Resume is an important aspect of your job application since it helps you create your first impression among hiring professionals, long before you physically appear for a job interview. And needless to say, what you write on your resume decides whether you will be rejected or receive a call for the job interview.
Nearly every job expert recommends to customize your resume according to the jobs you apply, but do you really need to customize it on the basis of your work experience – especially if you have no experience at all? Yes, a fresher’s resume should be different from that of an experienced job candidate.
So, what should be your approach while creating a great resume for freshers? What sections you should include or exclude? And, most importantly, what things should you highlight when your resume lacks a
detailed work experience section?
If you are new to the job market and applying to your dream jobs the first time, the tips here could help you craft a great resume to improve your chances of securing an interview call. Let’s begin by taking a look at how a fresher’s resume should look like!
Fresher’s Resume Layout
- Name and Contact Information in the Header: Use easily readable large, standard fonts.
- Career Objective: Keep it short, crisp and to the point.
- Qualification: Mention just the relevant information. Make sure to provide all necessary information while clearly defining your skillsets in view of the job description (JD). Refer JD to include all important keywords to pass through application tracking system (ATS).
- Software Skills: Employers usually expect this section, and for some job roles, it can be a major selection criterion.
- Relevant Practical Experience: You can include internship information, projects undertaken and any academic experience. Try to highlight major requirements of your potential employer in this section.
- Achievements: Distinctly define your accomplishments, especially the ones that fulfill the job requirements.
Tips to Write a Fresher’s Resume
These basic tips will guide you through the process of creating a great resume for freshers.
- Plan your Content Beforehand: Prior to writing anything on your resume, content planning and research is important. Think about what you wish to achieve in your career as this will help you know what to include in your resume.
Describing your area of interest can be a bit challenging since professional background has little to no value in case of freshers. The scope of including professional interests is more, hence you should plan thoughtfully what to include and what not to include.
- Things to be Kept in Mind: The very first thing to be considered is typography – font size and type. Never forget to include relevant keywords in your resume. Some personal research will help you learn how to use them. You can follow the JD to identify important keywords.
Next, you should select a suitable format as well as a file name. Remember that while action verbs are allowed on resume, you should strictly avoid using pronouns.
- Information to Include: Correct and updated contact information should be included, comprising your complete name, phone number, email address and correspondence address. List educational qualification details in chronological order. You can include the names of institutions that have awarded you the degrees and certifications.
Also, give details of professional training/courses that you have pursued.
- Resume Format: To organize your resume as per your plan, you will have to follow some specific steps. Begin by selecting the font size and style as well as the margin in a blank document.
Plus, without being experimental, choose from these fonts for resume writing: Calibri, Times New Roman, Georgia and Arial. Keep the font size 14 and 12 for headings and for rest of the content, respectively.
- Avoiding Useless Formatting: Do not capitalize or bold text for no good reason. Also, avoid using multiple colors. Stick to one or two colors only; and for text, use a dark color against the white background.
- Recognizing Your Resume Type: Next, you should select a proper layout, which is basically of three types: functional, chronological and combinational.
The functional type is for professionals, who don’t have enough matter or experience to strengthen their resume. The chronological type, on the other hand, is for those who are known to be associated with a particular sector for quite long time.
Combinational type, as the name suggests, holds features of both functional and chronological types. Ideally, freshers should go for this type of resume layout.
- Following a Pattern: Once you have decided the layout, mention your educational details, projects undertaken during graduate and postgraduate courses, internships, awards and accomplishments.
The title and headings should be aligned to left. Keep single spacing before the heading and its corresponding content, and double spacing when you move to the next heading.
- Using Effective Titles: A lot of hiring managers judge job candidates on the basis of the titles they include on their resumes. Simultaneously, your objective statement should be really impressive. Keep it clear and not more than 2-3 lines.
Moreover, avoid making it too generalized. The objective should strictly be in accordance with the position you are applying for. It should reflect your career goals and how you are an ideal candidate for the job in question.
Steer clear of mentioning too genetic skills, such as dynamic, team player and hard worker and so on. Needless to say, every employer wants these qualities from his/her prospective employees but does like reading them on resumes.
- Keeping it Simple: There should be no room for confusion and so, simplicity is the key. Try using sentences like: “Responsibilities include resolving client issues, attending calls and preparing daily reports.”
Further, something done in the past can be included with phases like: “offered technical support,” “managed a team of 20 people,” or “scheduled daily meetings.”
- Avoiding Grammatical Errors: You should pay close attention to grammatical and sentence construction errors. Your resume should be free of any spell errors and include suitable expressions. This will help you create a great first impression in front of recruiters.
Make sure to state everything precisely and to the point. All your trainings and recognitions, mentioned over the resume, should be supported by relevant certificates and related documents.
- Reflecting Your Skills through Resume: You should make efforts to showcase your skills through your resume. For example, a writer should try showcasing his/her skills while creating a fresher’s resume without going overboard.
Likewise, animator can also reflect his/her skills to some extent while presenting a fresher’s resume. This is important as this will help you introduce your creative side or expertise to recruiters despite being a fresher – when you don’t have any strong professional experience to prove your skills.
However, it is not necessary to include them every time if you personally feel so or you think your skills can not be reflected through your resume. A simple resume with all relevant information is just enough.
- Major Things to Avoid: A fresher’s resume should never include a photograph. However, if you have been asked to include one, make sure to have it clicked in a professional get-up. You should also avoid mentioning any work experience that doesn’t have supporting documents.
Moreover, never mention your expected salary. Wait until the interview since most job interviews has a dedicated salary negotiation phase. It is also important since being a fresher, you should be more inclined towards learning and getting an opportunity rather than focusing on money.
- Keeping it Professional: Your resume should reflect professionalism from every angle. It should be professionally attractive by looks and feel. Don’t overdo anything that might ruin its appeal. You can also make use of different colors, but this has to be done intelligently, so that your resume doesn’t appear too fancy.
- Using Numbers to Highlight Your Achievements: Numbers are always catchy, so use number to grab the attention of recruiters, especially when highlighting your accomplishments, such as:
- Organized a coporate event
attended by 11,000+ professionals. § Bagged 2nd position among 150
participants in the XYZ event.
- Written and published 25 blogs with 5,000+ views in a span of month.
- Using Power Verbs: Believe it or not, there are several power verbs that recruiters want you to put down on your resume. These may include implemented, executed, spearheaded, developed, delivered, organized and so forth.
Use them when filling details in various sections of your fresher’s resume. Try to begin a sentence with these strong verbs, typically in the form of bullets.
- Getting it Reviewed: Once done, ask a trustworthy friend, particularly the one with impeccable command over written English, to review it. Chances are there that he/she may catch a mistake or point out anything that you have probably missed.
Conclusion
The aforementioned resume tips for freshers can certainly help you create a really great resume when you don’t have a strong professional background to support it. However, if you still find it difficult where to start from, try free resume builder.
No matter what type of job you are applying for, and whether you are fresh grad or an experienced professional, you can use Shri Resume’s effective yet free tool to build a great resume.
At Shri Resume, you can choose from an array of resume samples, templates and formats, according to your job role and industry. Additionally, to help you stand out, Shri offers you professional resume writing services too under its Blessings, Grammar Sutra, Hard Work and Gurudakshina plans.
