Your resume is the first filter in every campus recruitment process. Most placement resumes are eliminated in under 6 seconds by HR teams reviewing hundreds of applications during large drives. Before a human reads it, ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) scan for keyword matches. Here is how to build a resume that passes both.
The Right Format for Engineering Freshers
Single-page, reverse-chronological format. No photos — most MNCs and IT companies globally prefer text-only resumes for initial screening. No tables, columns, or decorative borders — these break ATS parsing. Use a professional font: Calibri, Arial, or Georgia at 10 to 11 points. Consistent spacing, bullet style, and capitalisation throughout.
Section 1: Contact Information
Name in the largest font on the page. Professional email: firstname.lastname@gmail.com (not nicknames or birth years). Phone number. LinkedIn URL (customise it to linkedin.com/in/yourname). GitHub URL for technical roles. City only — not your full address.
Section 2: Career Objective
Three lines maximum. Mention: your degree and expected graduation year, your strongest relevant skill, and the specific type of role you are targeting. Customise this for each company — a 90-second edit that measurably improves your shortlisting rate.
Example: “Final-year Computer Science student at VIT Vellore with strong foundations in Java and data structures. Seeking a Software Engineer role at TCS to contribute to enterprise application development while growing within a structured technical environment.”
Section 3: Education
Reverse chronological order: current degree first, then 12th, then 10th. For each: institution name, year of passing, CGPA or percentage. If your CGPA is below 6.5, calculate your percentage using your university formula and list the percentage instead. Never leave education out, even if the numbers are not ideal.
Section 4: Technical Skills
Group by category. Programming Languages: Java, Python, C++. Frameworks: Spring Boot, Django, React. Databases: MySQL, MongoDB. Tools: Git, VS Code, IntelliJ. Only list skills you can fluently discuss in a 5-minute technical interview. Misrepresenting skills here is the top reason for offer rejections after technical interviews.
Section 5: Projects
List 2 to 3 projects. For each: project title, tech stack, and 2 to 3 bullet points describing what you built and what it achieved. Include a GitHub link. Start each bullet with an action verb: Developed, Implemented, Designed, Optimised, Automated, Deployed. Quantify results wherever possible: “reduced loading time by 40%” is significantly stronger than “improved performance.”
Section 6: Internships
If you have internship experience, list it above projects with: company name, role, duration, and 3 bullet-pointed achievements. Even a 4-week internship is worth including. Focus on what you delivered, not what you learned.
Section 7: Certifications and Courses
Only completed certifications. NPTEL, Coursera, HackerRank, AWS, Google, and Microsoft certifications are all well-regarded. List the certification name, issuing platform, and year.
ATS Optimisation
Use keywords directly from the job description — companies’ ATS tools scan for exact phrases. Use standard section headings that ATS recognises. Avoid headers and footers, text boxes, images, charts, and multi-column layouts. Submit as a PDF unless the application specifically requests a Word document.
The Top 7 Mistakes Freshers Make
1. Spelling and grammar errors — always run Grammarly. 2. Generic career objectives not tailored to the company. 3. Listing technologies you cannot discuss in an interview. 4. Inconsistent formatting throughout the document. 5. Including a photo when not requested. 6. Listing references on the resume — write “References available on request.” 7. Making it longer than one page — freshers never need two pages.