dates, they will not.
Typos in the first line. It reads as carelessness about everything else.
Every bullet from the job description restated. Say what you did, not what you were asked to do.

Tools for the final pass

Build the structure, then measure it. The word-frequency view shows repeated filler, and the readability check catches a document that has quietly become unreadable.

ATS Resume Builder freeATS-optimised resume with PDF download Spelling Checker freeOffline spell check - common mistakes Text Statistics freeWord count, reading time, char count Readability Analyser freeFlesch score, grade level, passive voice Word Counter freeWords, characters, sentences and paragraphs at once Font Pairing Studio free50+ Google Font combos, copy CSS

All of these run in your browser — no account, no upload, free forever.

Commands to review it properly

/CritiquePitch

Critique Pitch

Give a candid, specific critique of a pitch — e.g. seed-deck.pdf — 14 slides, traction slide looks weak.