At first, it is imperative to know that there is no set rulebook to build a resume. You can opt for any ways you like. But, a simple and professional resume never fails to grab the attention of recruiters. This blog post will certainly help to draft the resume for freshers who are looking for their first job

I shall suggest you some mandatory sections to be included in the resume with their appropriate areas. I shall explain each section and the way to present it. We have prepared sample templates that you can download for free and replace with your information in a matter of few seconds.

Contents

The number of pages in the resume of a fresher

While working in recruitment, I have come across a number of lengthy resumes. But personally, I feel that your resume should only highlight about you and your skills. 

It is quite evident that being a fresher always restrict the number of pages of your resume to either one or two. This is one of the vital aspects of resume for freshers that every job seeker should look into.

A majority of companies don’t invest their time in reading the entire resume. Rather they would prefer to have a slight look and hence, the first page of the resume becomes pivotal. You should include the summary of all major things like education, skills, certifications, projects, and work experience, etc. in the first page.

Font Size and Font Family

Although there is no specific recommendations for the size of font but it is always better to keep the font size to 10, 11, or 12 while building resume for freshers in a word document depending on the choice of the font. Some of the common types of font styles are Arial, Times New Roman, and Calibri.

I prefer to use “Calibri” with font size “12” for my resume and it looks awesome with 100% zoom in a MS word document. Refer to the below sample to how it looks.


First Page

The first page of the resume is the key as it covers a majority of significant aspects about yourself, achievements, your skills, etc. in this page. You should keep the non-important ones for the next pages. 

The first page is the one that grabs the attention for a majority of recruiters. Below mentioned are the most important sections that I feel you shouldn’t miss while creating resume for freshers. Rather you should always make sure that you are utilizing the first page to provide significant information to the recruiter.

1. Contacts

You should always mention email and mobile at the topmost center, left or right corner along with resume title as your name that is shown below. I noticed some people use to mention the home address in the title space that is completely irrelevant for a majority of the recruiters. If possible, you should also create an account on LinkedIn and mention its link.


2. Objective

Usually the objective of any resume is to pursue for a suitable position in any company. Hence, it would always be better if you make it as simple as you can. Usually, you should make it in single line or two lines maximum as a majority of companies never pay any attention to it. If you are not able to dedicate much space to the other sections, you can also ignore this one. This could be an optional section.

3. Educational Summary

You should always mention the highest qualification at first in the resume for freshers as that is something which is mattered most. You can follow with second highest and descend till 10th Std. percentage or grades. You should try to cover as much details as possible in a single line if possible. Even though this is not mandatory, this becomes helpful in conveying the full information precisely.

If you take my opinion, the best format would be to put the Graduation Name, University Name, Place, Percentage, and Year of graduation. You can refer the below format.

 

4. Summarize the Skills

You should mention your skills in this specific section. It can be anything such as your domain skills, courses, certifications and any IT related skills. I recommend learning at least one programming language and one database. You should also bold the certifications if you think that is valuable. You can also refer some free online sources to learn the programming that I mentioned in a post called 6 Tips to improve the resume format.


5. Work Experience Summary

This can certainly looks to be surprising for you. Being a fresher, it is quite obvious that you won’t have the work experience but you should always mention the experience related to your final project. But, if you take my opinion, that won’t be sufficient enough. You can execute self-build projects, internships and freelancing if possible. I have covered detailed info in another post. Please note that this section must be just a summary. You can easily continue providing the description of projects and work experience in the following pages.

Second Page

You should dedicate the second page of your resume to the description of projects, work experience, personal summary and any other details you would like to mention.

1. Project Description

Usually, this section must contain the final year project description. There is no need to give a detailed overview as a majority of recruiters never read it completely. I recommend to be a part of a number of real-time projects as the job competition for freshers is at its peak and just having the final year project might not prove good enough. I have also covered some tips to gain real-time experience below.

2. Work Experience

This section is one of the pivotal part for a fresher looking for his/her first job. Being the fresher, it is a daunting task to get the real-time work experience but there are a number of ways to gain the practical experience.

If you have obtained less aggregate percentage in your academics, you should always try to work on maximum real-time projects, so that you can stand out from the crowd. Since a large number of people are graduating every year, hence, the competition is at its peak. The real-time work experience gives more weightage and certainly add more value to your profile. It also reflects your interest and learning mindset and build a positive rapport in the recruiter’s mind. There are a number of ways you can achieve this. Some of them are mentioned below. Additionally, there is a separate post you would like to refer to learn ways to get work experience.

  1. Internships
  2. Self-build projects (Freecodecamp is one of the best sources)
  3. Freelancing
 

You can opt for freelancing until you find a suitable job. Once you feel comfortable with your IT learning skills, you can always give it a try. This will certainly keep adding into your work experience.

Optional Sections

1. Declaration

A majority of people always put the declaration at the end of the resume stating that the information they have shared is true to the best of their knowledge. But, I personally feel it doesn’t make sense as the declarations of resume are non-legal binding and never value for the recruiters to take action in case if the details are incorrect.

Anyway, you will sign the declarations during the offer acceptance. I never put declarations in my resume during my professional career but again, it is always up to one’s discretion.

2. Personal Details

When you create a resume for fresher, this specific section is certainly a least important one. I have seen a number of profiles mentioning their hobbies. A majority of recruiters are least bothered to know anything about your hobbies. Probably HR can ask about these things during the last stage of the recruitment process mainly to ease your mood and make you feel comfortable. Apart from that, I never find worth it to put these things in the resume for freshers.

Again, there are some who also mention their residential address too. I think that is irrelevant unless you are applying for any of the non-IT jobs. A majority of the IT recruiters prefer to contact and communicate via emails. You should try to mention some of your achievements, awards, rewards, and extracurricular activities you have performed in during your academics.

3. Languages Known

It is simply not worth it to mention the regional languages you know unless you are applying for BPO or non-IT jobs. Moreover, English is a mandatory language for almost all IT jobs.

4. Photograph

I have seen a majority of people using their passport size photograph in the soft copies of their resume. It is not required unless the recruiters requested for. A majority of recruiters usually asks to paste your photo in printed paper resume especially during walk-ins in order to match your identity.

Resume Templates

As I have mentioned already, there are no specific rule book for building the resume for freshers, but there are some specific formats that generally catch the recruiter’s attention. We have built some ready-made templates that can be downloaded at ease and can be replaced with your personal information. Refer to the free sample templates of resume of fresher below. There is a separate post written for how to write Job emails which you can refer. The sections mentioned in this post would certainly help you to build resume for freshers specifically for those looking for their first job.

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