Resume format for freshers · 2026The resume format for freshers, section by section.
One page, in this order: contact details, a short summary, education, internships, projects, skills and achievements. Below is a full sample, what to write in each section, the mistakes that get fresher CVs rejected, and a free tool that builds yours in the same format — in English, Hindi or Hinglish.
Updated 29 October 2026
The format at a glance
Recruiters hiring freshers look for three things in the first pass: what you studied, what you have built or done, and whether your skills match the job. The order below puts those where the eye lands first.
| Section | What goes in |
|---|---|
| 1. Contact details | Name, phone, a professional email, your city, and a LinkedIn or GitHub link. |
| 2. Summary | Two or three lines: your degree, what you are good at, and the role you want. |
| 3. Education | Degree, college, years and CGPA or percentage — latest first. Class XII and X below it. |
| 4. Internships | Company, role, months, and one or two lines on what you did, with numbers. |
| 5. Projects | Two or three projects: what it does, the tools, and who used it or what it achieved. |
| 6. Skills | Grouped — languages, tools, domain skills. Only what you can talk about in an interview. |
| 7. Achievements | Hackathons, certifications (NPTEL, Coursera), ranks, NSS/NCC, sports — the notable ones. |
What to write in each section
Contact details
Your name in the largest type on the page, then one line: phone number, a professional email (your name, not a nickname), your city and state, and a LinkedIn or GitHub link if it has something on it. You do not need your full address, date of birth, father's name, religion or marital status for a private-sector job — they take space and tell the recruiter nothing about your work.
Summary (or career objective)
Two or three lines that say what you studied, what you are good at, and what you are looking for. A summary that could be anyone's — "seeking a challenging position in a reputed organisation" — is skipped. Compare:
- Weak: Hardworking and dedicated fresher seeking a challenging role to grow my skills.
- Strong: Final-year B.Tech Computer Engineering student who builds full-stack web apps. Shipped two projects used by real people and completed a three-month internship. Looking for a software developer role.
Education
Latest first: degree and branch, college, years, and CGPA or percentage. Class XII and Class X go underneath, with board and percentage — many Indian employers screen on them, so include them unless the job ad says otherwise. If your marks are low, keep the line but do not draw attention to it; let projects carry the page.
Internships and training
Company, your role, the months, and one or two lines on what you actually did. "Worked on the website" says nothing; "Built 6 React screens for a clinic booking portal, now used by 3 clinics" says what, with what, and for whom. Industrial training, a summer internship project (SIP) or apprenticeship counts here too.
Projects — a fresher's experience
For most freshers, projects are the strongest part of the page. For each one: a name, the tools in brackets, and a line or two on what it does and who used it. Numbers make a line believable — users, time saved, data size, accuracy, a rank in a competition. Two or three good projects beat six one-liners.
Skills
Group them so they can be read at a glance: programming languages, tools and software, domain skills (Tally and GST for commerce, clinical skills for nursing, lesson planning for teaching). List only what you could answer questions on in an interview. Then match the wording to the job description — if it says "MS Excel", do not write only "spreadsheets".
Achievements and certifications
Hackathons, NPTEL or Coursera certificates, a rank in an exam, NSS or NCC, a sports team, a position in a college society. Pick the ones a recruiter would care about, and say what they were — "Finalist, Smart India Hackathon 2024" rather than "participated in hackathons".
Fresher resume format by degree
The format stays the same; what fills it changes with the degree.
| Degree | Put first, after education |
|---|---|
| B.Tech / BCA / B.Sc IT | Projects with the tech stack, then internships and skills. A GitHub link helps. |
| B.Com / BBA | Internships or articleship, then skills: Tally, GST, MS Excel, accounting basics. |
| MBA | Summer internship project (SIP) with results, specialisation, live projects and case competitions. |
| B.Sc Nursing / GNM | Clinical postings by department, registration number, and procedures you are trained in. |
| B.Ed / D.El.Ed | Practice teaching (school, classes, subjects), CTET or TET status, and teaching aids you made. |
| Diploma / ITI | Trade, apprenticeship or on-the-job training, machines and tools you can operate. |
Mistakes that get fresher resumes rejected
- Running to two or three pages. As a fresher, one page is enough and is what recruiters expect.
- A summary or objective that could belong to anyone.
- Skills listed that you cannot answer questions on — the interview is where that shows.
- Projects named with no line on what they do or who used them.
- Spelling mistakes and an unprofessional email address.
- Your resume as a photo or a scanned image: a screening system cannot read the words in it.
- Sending the same resume to every job instead of matching the skills to each description.
PDF or Word?
Send a PDF unless the job asks for Word: it looks the same on every screen and modern screening systems read it fine, as long as it is real text and not an image. Some government jobs, PSUs and recruiters ask for a Word file so they can edit it — keep one ready. Everything made here downloads as both.
Is your fresher resume ATS-friendly?
Most companies that hire freshers in volume use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to sort applications. It reads your resume as text and compares it with the job. To get through: use standard section headings, a single column, real text rather than images, and the words the job description uses for the skills you have. The quickest way to see what a particular job wants that your resume does not say is to check your ATS score against it — free, and nothing is stored.
Questions
Fresher resume questions.
One page, single column, in this order: contact details, a short summary, education, internships, projects, skills and achievements.
Yes. One page is what recruiters expect from a fresher, and it forces you to keep the strongest lines.
A two or three line summary that says what you studied, what you are good at and the role you want. A generic objective that could belong to anyone is usually skipped.
Yes, below your degree. Many Indian employers screen on them. Leave them out only if the job ad says so.
Not for most private-sector jobs applied to online. Add one if a campus placement cell or the employer asks for it.
Let projects, internships, training and achievements carry the page, with numbers in each line — who used it, what it achieved. The free resume builder asks for each one.