Your resume gets 6 seconds of attention from a recruiter. Here's how to make those 6 seconds count — whether you're a fresher with zero experience or switching careers.
Resume Structure (In This Order)
Name & Contact
Full name (large font), phone number, email, LinkedIn URL, city. No photo, no date of birth, no "Resume" title.
Education
College name, degree, CGPA/%, year. Most recent first. Include Class 12 & 10 only if fresher.
Skills
Technical skills in a clean list. Languages: Java, Python. Tools: Git, Docker. Frameworks: React, Django. No "MS Word" or "Hard working".
Projects (Most Important for Freshers)
2-3 projects with: Name, tech stack, what it does, your contribution, link to GitHub/demo. Use action verbs: Built, Designed, Implemented.
Experience / Internships
Company, role, duration, 2-3 bullet points with quantified achievements. "Increased page speed by 40%" > "Worked on website".
Certifications & Extras
AWS Certified, Google Analytics, Coursera courses. Competitive programming ratings. Open source contributions. Hackathon wins.
Common Mistakes
| ❌ Don't Do This | ✅ Do This Instead |
|---|---|
| 2+ pages for freshers | Strictly 1 page |
| "Objective: To get a challenging role..." | Remove objective section entirely |
| "I hereby declare that..." | Remove declaration — it's outdated |
| Listing "MS Word, MS Excel" as skills | List technical/domain skills only |
| "Worked on a project" | "Built a REST API serving 1000+ requests/day" |
| Fancy colors, graphics, photos | Clean, black & white, ATS-friendly format |
Pro Tip
Use Overleaf (free LaTeX editor) for a clean, professional resume. Search "Jake's Resume Template" — it's the most popular tech resume template. For non-tech, use Canva's minimal templates.