The 6-second CV scan
You spent hours on your CV. A recruiter decides whether to keep reading in a few seconds. See what their eyes catch first, and what they skip.
Your CV
Paste the text of your CV. It stays on this device: it is never uploaded and never saved. Close the page and it's gone.
The sample belongs to a made-up person. It has a few common mistakes on purpose.
Where the eyes land
In the eye-tracking studies, recruiters spent most of those first seconds on a handful of facts near the top of the page.
Your name, your current job title and the company. Put them at the top, clearly, on their own lines.
Start and end dates for your current and previous jobs. Use one format everywhere, such as "Mar 2022 – Present".
The job before this one, and your education. Clear headings help the eye jump straight to them.
"Grew sales by 18%" catches the eye. "Responsible for sales" does not. Lead each bullet with what you achieved.
CVs in the UAE
Many CVs here list a photo, date of birth, marital status or nationality, and some employers ask for them. Others prefer to leave them out to keep hiring fair. Follow what the job ad asks. If it says nothing, your skills matter more than these details.
UAE labour law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021) bans discrimination at work on grounds such as sex, religion, national origin and disability. Visa status and notice period are useful facts to add.
Match the language of the job ad. If you send both, keep them identical: the same jobs, the same dates, the same numbers.
A real employer never asks you to pay for a job or a visa. Share your passport or Emirates ID only once you know the company is real.
Sources: Ladders, Inc. eye-tracking studies of recruiters (2012: about 6 seconds on the first fit or no-fit decision; 2018 update: about 7.4 seconds on average). Both are small studies run by a job-search company, so treat the number as a rough guide. "6 seconds" is the popular figure. The checks on this page are simple rules, not a hiring decision: the typo check only looks for a short list of common mistakes and repeated words, and it can be wrong. UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the regulation of labour relations (u.ae). Your CV text is analysed in your browser and never leaves your device.