Useful resume writing tips for freshers 2023
A Resume is a formal document that represents you. This document is required for applying to a company. A well-written resume always helps you to get an interview call. Recruiters go through the hundreds of the resumes everyday, so you should be very careful while drafting a resume. You can rewrite your resume as per the specific job you are seeking for. Below are the most useful tips to help you write an effective and great resume. These resume writing tips will help freshers to draft an effective resume
Effective Resume writing Tips for freshers
1. Read the Job Description
First step to write a resume is to read the Job description carefully. You can prepare and rewrite the resume as per the Job Description. It should be specific and relevant to the Job description. Reading the Job description helps you to include the keywords throughout your resume.
2. Type of Resume
Choosing the right type of resume is important. There are lots of types of resume formats available such as Chronological, Functional, and Combined resume. A resume for fresher should emphasize more on skills than work experience. So functional resume is more suited to fresher.
Tip: Several online resume-building tools are available.
3. Contact Information
The first section of your resume should state your contact information like your name, phone no, email id and address. Some time you can only mention city and state. Your email id should be professional. Your first name should be motioned.
Don’t forget to include url of your LinkedIn profile. If you are using any other social media profiles, personal blogs, website, or portfolio, make sure everything on your profile is professional.
4. Resume Headline
The headline of your resume gives a snapshot of your resume to the recruiter. It should contain a 3-4 line summary that includes your career objective and academics. Adding keywords as per the job description makes it more impressive and relevant.
Tip: Don’t just write Career Objective
5. Education & Certification
Your resume should highlight your education, training, and all the certificates you have. The highest qualification should come first such as
- Post-Graduation
- Graduation
- Intermediate
- High School
This could include major and minor in college. Make a different section for training and certification. Certification you earn from college or outside college such as certification from any other institute or online platform. If you got any scholarship you can also mention it here.
6. Experience (Internship, Projects)
If you don’t have any professional work experience that does not mean you don’t have any other experience. In this section, you can mention the experience you have gained during your internship, educational projects, or volunteer work that provides evidence for your knowledge and skills.
Project: Mention the following information such as
- Project name
- Tenure
- Team size
- Brief description
Internship: Mention the following information such as
- Name of the company
- Designation
- Department
- Tenure
- Brief description
Also read: Useful Interview Tips For Freshers
7. Font and layout
Fresher should use a good layout of the resume. It should be clear, understandable, and easy to read. It should not look like a mess. Too much blank space and decoration of the resume may be a red flag. Try to use a basic font like Times New Roman or Arial. Keep font size between 11 and 12. Use bullets to highlight the key points to the recruiter.
Margin
Freshers should use a one-inch margin on all sides of the resume with a single space between the lines. If you feel too much white space, you might consider changing your lines space by 1.15 or 1.5. Anyhow margins should be below two inches.
8. Skill Set
As we have mentioned above, read the Job description carefully and look for specific job-related keywords. Keywords are the most effective way to optimize your resume. Many companies are using Application Tracking System-ATS. ATS is a software used by the recruiter to shortlist resumes. Relevant keywords help your resume to be easily scanned by ATS.
Tip: Smartly use the keywords as Key skills and place the keywords everywhere instead of putting them in a single paragraph.
9. Interest & Hobbies
You may have lots of hobbies and interests such as collecting stamps or coins, listening to music, playing video games. It is good for you and we all need something other than work. But can you see anything about how your hobbies can help you in the specific position you are applying for? Is there any direct connection between your hobbies and the Job? If not, don’t list them.
Only include Interests and hobbies which are relevant to the position. If with the help of Interest or hobbies you have earned any recognition or award, you must mention it.
Also Read: Group Discussion and It’s Importance
10. Extra-Curricular
If you have participated in extracurricular activities you may include them. Participated in debate competitions, sports activities, science fairs, volunteered for the social cause, NCC, NSS, State or Nation level championship, and cultural activities, etc you can mention here. There no need to put all the activities, but only most relevant activities.
11. Any Achievement & honour
Don’t forget to mention your achievement and any honour received. Highlight your relevant achievements in your education, internship, any social cause, or other experience. Effective resume writing is simple and we hope theses resume writing tips will help you to make effective resume.
8 things to keep in mind while writing a Resume for freshers
There are lots of common mistakes that can send your resume straight to the rejection pile. It’s not fair. These mistakes are easy to overlook and hamper your reputation to the employer. These are 8 things to keep in mind while writing a resume.
1. Make it readable & Printable
Always make your resume readable. Choose legible fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, or Calibri. Ideally, a font size of 12 is good for the freshers, however, it should not be less than 11 in size. Highlight the key information as bullet points.
Tip: Recruiters have a minimum amount of time to review your resume, so make it simple, readable, and printable.
2. Don’t use Templates
Sometimes candidates download the resume templates from google. These templates look very fancy and attractive. But it is hard to modify the template. It needs to do lots of editing work. More often resume come in Table format and it’s very hard to change without running the formatting. So avoid templates.
3. Don’t Copy it from others
Try to prepare the resume by yourself. Do not copy it from others. The same type of resumes of a group of freshers doesn’t give a good impression to the recruiter. The recruiter understands that you copied it from others. If you are sitting for the campus recruitment and resume format is provided by the Training & Placement Cell, then it is OK.
4. Don’t lie
Only put relevant and true information on your resume. Don’t lie. Just don’t do it. It will harm you back. Often recruiters ask for proof and references. If you get caught doing this, you might get blacklisted from the company. Make sure your resume highlights the things that make you the best candidate for the position and confirm that your resume is honest and memorable.
Also read: Job Interview’s Do’s and Don’ts
5. Length of the Resume
The one-page rule is for a good reason. One-page space is enough space to include the relevant resume information. The recruiter often reviews lots of resumes, they scan the resume very quickly, and in a few seconds, they decide whether to keep it or trash it. So keep your resume simple, clear, and direct.
6. Don’t be generic
Go through your resume and check the following strengths on your resume.
- Hard worker
- Smart worker
- Disciplined
- Punctual
- Excellent communication skills
- Result oriented
- Team player, etc.
If you are mentioning these strengths or skills, GET RID OF IT RIGHT AWAY. These buzzwords are overused on resume and subjective. May be you possess all the qualities, but so is everyone according to their resume. You need to provide concrete evidence that proves these skills. So many people are using all these qualities, and for that reason, recruiters have learned to ignore these claims on the resume.
Ask yourself, what you have achieved that can demonstrate your leadership skills, or whatever else you want to convey to the recruiter. So that you can place it on your resume.
7. Don’t mention your weakness
The company always hires people for their strengths, not for weaknesses. Don’t mention your weakness on your resume. There is no need for this. If a recruiter asks you about your weakness, then only smartly answer the question.
8. Proofread
Proofread is the last step in writing a fresher resume. Go through your resume 2-3 times. You can take the help of your family member, friend, or any senior person to proofread your resume. This will help you find any errors such as the layout of the resume, inconsistency, sentence formation, typo errors and grammatical errors, etc. We hope these resume writing tips will help you create a perfect resume for your job search.
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