Resume Format for Freshers in India (2026): What to Include, What to Leave Out
A fresher resume should be one page and answer one question: can this person be trained fast? Here is the exact order of sections, with examples for IT, commerce and engineering graduates.
Recruiters spend about eight seconds on a fresher resume. Yours has to answer "can this person be trained fast?" in that time. Everything below is built around that.
The one-page order
- Name, phone, email, city. No full address, no date of birth, no father's name, no photo unless the job asks for one.
- Two-line summary. "B.Com graduate (2025, 74%) with a Tally certification and a six-week internship at a CA firm. Looking for an accounts executive role in Surat." Specific beats "hardworking and dynamic".
- Education — degree, college, year, percentage or CGPA. Include 12th; skip 10th unless it is your highest.
- Skills — tools and certifications, not adjectives. "Excel (VLOOKUP, pivot), Tally Prime, GST filing" rather than "MS Office".
- Projects / internships — two or three, each with what you built and the result.
- Achievements — only if concrete (rank, prize, published work).
Leave these out
Objective paragraphs, hobbies, "references available on request", languages you cannot hold a work conversation in, and a declaration line. Every one of these costs space and tells the recruiter nothing.
Format details that matter
- PDF, named
Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf. - One font, 10.5–11.5 pt, black text. No tables inside tables, no two-column layouts for ATS-scanned roles.
- Consistent dates: "Jun 2024 – Aug 2024".
Templates by stream
IT / CS: Modern or Minimal — skills and projects up top. Commerce: Classic — education and certifications first. Engineering: Compact — projects, internships, tools. All eleven templates are free in the Enlist resume builder and export to PDF in one click.
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