How do I write a resume?
To write a resume, pick a simple format, add your contact details, a short summary or objective, experience or projects with result-focused bullets, education and skills, keep it to one or two pages, proofread, and save it as a PDF. FixDoks's builder walks you through each section with a live preview.
How to Write a Resume at a glance
| Length | 1 page for freshers, up to 2 for experience |
|---|---|
| File | PDF named Firstname_Lastname_Resume.pdf |
| Designs | 16 templates, A4 or US Letter |
| Processing | On our server over HTTPS; files are deleted right after conversion |
| Max file size | 50 MB per file |
| Price | Free to use, no watermark |
| Download | First download free, then ₹49 for 2 months of unlimited downloads (US$3 outside India) |
| Files at once | 1 free, up to 30 with a plan |
| Works on | Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox on Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone |
How to use How to Write a Resume: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
- Collect your details: jobs, dates, projects, education, skills and certificates.
- Choose a clean single-column design and start the builder.
- Write the sections in order, with bullets that show results.
- Fit it to the right length, proofread, run an ATS check and save as PDF.
Step 1: Decide the goal
A resume is not your life story. It is a one-page argument for why you suit one kind of job. Before typing, decide the role and read two or three job ads for it. Note the repeated skills and tools. These become your keywords.
Step 2: Choose a format
| Format | Best for | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Reverse chronological | Most people with work history | Latest job first |
| Fresher or skills-led | No job history | Education, projects and skills lead |
| Combination | Career changers | Skills block first, then history |
Pick a single-column design with a normal font. The builder has 16 designs, and you can compare them on the resume templates page. Switching later does not lose your content.
Step 3: Put sections in the right order
- Name and contact details
- Summary or career objective
- Work experience (freshers: education, then projects and internships)
- Education
- Skills
- Projects, certificates, awards (optional)
Freshers can see the exact order in the resume format for freshers.
Step 4: Write your contact section
Include your full name, a mobile number, a professional email and your city. Add a LinkedIn or portfolio link if it is up to date. Use an address like firstname.lastname@gmail.com, not a nickname. You do not need a full street address, date of birth or marital status for most private jobs.
Step 5: Add a short summary
Two or three lines that name your role, your strongest proof and your goal. Experienced people write a summary; freshers write a career objective. The summary generator can draft options.
Step 6: Write experience bullets
This is the most important section. For each job, give the title, company, city and dates (month and year), then 3 to 6 bullets. Each bullet should start with a verb and end with a result.
- Weak: "Responsible for billing."
- Better: "Processed 80 invoices a week with zero payment errors for six months."
Use action verbs and honest numbers. If you cannot measure, describe scale: team size, number of customers, frequency. The bullet point generator turns rough notes into clear lines.
Step 7: Education
List degree, college, university and year. Freshers add CGPA or percentage, and relevant coursework if it helps. After a few years of work, shorten this to degree, institute and year. Put 10th and 12th marks only if the job or form asks.
Step 8: Skills
List 6 to 12 skills that match the ad, with tools spelled the way the ad spells them. See skills for resume for lists by field. Leave out skill bars and percentage ratings.
Step 9: Optional sections
Add projects, internships, certificates, awards, languages or volunteering only if they help for this role. Hobbies are optional; see hobbies and interests. A declaration is usual only in some Indian applications; see declaration in resume.
Step 10: Check length and layout
| Your situation | Pages |
|---|---|
| Fresher, intern, up to about 5 years | 1 |
| 5 to 15 years of relevant work | 1 to 2 |
| Senior leaders, academics | 2, sometimes more |
Use margins of at least 1.5 cm, a font size of 10 to 12 points, and a clear space between sections. If you are slightly over, cut the oldest or weakest bullets before shrinking the font.
Step 11: Proofread
- Read it aloud and then backwards, line by line, for spelling.
- Check that dates, phone number and email are right.
- Make tense and date formats consistent.
- Ask a friend to read it for sense.
- Remove "I", "me" and filler like "team player".
Step 12: Save and name the file
Save as PDF unless the employer asks for Word, because PDF keeps your layout and your text stays selectable. Name it Firstname_Lastname_Resume.pdf, for example Anita_Sharma_Resume.pdf. Avoid names like "resume final 2 new.pdf". If a portal has a size limit, use compress PDF.
Mistakes that cost interviews
- One resume for every job. A generic file matches no ad closely.
- Long paragraphs. Recruiters scan. Use short bullets of one or two lines.
- Duties instead of results. "Handled customers" says what the job was. "Handled 40 customers a day and kept complaints under 2 a week" says how you did it.
- Unexplained gaps. If you have a break, say why in one honest line. See career gap in resume.
- Fancy designs that break parsing. Tables, text boxes, icons and two-column layouts can scramble text in older systems.
- Fake claims. Employers verify degrees, dates and titles. Keep every line true.
A quick example of a fresher resume layout
Name and contact. Career objective in two lines. Education with CGPA. Projects with two bullets each. Internship with three bullets. Skills in one line of tags. Certificates. That is a full, honest page for a B.Tech or B.Com graduate. For the same layout in a specific field, open the B.Tech fresher or B.Com fresher examples.
Make it ATS-friendly
Many companies and portals use software to read resumes before a person does. Help it by using standard headings (Experience, Education, Skills), a single column, real text instead of images, and the exact keywords from the job ad. Run your file through the ATS resume checker before sending. No checker can guarantee a result with every system, so keep it simple.
Tailor for each job
Change the headline, summary and top three bullets to mirror each job ad. It takes ten minutes and often decides whether you are shortlisted. For worked examples in your field, browse the 51 resume examples, or start straight away in the AI resume builder.