Tech Careers & Skills

What Tech Recruiters Actually Look for on a Resume

Resume advice is everywhere. Here's what actually matters to the people screening tech applications.

1 min read · Careers & Work in Tech

Recruiters typically spend well under a minute on an initial resume scan, which means clarity about what someone actually did and what impact it had matters far more than exhaustive detail or design flourishes.

What actually catches attention

Specific, measurable outcomes, like performance improvements or user growth tied to a project, stand out far more than vague descriptions of responsibilities, and a resume tailored to the specific role being applied for consistently performs better than a generic one.

Common mistakes that quietly hurt candidates

Listing every technology ever touched without context, burying real achievements in dense paragraphs, and formatting that breaks automated resume-scanning systems are all common, avoidable reasons a genuinely qualified candidate gets passed over.