What recruiters look for in a resume

Your resume gets a quick scan before anyone reads it. Here is what we look for in that first pass, and what makes us put a resume down.

From the Ampla recruiting team · Updated September 2026

No one reads your resume top to bottom on the first pass. A recruiter opens it next to a stack of others and decides fast whether it is worth a closer look. If the things they scan for are not easy to see, they assume those things are not there.

That is not a complaint. It is a design rule. Write the top of your resume for the scan, and the rest for the person who decided to keep reading.

What the top third has to do

By the end of the first third, a recruiter should know who you are, what you do, and whether you could fit the role.

• Your name and one line on what you are. A role, not a paragraph: "Post-production supervisor", "Licensed physical therapist", "Enterprise account executive".
• How to reach you, on one line. Email, phone, and a link to your portfolio, reel or LinkedIn.
• Your strongest relevant thing first. Usually your most recent role. For new grads, your degree and best project.
• Enough context to place you. Company, dates, and one line on scope say far more than a title alone.

What makes us stop, in a good way

• Outcomes, not duties. "Responsible for the newsletter" says what you were given. "Grew the list and cut send time from a day to an hour" says what changed because you were there.
• Specifics we can picture. Tools, team sizes, budgets, show or client types, caseloads.
• Proof we can check. A reel, a site, a license number, a published piece.
• Obvious fit. If the job asks for three things and your resume names those three things, you have done most of the work.

What gets a resume put down

• Length that does not match experience.
• Walls of text with no structure to skim.
• Mixed date formats, tenses and styles. It reads as careless.
• Vague dates and gaps with no explanation.
• Typos, especially near the top.
• A resume clearly written for a different job.

Software often reads it first

Many employers run applications through a tracking system before a person sees them. It reads the text of your file and tries to pull out roles, dates and skills. Anything it cannot read is missing as far as that first filter goes.

• Send a text-based PDF, not a scan. If you cannot select the text, neither can the software.
• Keep the important parts in one column.
• Use plain section headings: Experience, Education, Skills, Licenses.
• Write your skills in words, not rating bars.
• Use the words the job post uses.

Before you send it

• Read the top third out loud. Does it say who you are and what you do?
• Check that every bullet has an outcome.
• Make dates and tense consistent all the way down.
• Name the file with your name: "Jane-Doe-Resume.pdf".
• Ask someone outside your field to read it.