Resume Formats for Freshers: A Comprehensive Guide

Entering the professional world as a fresher can be both exciting and challenging. A resume for freshers is often the first impression you make on potential employers, making it a crucial tool in securing your dream job. According to a report published by Forbes, more than 90% of recruiters from Fortune 500 companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to manage and shortlist candidates’ applications. Also, out of 100 resumes, 75 get rejected because of incorrect formatting, a lack of relevant keywords, and the overall content. Crafting an impressive resume requires careful attention to detail and a strategic approach.

Before having a look at the steps to creating a resume, we will first try to understand what a resume is. A resume is a concise document, typically one to two pages, summarizing an individual’s professional experience, education, and skills. It serves as an important tool in job applications, providing employers with a snapshot of the candidate’s qualifications. Its purpose is to secure an interview by highlighting the candidate’s unique strengths and accomplishments, aligning them with the job requirements.

Let’s go through the essential steps to create a standout resume that showcases your skills and potential.

Watch this video on How to Write a Resume for Freshers by Intellipaat:

Types of Resume Formats for Freshers

Resume format plays an important role when it comes to passing the Application Tracking System (ATS) friendly check. But whatever format you use, you must adhere to the fundamental formatting, such as 1″ margins, font should be Arial or New Times Roman, and no grammatical errors. Always include a list of skills and keep it up-to-date.

There are three resume formats for freshers: 

1. Chronological Resume Format for Freshers

The chronological resume format for freshers is for those students who have some professional experience, either internships or part-time jobs that they might have done while pursuing their degree from a university. This resume format for freshers is the most common in use. In such a resume format, you start with your latest job and work your way backward, mentioning your role, responsibilities, and the impact you have created in the organization. Here is the format for such a resume.

2. Functional Resume Format for Freshers

The functional resume format for freshers is used by such students who don’t have much of an employment history but have gained a lot of hands-on experience by going through multiple training programs. In such cases, we emphasize keeping the credentials of projects and skills, first, followed by work experience. Here is the format for such a resume.

3. Hybrid Resume Format for Freshers

As the name suggests, this resume format for freshers is a combination of chronological and functional resume formats. In such formats, we mention our employment history as well as our skills and projects and give 50:50 weightage to both of them. Here is a format for such a resume.

Steps to Format Your Fresher Resume

In this part of the blog, we will try to understand the key points on how to create or format your fresher resume. Additionally, we will also see how to fill up your resume in such a way that it stands out. Let’s begin step by step:

Step 01: Choose Your Resume Format

As discussed previously, we have three resume formats to choose from. Choose any one of the following based on the criteria below:

• Chronological Resume Format for Freshers: If you have an employment history, let’s say you did some internships or freelancing, you should be choosing this resume format.
• Functional Resume Format for Freshers: If you don’t have some relevant employment history but have gained a lot of hands-on experience by attending webinars and training programs, you should proceed with this resume format.
• Combined Resume Format for Freshers: If you have both an employment history and a good level of hands-on experience, you should go ahead with this resume format.

Step 02: Pick a Resume Template

Pick up a resume template that obeys the fundamentals of formatting, such as 1″ margins, font should be Arial or New Times Roman, etc. You can search for a resume template from all the different online platforms like:

• Overleaf
• Canva
• Novoresume

Step 03: Personal Details and Summary

The first section is all about your personal information:

• Start your resume with a clear header that includes your full name, professional title (if applicable), phone number, contact email address, and location.
• Consider adding your professional online profiles like LinkedIn and GitHub. If you write blogs, you can also include a link to your Medium profile or some other channels.

The summary section is all about you:

• Craft a summary that highlights your qualifications for potential employers.
• Briefly mention your educational background.
• Showcase your core skills relevant to the field you’re applying to.
• Use strong action verbs and achievements to demonstrate your capabilities.

Consider using AI writing tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to help refine your summary statement. These tools can assist in improving the vocabulary and overall flow of your writing, making your summary more impactful. Also, make sure to keep your details, like contact information and profile links, updated, as they serve as a medium of communication for employers.

