How to Write a Resume for Your First Job: A Guide for Freshers

Which format to use: reverse-chronological, almost always

A reverse-chronological resume lists the most recent item first in each section: your current degree before your Class XII, your latest internship before an older one. It is the format recruiters and campus placement cells expect, so they find what they are looking for without hunting. It also suits software that reads your file, because the headings and dates sit where that software expects them.

A functional resume groups everything under skill headings ("Communication", "Leadership", "Technical") and pushes dates and organisations to the bottom or removes them. It is sometimes suggested to freshers on the theory that it hides a thin work history. In practice it does the opposite: a reader cannot tell where you learned each skill or how recently, and many recruiters read the format itself as a sign that something is being hidden. For someone with a degree, projects and perhaps one internship, there is nothing to hide, so a functional layout only costs you clarity.

Keep it to one page. With a degree, a few projects and an internship or two, one page is enough if you write tightly. Shrinking the font to force more in is worse than cutting a weak entry.

The order of sections on a fresher resume

Put your strongest evidence where the reader looks first. For most freshers that is education, followed by whichever of internships or projects is more relevant to the role. This order works for most engineering, commerce, science and arts graduates:

1. Header: name, phone, a name-based email, city, LinkedIn URL, and GitHub or portfolio link if you have work to show.
2. Summary (two or three lines): degree, graduation year, the kind of role you want, and one or two concrete facts. Our guide to writing a resume summary has more examples.
3. Education: degree first, then Class XII and Class X if you are including them.
4. Internships or work experience: if you have any, even a month-long one.
5. Projects: two or three, with tools and outcomes.
6. Skills: grouped (languages, tools, domain knowledge), only things you can discuss in an interview.
7. Certifications: only those relevant to the role.
8. Positions of responsibility and activities: clubs, fests, NSS/NCC, sports, volunteering.

Swap projects above internships when your project is closer to the job than your internship was. A computer science student whose internship was mostly data entry but who built a working web app should lead with the app.

Education: CGPA, percentage and 10th/12th marks

CGPA or percentage? Use whatever your university officially issues. If your marksheet shows a CGPA out of 10, write "CGPA 8.1/10"; always include the scale, because some universities use other scales. If you are still studying, write "(up to semester 6)" so the reader knows it is not final. Do not convert CGPA into a percentage yourself unless the employer asks; if they do, use the conversion your university prescribes (many print it on the marksheet) and say so.

Should you include 10th and 12th marks? For campus placements and your first year of applications, usually yes. Many Indian employers set cut-offs on Class X and XII percentages and ask for them on their application forms anyway, so leaving them off only means the recruiter has to look for them. Write the board, the year and the percentage on one line each. Once you have a year or two of work experience, drop them.

Low marks? You are not obliged to print a weak score on the resume. If a company form asks for it, give the true figure; an application form is not the place to be selective. Never round up: 7.46 is 7.46, not 7.5. The same applies to backlogs: you do not need to list cleared backlogs on the resume, but answer truthfully if a form or interviewer asks.

Projects and internships: how to write entries with little experience

Treat internships, final-year projects and serious personal projects the same way you would treat a job: a title line (role or project name, organisation or tools, dates) and two to four bullets. Each bullet should say what you did and what came of it. Unpaid internships count; so do freelance jobs and part-time work, as long as you describe them accurately.

Use rough numbers if they are true and you can explain them. For more ways to put scale into bullets, see how to quantify achievements; for the opening word of each bullet, see the guide to action verbs. Add a GitHub, Behance or Google Drive link for anything a reader can open; a link they can click does more for a project than a longer description.

Skills, certifications and extracurriculars

• Skills: list tools, languages and methods, grouped on two or three lines. Leave out "MS Office" unless the role is clerical or you mean something specific like Excel pivot tables. Leave out soft skills as bare words; show them in your bullets instead. More detail is in how to write a skills section.
• Certifications: include those that match the job (an NPTEL course in data structures for a software role, a Tally or GST course for an accounts role). Ten unrelated short online courses look like padding; pick the three that fit.
• Positions of responsibility: a fest coordinator, club secretary or class representative role shows you can organise people. Write it with a number: "Managed sponsorship for the college tech fest; raised ₹1.2 lakh from 9 local sponsors."
• Sports, NSS, NCC, volunteering: worth a line when there is something specific (state-level selection, a camp you led, a drive you ran).
• Hobbies: include only if they say something useful about you for this job, such as a blog you write for a content role or competitive programming ratings for a software role. "Reading, travelling, music" adds nothing.

What to leave out

Many fresher resumes in India are still built on the old biodata pattern. For private-sector jobs, the following take space without helping, and some invite questions that have nothing to do with your ability:

• Date of birth, father's and mother's names, religion, caste, marital status, nationality, height and weight.
• A photo, unless the employer asks for one.
• The "Declaration: I hereby declare that the above information is true…" paragraph, with place, date and signature.
• A "Strengths" list ("hardworking, punctual, quick learner") with nothing behind it.
• An objective such as "Seeking a challenging position in a reputed organisation where I can grow".
• "References available on request" and a full postal address.
• School-level achievements from before Class X, unless they are exceptional and related to the job.

The article on common resume mistakes covers these habits and several others in more detail.

A complete sample fresher resume

The resume below is fictional. It is for a final-year computer engineering student applying for graduate software roles through campus placement. Notice what is not there: no date of birth, no declaration, no objective, no list of adjectives.

For a commerce or arts graduate the structure is the same. Replace the internship with an articleship, a sales or teaching internship or part-time work, and replace the coding projects with a research paper, a market survey, a live project or a portfolio.

Choosing a template and sending the file

A plain single-column layout suits freshers: education and projects read top to bottom, and there is no empty sidebar to fill. On our builder, the two free templates, Clean Professional and Modern Bordered, are both single-column with no photo area. You fill a form, check the live preview and download a PDF.

One thing to know before you upload it anywhere: the PDF from our builder is image-based. The design comes out exactly as previewed, but the text cannot be selected, so a job portal that reads text out of uploaded files will not be able to read it. Keep a text-based copy (typed into a word processor and saved as PDF) for those portals, or type your details into the portal form. The builder also does not save your entries after you close the tab, so keep your resume text in a separate document you can paste from.

For campus placements, check whether your training and placement cell wants a standard college format. If it does, use theirs for the placement portal and keep your own version for off-campus applications on Naukri, LinkedIn and company career pages.

Key takeaways

• Use a one-page reverse-chronological resume; avoid functional layouts that hide dates and organisations.
• Order: header, short summary, education, internships, projects, skills, certifications, activities.
• Write CGPA with its scale and "up to semester X" if you are still studying; include 10th/12th marks for campus and first-year applications.
• Write projects and internships like jobs: what you did, the tools, the result, and your part in group work.
• Drop biodata details, the declaration and the "Strengths" list unless a prescribed format asks for them.