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Re:Why are your friends more popular than you? (2013) by ddebernardy on Thursday August 04, 2016 @02:18PM (#12227430)
They do when the cover letter and the CV is short and to the point. When either is not, you're really testing the recruiter's patience. (Recruiters spend 5-7 second on average on a resume.) Much like a brochure, your CV/cover letter is there you to land you a meeting:

https://steveblank.com/2011/08/05/bonfire-of-the-vanities/

Re:Why are your friends more popular than you? (2013) by mattkrause on Thursday August 04, 2016 @03:59PM (#12228042)
Is that number really true?

Humans move their eyes every few hundred milliseconds and you can only read a handful of words after each eye movement, so this suggests that they read about a hundred words total, and probably a lot less if you factor in "seeking" time (e.g., to find the section headings).

Re:Why are your friends more popular than you? (2013) by ddebernardy on Friday August 05, 2016 @02:07AM (#12230358)
Eye tracking study on the topic:

http://cdn.theladders.net/static/images/basicSite/pdfs/TheLa...

People typically read ~200-300 words per minute. 100 words is a lot more than what you end up reading on most CVs when you go through a pile. You basically scan a CV for a few seconds and move on to the next unless something caught your interest. When so you actually spend a few minutes reading the whole thing - bringing the average to, indeed, under 10s per CV. If HR did its job before sending CVs your way the average is much higher of course.