Start with a clear section order.
For a first resume, aim for one readable page when your relevant evidence fits. Do not squeeze the font or remove useful detail simply to meet a page count. A straightforward starting order is:
- Name and contact details: a professional email, reachable phone number and city. Add a portfolio link if it supports the application.
- Role-focused summary: two or three lines about the role you want and evidence of relevant skills.
- Education: qualification, institution and graduation year. Include relevant coursework only when it adds context.
- Projects or internships: what you worked on, your contribution and what happened.
- Skills: tools and methods you can explain or demonstrate.
- Relevant activities: volunteering, leadership or awards with enough detail to understand your contribution.
If your internship is your strongest evidence, place it above education. The order should help a recruiter find the most relevant information quickly.
A fresher resume example
This fictional example is for an entry-level analyst role. Adapt the structure to your profession and replace every detail with your own.
Riya Shah
Pune, India · riya@example.com
Graduate analyst · Excel, SQL and reporting
Commerce graduate with experience cleaning project datasets and presenting findings. Built an inventory analysis project using spreadsheets and SQL; seeking an entry-level operations analyst role.
Education
B.Com. · Example College · 2023–2026
Inventory analysis project
- Cleaned a fictional inventory dataset of 500 rows, standardising product names and identifying duplicate records.
- Used SQL to summarise monthly stock movement and flagged items with no recorded movement for follow-up.
- Presented findings in a spreadsheet dashboard and documented assumptions and missing data.
Skills
Excel: pivot tables and lookup formulas · SQL: joins and grouped queries · Data cleaning · Written reporting
A project using a sample dataset is valid evidence of practice. Label it as a project; do not present simulated results as a real employer’s business outcomes.
Describe your contribution, not just the topic.
A useful project bullet answers three questions: what did you do, how did you do it, and what evidence shows the result? Numbers help when you can explain where they came from. They are not mandatory.
Worked on a college event and improved teamwork.
Coordinated speaker schedules for a college event, tracked confirmations in a shared spreadsheet and sent daily updates to the organising team.
This approach works for marketing campaigns, accounting assignments, engineering prototypes, research and volunteering—not only programming projects.
What if you have no internship?
Use relevant coursework, independent work, volunteering or student responsibilities. Explain the scope honestly and separate team achievements from your own contribution. A useful small project with a clear explanation is more informative than a long list of tools you have only heard about.
Skip an empty Experience section if you do not have experience to describe. Avoid generic claims such as “expert communicator” without an example. You also do not need to include sensitive identity numbers or unrelated personal details in the resume.
Check the finished resume.
- Match the summary and evidence to the role without copying requirements you do not meet.
- Use consistent dates, section headings and spelling.
- Open every portfolio link and remove placeholders.
- Read the exported document on a phone and a larger screen.
- Check that PDF text can be selected and copied in a sensible order.
- Use the file format the employer requests. Classic Professional supports Word; all Shortlistii templates support PDF.
Compare free resume templates, then use the free resume checker to identify missing information and unclear writing. A resume score is feedback on the document, not a guarantee of an interview.