Resume Format

The three formats — and why only one is the default

Reverse-chronological puts your most recent work first and walks backwards. It is what every Indian recruiter expects, what every ATS parses cleanly, and the right choice for roughly 90% of applications. When people say 'standard resume format', this is the one they mean.

Functional (skills-based) organises the page around capabilities instead of a timeline. It is usually advised for career gaps — and it usually backfires, because every experienced recruiter knows exactly why the timeline is hidden, and many ATS parsers cannot extract a work history from it at all. A visible gap with one honest line of explanation beats a format built to conceal it.

Combination leads with a short skills summary, then a reverse-chronological history underneath. This one earns its place for career switchers and senior candidates: the top third repositions you, the bottom two-thirds keeps the timeline recruiters demand. If you are switching industries, this is your format — the summary is where the pivot gets made.

Format by situation

Fresher: reverse-chronological, one page, education above experience, projects doing the heavy lifting. The full treatment is in the fresher guide linked below.

3-10 years experience: reverse-chronological, one page (two only past 8-10 years when breadth genuinely matters), experience above education, most recent role carrying the most bullets.

Career gap: reverse-chronological anyway. Add one line where the gap sits — 'Career break (family care), 2024-2025' — and move on. Recruiters penalise concealment far harder than the gap itself.

Career switch: combination. Three-line summary stating the pivot and the transferable evidence, then the honest timeline.

Government and PSU applications: not a resume at all — a biodata, with personal details, a tabular education section and a signed declaration. Using a private-sector resume where the notification expects a biodata reads as not having read the notification. The government-format page below carries the full document.

Teaching posts: a hybrid with its own conventions — B.Ed/CTET above the fold, subjects and boards named, and the demo-class reality baked in. See the teacher format page.

Resume vs CV vs biodata — three documents, three audiences

A resume is 1-2 pages, tailored to one job, achievement-led. A CV is a complete academic and professional record — publications, conferences, teaching experience — that grows with your career and is expected in academia, research and medicine. A biodata adds personal details (date of birth, marital status, father's name) that a private-sector resume must never carry, and survives in government forms and matrimonial use.

The most expensive format mistake in India is sending these to the wrong audience: a biodata to a startup reads as out of touch; a one-page resume to a faculty search committee reads as having nothing to show; a CV to an HR screener reads as unable to prioritise. Match the document to the reader before worrying about fonts.

The mechanical rules that survive every format

Single column. Tables, text boxes and two-column layouts are how ATS parsers scramble a good resume into an empty profile — the section on this site's ATS guide shows exactly what a parser sees.

Standard section names: Experience, Education, Skills, Projects. A parser looking for 'Experience' does not find 'My Journey'.

PDF, always, unless a portal explicitly demands DOCX. Fonts: one of Arial, Calibri, Georgia or Times; 10.5-12pt body. Margins no tighter than 0.5 inch — shrinking margins to fit more is the most visible form of not being able to prioritise.

File name: Firstname_Lastname_Role.pdf. Recruiters download dozens of files called resume_final_2.pdf; yours should not be one of them.

One page unless you have 8+ years and genuine breadth. The one-page rule is not about paper; it is proof you can rank your own material.

Every India-specific format on this site

This page is the hub; the documents live one click down and each carries a full copyable structure, samples, and the mistakes that get that specific document rejected: biodata format (job and government use), government job resume, teacher resume, bank job resume, Hindi resume and Hindi biodata, plus the complete HR-letter set — resignation, relieving, experience certificate, offer, joining, appointment letters and the resume declaration.

If you want the format applied instead of explained: the templates gallery renders 47 ATS-checked designs with your own data, and the AI tailor rewrites your resume against a specific job description in about 30 seconds.