Search for an Indian resume format and most of what you find is a template from around 2012: a photo box in the corner, a personal details table with date of birth and father's name, a career objective, and a declaration with a signature line at the bottom.
None of that is expected by Indian recruiters today, and several items actively work against you. This page goes through the correct format section by section, and lists what to delete.
The nine sections that belong, in order
- 1. Contact block — full name, +91 phone, professional email, city and state, LinkedIn. Add notice period if you are actively looking.
- 2. Professional summary — three to four lines: role, total years, specialism, one measurable result.
- 3. Skills — grouped into technical, tools and domain. This is what portal search matches on.
- 4. Work experience — reverse-chronological, month and year dates, three to five quantified bullets per role.
- 5. Education — degree, branch, institution, year, CGPA or percentage.
- 6. Certifications — with awarding body and year.
- 7. Projects — essential for freshers and technical roles, optional beyond five years.
- 8. Achievements — awards, recognitions, competitions, publications.
- 9. Languages — with proficiency, where relevant to the role.
The eight things to delete
| Remove | Why |
|---|---|
| Photograph | Not expected for corporate roles; can trigger bias-avoidance handling at multinationals; consumes prime space |
| Date of birth and age | Not required, invites age discrimination, and no recruiter needs it before an offer |
| Gender, marital status, father's name | Legacy of government application forms; irrelevant to hiring and increasingly seen as a red flag |
| Full residential address | City and state is sufficient; a full address is a privacy risk with no benefit |
| Career objective | Says what you want. A summary says what you offer, which is what the reader is looking for |
| Declaration and signature | A formality with no function; strongly signals an outdated template |
| 'References available on request' | Assumed. Wastes a line. |
| Passport number, PAN, Aadhaar | Never on a resume. Provide at offer stage through a secure channel. |
Length by experience level
- Fresher and under 2 years — one page, strictly
- 2 to 8 years — one to two pages
- 8 to 15 years — two pages
- 15+ years and leadership — two pages, with earlier roles compressed to a summary block
- Academic CV — no page limit, but that is a different document
Chronological, functional or combination
Use reverse-chronological. It is what Indian recruiters expect, and it is what applicant tracking systems parse most reliably.
Functional resumes — skills grouped with no clear employment timeline — are read as concealing something, and they parse badly because the system cannot associate achievements with employers or compute your experience. If you have gaps or a career change, address them directly in one line rather than restructuring the whole document to hide them.
File format and naming
Submit PDF unless the portal demands DOC or DOCX — Naukri, for instance, parses DOCX slightly more reliably than some PDF exports, so keep both versions. Name the file properly: 'Priya_Sharma_Data_Analyst_Resume.pdf'. Files named 'resume_final_v3.pdf' get lost in recruiter inboxes and look careless.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the standard resume format in India?
- Reverse-chronological, single column, one to two pages: contact, summary, skills, experience, education, certifications, projects, achievements. No photo, no personal details table, no declaration.
- Is the declaration statement still required?
- No. It has no legal function and no recruiter looks for it. Removing it and the signature line immediately makes a resume look current.
- Should I use a Word or PDF resume in India?
- PDF for email and most corporate portals. Keep a DOCX version for job portals that parse Word more reliably and for recruiters who reformat before sending to clients.
- How do I write a resume for a career gap in India?
- One honest line with the dates and the reason — higher study, family responsibility, health, relocation, or a layoff. Indian recruiters see these constantly; what they penalise is an unexplained hole they have to ask about.
- Should I list my percentage or CGPA?
- Yes while you are a fresher or applying to IT services and campus roles, with the scale stated. After three or four years of experience, drop the school figures and keep only the degree.