Simple resume format

“Simple” does not mean short of information. It means nothing on the page competes with your information. A recruiter should be able to find your phone number, your latest job or degree, and your main skills within a few seconds, on a phone screen as easily as on a laptop.

In practice, a simple resume format has:

• One column that reads from top to bottom.
• Standard section headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, Projects, Certifications.
• Real text, not text inside images, text boxes or tables.
• One font, with bold only for your name, headings and job titles.
• Bullets for achievements, so each line can be read on its own.
• No photo, icons, colour blocks, charts or skill bars.

This style works for almost every job in India, from a retail associate to a software engineer to a school teacher. It also prints cleanly in black and white and is easy for the software that many companies use to read applications. If you want to understand that software, read our ATS-friendly resume guide.

1. 1

   Header

   Full name in large text. Under it: the job you are applying for, then phone (+91), email and city on one line. A LinkedIn link is optional.

2. 2

   Summary or objective

   Two to four lines. Experienced: years of experience, your field, and one or two results. Fresher: your degree, one proven strength, and the role you want. See career objective examples.

3. 3

   Work experience

   Latest job first. Role, company, city, and dates (“Jun 2022 – Present”), then 2–5 bullets that say what you did and what changed because of it. Freshers can list internships and part-time work here, or skip the section.

4. 4

   Education

   Degree, college, university, years, and percentage or CGPA. Freshers add Class 12 and Class 10 with the board. Experienced people can keep only the highest qualifications.

5. 5

   Skills

   A short list of tools and abilities the job needs — Tally, Excel, Java, POS billing, lesson planning — plus the languages you speak. Plain words, separated by commas.

6. 6

   Optional: projects, certifications, achievements

   Add these only when they help. A fresher with two good projects should include them; an experienced manager can usually skip school-level achievements.

Two samples in the same plain format: one fresher, one with five years of experience. Open either one in the builder and change the details to yours.

• Font: one common sans-serif or serif font. Avoid decorative or handwriting fonts.
• Size: name around 18–24 pt, headings 11–13 pt, body text 10–12 pt.
• Margins: about 1.5–2.5 cm on all sides, so nothing is cut off when printed.
• Spacing: a little extra space before each heading; single line spacing inside sections.
• Dates: one style everywhere — “Mar 2023 – Present” for jobs, years for education.
• Bullets: simple round bullets. Start each one with a verb: managed, built, reduced, taught, sold.
• Length: one page for freshers and up to about 5 years of experience; two pages at most after that.

You do not have to set any of this yourself. The meracvresume.com builder handles fonts, spacing and margins, and shows an A4 preview as you type, so you only think about the words.

A plain layout makes your words stand out, so the words need to be specific. The most common problem with basic resumes is bullets that describe a job title instead of what the person achieved.

Many people search for a simple resume format “in Word” so they can edit it later. meracvresume.com downloads the same resume as a PDF or as a Word (.docx) file, and keeps your draft in your browser so you can come back, edit and download again. More in resume format in Word.

Which should you send? Follow the employer’s instructions first. If they ask for Word, send Word. Otherwise a PDF is the safer choice: it looks the same on every phone and laptop, fonts do not shift, and job portals accept it. A PDF made from real text, like the one meracvresume.com creates, can be read by applicant tracking systems. A scanned photo of a printed resume cannot.

Just starting out? The resume format for freshers goes deeper on education, projects and what to write with no experience.