The hardest resume to write is your first one. You don't have five years of work to point to — but you have more than you think. Coursework, projects, internships, volunteer work, open-source contributions, hackathons, competitions. All of it counts if you frame it correctly.
Start with a summary, not an objective. 'Objective: seeking a role where I can grow' is filler. Instead: 'Computer Science graduate with a full-stack capstone (React + Node) and a 3-month internship at a fintech startup, looking for a junior backend role.' One sentence, three concrete signals.
Lead with projects, not education. Recruiters at your first job care about what you can build. Put a Projects section right after the summary. For each one, describe what you built, the stack you used, and the outcome. Link to the repo or the live demo.
Quantify everything you can. 'Led a team of 4 for a semester-long capstone' is stronger than 'Team leader'. 'Grew college coding club from 20 to 90 members in one year' is a resume line, not a hobby.
Skills go last, but be honest. Only list what you'd survive a 15-minute interview on. A short list of skills you actually know beats a wall of buzzwords you can't defend.
Use a single-column, ATS-friendly template. Freshers get filtered out most often for formatting, not content. DraftlyCV's Classic and Minimal templates are built for this — pick one, generate a first draft from your notes with AI, then edit.