Recruiters read the top third of your resume first. Plan accordingly.
Eye-tracking studies of recruiter behavior are consistent: the top ~25% of the page gets 80% of the attention. Your most important information goes there.
By HumanifyCV team
The Ladders ran an eye-tracking study a few years ago that's been replicated at least twice since. The finding is always the same: on an initial scan, recruiters spend 75–80% of their attention on the top quarter of the first page. Name, current role, most recent bullet or two. That's it.
This has implications for how you structure the document that most resume guides ignore.
Implication 1: your summary is load-bearing
A good summary isn't "results-driven professional with a passion for..." — it's two or three sentences that answer "why this person, for this kind of role." Put your strongest signal (company names recruiters recognize, a specific metric, a unique combination of skills) in the first sentence.
Implication 2: your most recent role's top bullet is the second most important line on the page
The line right after the role title gets read on almost every scan. Make it a real accomplishment with a number. Not "Managed a team of 8" — "Led a team of 8 engineers through a migration that cut infrastructure cost 42%." Specific. Quantified. The kind of thing that makes a recruiter slow down.
“You get one sentence to earn the second scroll. Don't waste it on "responsible for."”