How to Write a Fresher Resume That Gets Shortlisted (With Template)
Updated 28 Oct 2026 3 min read
On this page 13 sections
What a fresher resume must do
A recruiter may spend under a minute on your resume at first. In that minute it must show: who you are, what you can do and proof that you can do it. As a fresher you have little work experience, so projects, internships, skills and academics carry the weight. Aim for exactly one page.
The best order for freshers
- Header
- Summary (optional, 2 lines)
- Education
- Skills
- Projects
- Internships / experience (if any)
- Achievements and certifications
- Extra-curriculars (short)
If you have an internship, you may place it above Projects. Education goes first if your academic record is very strong or the company is campus-focused.
1. Header
Your name (largest text), phone, professional email (name@gmail.com, not a nickname), city, LinkedIn and GitHub links. Skip photo, date of birth, marital status, full postal address and father's name unless the employer's form specifically requires it.
2. Summary (optional)
Two lines, specific: "Final-year CSE student with hands-on experience building web applications in React and Node.js. Seeking a software developer role to work on scalable products." Avoid vague claims such as "hardworking and passionate team player".
3. Education
Degree, college, year and CGPA or percentage (if it is good or required). Add 10th and 12th results in a compact line if companies ask. Mention relevant coursework only if it adds value, such as Data Structures, DBMS or Operating Systems.
4. Skills
Group them clearly:
- Languages: Java, Python, SQL
- Web: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Node.js
- Tools: Git, Postman, VS Code, Docker (basic)
- Databases: MySQL, MongoDB
Rule: only list what you could discuss in an interview. Do not rate yourself with progress bars or stars; they mean nothing.
5. Projects (the most important section)
Give 2–3 projects. For each: name, tech stack, a link, and 2–3 bullets. Each bullet should show what you did and what came out of it.
Weak: Made a website for students using HTML and CSS.
Better: Built a placement-tracking web app (React, Node.js, MongoDB) used by 40 classmates; added login, resume upload and deadline reminders.
Weak: Worked on a machine learning project.
Better: Trained a random forest model on 20,000 rows of loan data to predict defaults (84% accuracy on held-out data); documented the limitations in the README.
Use this formula: Action verb + what you built + technology + result or scale. Only include numbers that are true. For ideas see portfolio projects that get interviews.
6. Internships and experience
Company, role, dates, and 2–3 bullets on your contribution. For short or unpaid internships, focus on what you built or learnt: Fixed 12 bugs in the checkout flow of a Java Spring application and wrote unit tests that raised coverage from 40% to 65%.
7. Achievements and certifications
Hackathon positions, coding contest ranks, scholarships, relevant certifications (cloud, SQL, a recognised course). Skip generic certificates for attending a webinar.
A compact template
NAME
Phone | email | City | LinkedIn | GitHub
SUMMARY
One or two specific lines.
EDUCATION
B.Tech Computer Science, XYZ College, 2026 | CGPA 8.2
Class XII, Board, 2022 | 91%
SKILLS
Languages: ... Web: ... Tools: ... Databases: ...
PROJECTS
Project name | Tech | link
- Action + what + tech + result
- Action + what + tech + result
INTERNSHIP
Company | Role | Month-Month Year
- Contribution with a result
ACHIEVEMENTS
- Hackathon / contest / certification
Formatting rules
- One page, standard font (Calibri, Arial or Helvetica), size 10–11, margins around 1.5 cm
- Consistent dates, bullets and spacing
- Save as PDF unless asked otherwise; name it FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf
- Make it readable by software: no tables for layout, no images with text (ATS-friendly checklist)
- Proofread twice, then ask a friend. Typos suggest carelessness.
Mistakes that get resumes rejected
- Two or three pages for a fresher
- Listing every technology you have ever touched
- Objectives full of clichés
- Fake or inflated claims; interviewers will test them
- Broken or private GitHub and project links
- A different resume for every company with different facts
Next steps
Tailor it per role: copy keywords from the job description where they are true. Write a good LinkedIn profile, tidy your GitHub and apply to fresher jobs and internships.
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