Resume guides
Each one answers its question completely or it would not be here. No filler, and no advice repeated because everyone repeats it — where the honest answer is “it depends”, it says so and then says what it depends on. Every card carries a reading time, so you can decide not to start.
What an applicant tracking system actually does
What the software does, what it does not do, and which of the advice you have read is folklore.
3 minute read
Writing a resume when you have no work experience
The evidence is almost always there. The problem is that it has not been counted as work.
2 minute read
How to put a number on a bullet when you do not have one
The advice is always “quantify your achievements”. Here is what to do when the number is not written down anywhere.
3 minute read
PDF, Word, or plain text: which file to send
Three formats, three different situations, and one rule that covers most of them.
3 minute read
Resume format for freshers: what goes where, and what to leave off
The order of the sections, how to write CGPA and school marks, and the personal details an Indian fresher resume no longer needs.
7 minute read · For India
How to write a resume summary that says something
Three lines at the top of the page: what goes in them, what to cut, and when to leave the section out.
5 minute read
Resume for campus placement: what the drive does with it
Eligibility is checked before anyone reads it, and the interviewer reads it across the table. Both change how it should be written.
4 minute read · For India
How long should a resume be? One page, two, and when the limit is a rule
The conventions in the US, India and the UK, the places where a page limit is enforced rather than advised, and what to cut first.
4 minute read
CV, resume or biodata: which one an employer means
Three words used almost interchangeably in India, with different meanings abroad — and the one document most private employers actually want.
3 minute read · For India
A gap in your resume: what to write, and where
Months or years out of work — a layoff, caregiving, illness, study, a search that took a while — and how to account for it in one honest line.
3 minute read
Resume for Naukri and other job portals: the profile is searched, the file is read
How recruiters find candidates on a job portal, which profile fields their filters use, and what the resume you attach still has to do.
4 minute read · For India
A resume for a career change, without pretending
How to make a history in one field read as evidence for another: say the move, find the overlap, build the missing proof — and keep the real job titles.
4 minute read
Applying to US jobs from India: what to change on your resume
Paper size, personal details, degrees and CGPA, lakh and crore, and work authorisation — every convention that differs, and what to write instead.
4 minute read · For India
Federal resume vs private-sector resume: what USAJOBS needs now
Since September 2025 a USAJOBS resume is capped at two pages, but it still carries details a private-sector resume leaves out. What goes in, and what changed.
4 minute read · For the US
Does a two-column resume break parsing? We measured it
The same 36 resumes in one column and in two, read back the two ways parsers read a page — what came through, what broke, and why.
4 minute read
Is any resume builder really free? How to find out before you type
Most say free and charge at the download. A two-minute check tells you which kind you are using, before you spend an evening on it.
4 minute read
Resume action verbs, grouped by what you did
115 verbs to open a bullet with, the sentence shapes that go with them, and the openers the builder’s checker will flag.
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