The oft-cited "recruiters spend six seconds on a resume" statistic is an exaggeration, but the underlying truth holds: the first pass is a scan, not a read. What survives that scan determines whether anyone reads the rest.
The first thing scanned is the most recent title and company, checked against whether it plausibly matches the seniority and domain of the open role. A mismatch here — applying to a senior role with only junior titles on the resume — is often enough to end the scan before anything else is read.
Second is a fast check for a visible, quantified accomplishment near the top of the most recent role. Recruiters are trained to look for numbers because vague duty-lists all blur together after the fortieth resume of the day.
Third is gaps and tenure patterns — not necessarily disqualifying, but flagged mentally for the phone screen. A resume with several roles under a year each invites a specific question about stability that a candidate should be ready to answer directly, not defensively.
The practical takeaway: your most relevant, most quantified accomplishment should be the first bullet under your most recent role, not buried third or fourth. Recruiters read top to bottom and stop early — put your best evidence where the scan actually happens.
