Who’s Actually Scanning Your Resume?

To land your first phone interview, you need to know who stands between your resume and a callback.

In fact, it’s often someone who doesn’t even have a background in science or stats. That’s not a bad thing—but it is something you need to plan for.

Let’s flip the perspective for a minute and see what’s happening on their side of the desk.

Meet Emma: The First Gatekeeper

Emma works in Human Resources at a mid-sized biotech company in San Francisco. She’s two years into her career after graduating with a degree in sociology.

She’s not a hiring manager. She’s not a scientist. She’s not a biostatistician.

Her manager comes to her and says,

“The research department needs a new biostatistician. We’re looking for someone with these five skills.”

Emma turns that list into a job description and posts it on platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, or PharmiWeb.

Then the floodgates open.

She receives 200+ applications that have passed through the ATS system. Her job?
🔎 Skim through each one—quickly—and pull out the 15–20 most promising candidates.

Here’s the catch:
Emma doesn’t know survival analysis from a t-test. She’s not looking for nuance—she’s looking for clear, obvious matches.

You have 6–12 seconds to stand out.
That’s it.

That’s why your resume needs to be scannable, and why your language needs to match the words in the job ad.

What Recruiters Like Emma Actually Look For

Whether it’s someone in HR or an external recruiter, here’s what they’re doing in those precious seconds:

✅ Skills Match

They search or scan for specific tools and terms from the job post—things like “SAS,” “CDISC,” or “oncology trials.”
If those don’t show up quickly in your resume? You’re out.

✅ Recent Experience

They glance at your current (or most recent) title and employer.
They’re thinking:

“Is this person already doing similar work?”
“Are they in the right industry?”
“Do they show any impact?”

✅ Job Title Alignment

If your job title matches (or closely mirrors) the one in the posting—like “Biostatistician” vs. “Graduate Research Assistant”—you’re more likely to get through.
If it doesn’t, you’ll need to add a subtitle that makes the connection clearer.

✅ Clarity and Effort

Vague bullets? Sloppy formatting? Dense text blocks?
Those send up red flags. Emma’s job is hard enough—don’t make her work to figure out what you do.

Why This Should Change How You Write Your Resume

Emma—and every recruiter like her—isn’t trying to find the best candidate.
She’s trying to eliminate everyone who clearly isn’t a match.

So your job?
Make sure you look like a match immediately.

That means:

• Using keywords from the job ad

• Rephrasing your experience in the employer’s language

• Structuring your resume so your strengths show up fast

Because if you don’t?
Even with a master’s in biostatistics, solid R skills, and clinical research experience—you could still land in the “No” pile.

Use This Knowledge as an Advantage

Here’s the good news: Most applicants don’t know this.
They write resumes for themselves—not for Emma.

But you now understand the game.

So when you apply what you’re learning in this course:

• You’ll write resumes that make recruiters say, “Yes, this is who we need”

• You’ll stand out from the stack of 200

• You’ll get more callbacks—and more interviews

💡 Action Step: Find and Highlight Your Match Points
Choose a job you’re applying to and read it like Emma would.

• What 3–5 keywords are clearly must-haves?

• Does your resume mention them exactly as written in the job description?

• Do you have relevant work experience?

• Is your current job title close enough to the one they’re hiring for? If not, consider adding a subtitle like “Biostatistics Intern – Oncology Trials” under your actual title.

• Is your resume easy to read?

Make those tweaks now—and you’ll rise to the top of the pile.