Competing with other folks for a job can be challenging for a fresher. There are only a limited number of jobs available in each company and the chances of even getting an interview call diminishes drastically over time.
Don’t worry, we have been there and have found some simple fixes that can help increase your chances of landing an interview.
Before you even start writing your resume do these things:
- List down all the roles you would be interested in. For eg. SWE, APM, ASE.
- List down all the top companies you are interested to work for.
- Read through all their job descriptions and collect important skills and experience they are looking for
Now that you have done your basic research, you can start writing your resume.
Let’s break down your resume format based on the following categories
- Common Resume Format.
- Resume for Freshers with no experience.
- Resume for Freshers with internship experience.
- Resume for Freshers with un-related work experience
1. Common Resume Format
- Education:
Highlight your most recent education and make sure you add courses that would be relevant to the position you are applying to.
- Projects:
Add relevant projects that would highlight your knowledge in the areas that relate to the job you are applying to. Add 2-3 projects and explain where you contributed if it was a group project.
If you do not have relevant projects, take the time to go over some quick tutorials on Youtube/Udemy and try to enhance your profile. This will not only help you find a job but also increase your skills which will compound over time.
- Certification/Awards:
Mention your certifications or awards that show either your leadership skills or skills related to your job.
- Skills:
This is a good place to highlight the tools and software that you have used for your projects. Look at the job descriptions and find out the keywords that matter to the job you are applying to. If that particular skill is something you possess, make sure you add it to your resume. Do not add skills that you are not aware of. There is no point going to the interview and them figuring it out there.
Do not engage in keyword stuffing, they rarely help. Even if you get through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), you would have difficulty explaining that during the interview.
2. Resume for Freshers with no experience
If you have no experience, you could enhance your project section with relevant projects. Go into detail about how you impacted those projects and your learnings.
You could also explain more about the courses you took within the Education Section.
If you have some time before you start looking for jobs, you could do the following:
- Reach out to your university for TA positions
- Offer pro-bono assistance to help out with say a website/app/accounting to a start-up or non-profit organization
- Work on a project and launch it (easier if you are a computer science student)
3. Resume for Freshers with internship experience
Your work at the internship should be a highlight of your resume. Talk in detail about the work you performed in the Experience Section.
- Experience Section:
Add 2-3 points in the Experience section highlighting your contribution. Try to quantify your contribution with numbers (increased something by 5%, improved XYZ by 20 times). Mention the tools you used for the work.
- Skills Section:
Make sure to mention the tools that you used while working at the internships. Even simple project management tools like Jira, and Trello or code management like Github, and Gitlab will show your future employer that you know these basic tools and they would not have to spend time training you. This is an added advantage when they are comparing your resume to someone else's.
4. Resume for Freshers with un-related work experience
This is a perfect opportunity to highlight your leadership, communication, and collaboration skills. Again, do not make it your resume’s focus, but highlight your contributions and make sure you quantify your accomplishments.
It's a Marathon
Writing a resume is as much an art as it is a science. You need to make sure you research the jobs and target your resume accordingly. This is also a great opportunity to recognize what areas you could be improving and take up additional courses.
At ResumePuppy we have made this format available for free. Instead of worrying about the formatting, you could be just focussing on getting the right content for your resume. And what more? You could also use the keyword research tool to get the keywords you are missing. Do try it out for yourself, also did we mention it is free?
Remember, job hunting is a long process, focus on the right things and over time you will get that dream job.
