Many Indian resume templates are older than the jobs they are used for
Download a few free resume templates and you will see the same block near the top: photo, date of birth, father's name, marital status, nationality, full postal address. At the bottom comes a line that starts "I hereby declare that the above information is true." These habits come from older templates and some government and campus forms. They are not what most private-sector recruiters, especially in tech, need from your resume today.
This post is general guidance for freshers and early-career applicants applying to private-sector roles. Industries and employers differ, so when an application form or a recruiter asks for something specific, give them what they ask for.
What to keep in the header
- Full name, large enough to find instantly.
- Phone number that you answer, with the country code if you are applying to companies abroad.
- Professional email address, ideally some form of your name. A nickname-based address from school days costs you a little credibility.
- City and state, not the full street address. A recruiter needs to know where you are, not where you live.
- LinkedIn, and GitHub or portfolio if they show real work.
Put all of this in plain text at the top of the page, not inside an image, a table or the document header. Some parsers skip headers and footers, and a phone number stored there can disappear.
What to cut, and why
Photo
For most private-sector roles in India there is no need for a photo, and it takes room you could use for work. It can also push a template into a two-column or table layout, which is the layout most likely to confuse a parser. There are exceptions, such as some sectors or roles where a photo is customary or requested. If the application asks for one, include it. If it does not, leave it out.
Date of birth, marital status, religion, father's name
These details do not show whether you can do the job. Including them invites a reader to judge you on things unrelated to your skills, and a number of employers would prefer not to see them for that reason. If a company needs your date of birth, for example for background verification, it will ask for it at the right stage in a form.
Full postal address
It adds privacy risk and no value. Your city is enough.
Objective statements and the "I hereby declare" line
"Seeking a challenging position in a reputed organization" says nothing a recruiter does not already assume. Replace it with a two-line summary of what you can do and one thing you have built. The declaration paragraph at the bottom can go entirely: submitting your resume already implies it is true, and the space is better used for a project or a skill.
Class 10 and 12 marks in detail
For freshers, your degree, college, graduation year and CGPA or percentage matter first. Include school marks only if the job posting asks for them or they are strong and the role cares about them. Never inflate any number, because it is easy to verify.
What to put in the space you freed
- One or two projects with the tools you used and a number: users, endpoints, tests, percent faster.
- Internships, with what you did and what changed.
- A skills line that uses the same names as the job description, for skills you really have.
- Certifications or competitions that are relevant to the role.
Quick check before you send
- Can the header be selected and copied as plain text?
- Is it one column, with standard headings like Summary, Projects, Education and Skills?
- Does the first third of the page show what you can do, not only who you are?
Paste your resume and a real job description into Applyr's free ATS checker to check formatting problems and see which keywords are missing. For a fresher-specific walkthrough, see how to write a resume with no experience and the signs your resume is working against you.