Seven resume mistakes that quietly kill fresher applications

Most fresher resume advice is about fonts and margins. That is not what gets you filtered out.

1. Listing coursework as if it were experience

'Studied Data Structures and Algorithms' tells a recruiter nothing — everyone in your batch studied it. What did you build with it?

2. Projects with no outcome

'Built an e-commerce website using React' is weak. 'Built an e-commerce site with cart and payment flow; deployed it and had 40 people use it during a college fest' is specific and verifiable.

3. A skills section that lists everything you have ever opened

If you list twelve technologies, an interviewer will pick the one you are weakest at. List what you can defend in an interview.

4. No links

For any technical role, a GitHub or portfolio link is close to mandatory. A resume that claims projects with nothing to look at is much less persuasive.

5. An objective statement that says nothing

'Seeking a challenging role in a reputed organisation where I can utilise my skills.' Every recruiter has read this ten thousand times. Cut it, or replace it with one specific line about what you want to work on.

6. Two pages when you have no experience

One page. If you are a fresher and your resume runs to two pages, it is padded and it shows.

7. The same resume for every application

You do not need to rewrite it each time. But the top third — your summary and the order of your projects — should reflect the specific job you are applying to.