Resume lesson
What a shortlisted resume does differently
We’ve read thousands of resumes while hiring freshers and experienced people. The ones that get shortlisted have a few things in common. Here they are.
Six things the strong ones did
Numbers tied to what they did
Strong resumes show results with numbers on most lines. Weak ones list duties. This is the clearest difference of all.
One clear target role
Headline, skills and lines all point at the same job. Weak resumes chased three to six roles at once.
Lines that say what they did
“Built”, “fixed”, “cut”, not “responsible for”, “involved in”, “worked on”.
One clean column
Fancy Canva-style designs with two columns, icons and skill bars get mixed up by company software. Plain wins.
Proof you can check
A GitHub, live demo or app link on projects, especially for freshers.
The right length
Strong ones are full but focused. Weak ones are either thin or page after page of repeats. Freshers: one page.
Same work. Very different line.
The shape that works: action word + what + how + a result you can measure. Use your own real numbers; a rough honest figure beats a made-up exact one.
BeforeInvolved in fixing existing bugs.
AfterFixed 60+ defects in the loan service, halving the pending bug list in two sprints.
BeforeLearned cloud concepts through hands-on training.
AfterDeployed a 3-tier app on AWS (EC2, RDS, S3) with automated backups during a 6-week internship.
BeforeAchieved significant traffic growth through SEO.
AfterGrew website visits 60% in 6 months by fixing 200 SEO errors and publishing 40 pages.
BeforeI am handling GST returns related work.
AfterFiled monthly GST returns for 12 businesses and answered 9 tax notices.
BeforeWorked on a website for college fest.
AfterBuilt the college fest website (React) used by 1,200 students to register for 40 events.
Examples are reworded from real resumes, with names and details changed.
Things that only show up on weak resumes
Old “biodata” habits. Recruiters skip them, and they push your best work down the page.
An “Objective” section
Recruiters skip it. A one-line headline with your target role does the job better.
A declaration
“I hereby declare…” and a signature line add nothing and take space.
Date of birth and marital status
Not needed, and they invite bias. Leave them off.
A photo doesn’t help either: leave it off unless the job asks for one.
What makes a recruiter stop trusting a resume
Years that don't add up
“6+ years” in the summary when the dates show 4. Recruiters count.
The same line twice
One bullet copied under two jobs, or a job and a project.
A title bigger than the dates
“Senior” or “Lead” with under about 4 years, or a trainee who “architected” a system.
Too-perfect numbers
Every result 95–100%, or business growth on a personal project nobody used.
Template text left in
“LinkedIn URL”, “Reduced cost by 0%”, a blank “Place: ___ Date: ___”.
Dates that can't be right
A certificate dated in the future, or a full-time job during a full-time degree.
For freshers
What the best fresher resumes had
- One clean page
- An internship with an outcome, even a small one
- A GitHub or live link on every project
- Something real that people used (an app, a fest site, a tool the department adopted)
- Honest labels: “virtual internship”, “training project”, “sample data”
- CGPA shown when it helps
The weakest started lines with “Learned…” or “Explored…”, had no links, and ran to 2–3 pages.
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