Eye-tracking studies consistently show recruiters spend between six and ten seconds on a first pass. They are not reading — they are scanning for four things: your current role, your last employer, your dates, and your education.

The F-pattern

Eyes travel across the top, down the left edge, then across again roughly a third of the way down. Anything outside that path is effectively invisible on the first pass.

What this means for you

• Your strongest, most relevant information belongs in the top third of page one.
• Left-align everything important. Right-aligned dates are fine; right-aligned job titles are not.
• One clear column beats two clever ones.