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RESUME FORMAT · FRESHERS
Resume format for freshers
With little or no work experience, your education, projects and internships are your evidence. This guide covers the section order, what to leave out of the traditional Indian format, Word or PDF, and how engineering and non-engineering freshers should adapt it.
The section order that works for freshers
- Header. Your name, a phone number with the country code, a professional email address, your city, and a LinkedIn or GitHub link if it shows real work. No photo.
- Summary (not a generic objective). Two lines naming the role you want, your degree and the two or three skills you can prove. “Seeking a challenging position in a reputed organisation” tells a recruiter nothing; “Computer science graduate (2026) applying for junior data analyst roles; SQL and Python used in two coursework projects” does.
- Education. Degree and branch, college, university and years, with your CGPA and its scale or your percentage. Add Class XII and Class X results when the posting or the application form asks for them; many campus and services-company forms do.
- Projects. Two to four projects, newest or most relevant first. For each: the problem, what you built, the tools you used and what it produced. Link the code or the report if it is public.
- Internships and training. Organisation, role, dates and one to three lines on what you did. A short internship described well beats a long one listed with no detail.
- Skills. Group them plainly (languages, tools, methods). List only what you have used in a project, an internship or a course assignment. No star ratings or percentage bars.
- Certifications and achievements. Completed certifications with the issuer and year; competition results, scholarships and positions of responsibility you can document.
The fresher template follows this order, with every line as a [placeholder] for you to replace. It is free as a DOCX for Word or Google Docs, or as a PDF.
What to leave out of the old format
The declaration and signature
The “I hereby declare that the above information is true” line and a signature take space and are not expected on a résumé sent online.
Hobbies that say nothing
Leave out “reading, music, travelling”. Keep an activity only if it shows responsibility or a relevant skill, and say what you did.
Tables, columns, icons and photos
They look tidy but can scramble the order in which an applicant tracking system reads your résumé. One column of plain text is safer.
Word or PDF, length and file name
Keep a Word master, send a PDF
Edit in Word or Google Docs, then save a PDF to send, unless the posting or the portal asks for a Word file. Check that you can select the text in the PDF; a scanned image cannot be read by most systems.
One page
A fresher résumé fits on one page. If it runs over, cut the weakest project or coursework line before you shrink the font.
Name the file clearly
Use something like “Firstname_Lastname_Resume.pdf”, not “resume final (2).pdf”.
Tailor it for each role
Reorder projects and skills so the ones the job description asks for come first, using the same words the posting uses for skills you really have.
Adapting it to your degree
Engineering and IT freshers
Lead with projects that show the stack the role uses, link your GitHub, and name the language and framework in each project line. Do not list every language from your syllabus; list the ones you have written real code in.
Commerce, arts and science freshers
Lead with education and internships. Name the tools you have used (Excel, Tally, Google Analytics, a survey tool) and show them in a project or internship line, for example a report you prepared or a process you documented.
Final-year students
Write “expected [Month Year]” for your graduation and give your CGPA to date. Employers hiring for the next batch expect that.
One line that matches your résumé
Job portals and LinkedIn ask for a one-line headline. Write it from the same facts as your summary, for example: [Degree] graduate ([Year]) | [Target role] | [Skill], [Skill], [Tool]. See more resume headline patterns for freshers and experienced candidates.
Prefer not to fill a template by hand?
Create a free workspace. Add your projects, internships and coursework once and confirm each fact; ROLIVA builds an ATS Classic résumé for a specific role from those facts only, and shows which fresher roles your evidence supports.
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