Step 04: Experience Section

In the experience section, you have to clearly mention the name of the company that you were working for, along with your designation. Make sure they are in chronological order, i.e., the recent one at the very top. Also, mention the dates from when you have been working there. Under each company name, you have to write down a brief description in bullet points, signifying:

• What were your roles and responsibilities in the company?
• What was the impact of your addition?
• What enhancement did you bring?

Step 05: Project Section

The project section is one of the most important in the whole resume of a fresher. Make sure all the projects are in chronological order. The project section should contain the project name as the header and a description in the form of bullet points explaining the following:

• What is the project all about?
• What is the Tech Stack used for?
• What was your role in the project?
• What was the impact on the project of your addition?

Step 06: Education and Academics

In this section, showcase the level of education you have. Each level of education should have three entities. First, the name of the degree; second, the years in which you have pursued it; and third, the name of the school or college from which you have pursued that level of education. Include your CGPA or percentage of marks in your education section, but only if it strengthens your application.

Step 07: Skills and Interest

For a fresher resume, categorize your skills. For example, if you are from a tech background, you can categorize your skills into programming languages, libraries and frameworks, software development, cloud services, soft skills, etc. And add all the relevant technology right in front of it. This makes your resume clean and to-the-point.

Step 08: Achievements and Awards

In this particular section, you will add all your achievements, awards, and certifications that you have earned and that are relevant to the job posting you are applying for. This adds up to some extra content that leaves a good impression on employers.

Best Online Resume Builder

Building a resume from scratch and formatting it properly is a task that requires expertise in multiple fields. So there are a few online resume builders that have some inbuilt resume templates. The only task that you have to perform is to give your details as input, and you get your resume in PDF format that you can share on the go.

Here is a list of the best online resume builders available on the internet:

1. Overleaf
2. Hiration
3. Novoresume
4. Canva
5. Enhancv

How to Create an ATS-Friendly Resume

HR and hiring managers look for ATS-friendly resumes. First, we will look into what ATS is. Application Tracking System, often referred to as ATS is software for employers and recruiters to track the applications of candidates and ease the hiring process. Let’s take a scenario where you have a job opening. On average, 1000+ participants have applied for the job. For recruiters going through all the resumes is sometimes outside the bandwidth. As a result, they use an ATS. The employers feed in some keywords and phrases in the ATS, and the ATS scans all the resumes and sorts out the resumes containing that word, phrase, or related keyword.

Here are a few points that you should keep in mind to make your resume ATS-friendly:

1. Tailor your resume according to the job description of the job you are applying for
2. Check that your resume contains the keywords found in the job description
3. Use long-form and acronym versions of keywords
4. Make use of either chronological or hybrid resume format for fresher
5. Use an easy-to-read, traditional font
6. Use standard resume section headings
7. Save your file as a .docx, as it is most compatible with an ATS

ATS-Friendly Resume Checker

Once you have followed the above steps and have created not only a resume but an ATS-friendly resume, it is important to do some check runs that will help you understand if there are any mistakes in your resume. We can make use of some ATS-friendly resume checkers to check if anything has to be improved. Here is a list of ATS-friendly resume checkers that you can use to scan your resume, and rest assured:

1. Jobscan
2. Enhancv
3. My Perfect Resume
4. Live Career
5. Resume Worded

Let us understand how we can use ATS-friendly resume checker to fix the issues and improve the ATS score of our resume. 

Here, we are using Jobscan to check the ATS score of our resume and make the necessary changes. 
First, go to the Jobscan portal and upload your resume. Also, paste the job description of the company and click on “Scan”.

After that, the ATS will scan your resume and evaluate it based on multiple parameters. It will look for the keywords in your resume that are in the job description. Accordingly, it will give suggestions, like what changes you need to make to improve the ATS score.

Overall, ATS gives you an idea of what changes you need to make in the resume to make it better and improve the chances of its selection.

Frequently Asked Questions