How to Write an Indian Resume in 2026
India's job market spans an enormous range — from campus placements at IITs to UPSC civil service applications, from startups in Bengaluru's Electronic City to Big Four professional services firms in Mumbai. Each context has its own expectations, but there is a recognisable Indian resume convention that underlies most of them.
Indian Resume Format
Length: Two pages for experienced professionals. One to two pages for freshers (new graduates). Indian resumes tend to be more detailed than US resumes — including a declaration section, potentially a photograph, and personal information fields not seen on Western documents.
Professional photograph: Optional but common. A professional headshot in the top-right corner is expected in many sectors, including banking, hospitality, customer-facing roles, and conservative industries. IT companies, startups, and multinationals operating in India increasingly follow a no-photo convention. Use your judgement based on the type of employer.
Declaration: End your resume with a signed declaration of accuracy — this is standard in India and expected by most employers: "I hereby declare that all the information given above is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. [Place] [Date] [Signature]"
Personal Information
Indian resumes include a personal information or personal details section with:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Nationality (Indian, or noting OCI/PIO status)
- Marital status (common to include; declining in startups and MNCs)
- Gender (optional; included by many candidates)
- Languages known (important in a multilingual country)
- Permanent address and current address (if different)
- Mobile number (with +91 country code for international applications)
- Email address, LinkedIn
- PAN card number: never include
- Aadhar number: never include
Indian Resume Section Order
The correct sequence for an Indian resume is: Personal Information → Career Objective / Professional Summary → Core Strengths / Technical Skills → Professional Experience → Education → Certifications → Languages → Declaration. Skills appear before work experience — this is a key structural feature of the Indian format. Recruiters at TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and product-based companies routinely scan the Core Strengths section before reading your work history. For IT roles, your stack (languages, frameworks, cloud platforms) should be visible immediately after your summary.
Career Objective vs. Professional Summary
Freshers: A "Career Objective" of two to three sentences stating the type of role you are seeking and your key strengths is conventional for new graduates. "Seeking a software engineering role at a product-based company where I can apply my expertise in Java and distributed systems to build scalable backend infrastructure."
Experienced professionals (3+ years): Use a "Professional Summary" — two to three sentences capturing your current level, specialisation, and standout achievement.
Educational Qualifications
India's educational hierarchy is deeply understood by Indian employers:
- IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology): 23 campuses; IIT Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur are Tier 1 prestige. CGPA cutoffs at top companies visiting campus are 8.0/10 or above.
- NITs (National Institutes of Technology): 31 campuses; highly valued in engineering sectors
- IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management): For MBA; Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta are Tier 1
- BITS Pilani, VIT, Manipal: Deemed universities with strong placement records
CGPA/Percentage: List your CGPA (on a 10-point scale) or percentage for each degree. For fresh graduates, the CGPA is a primary filter at large recruiters like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and campus-recruiting companies. If your CGPA dropped in a particular semester for a documented reason, note it briefly in the cover letter rather than the resume.
Include Class 12 percentage (Higher Secondary) and Class 10 percentage (Secondary) until you have at least three to four years of work experience — Indian employers, particularly in IT and BFSI, routinely ask for these scores.
Work Experience
Reverse chronological. For each role: company name, designation, start/end dates (Month Year), location, and three to five achievement-oriented bullet points.
India's IT services industry — TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Cognizant, Tech Mahindra — and product companies (Flipkart, Zomato, Razorpay, CRED) are household names for Indian employers. Company tier matters: "Software Engineer at Infosys" and "Software Engineer at Google India" signal different market positions and salary ranges.
Skills, Certifications, and Projects
For IT and engineering roles, the skills section is prominent. List technical skills: programming languages, frameworks, cloud platforms, databases, tools. Certifications like AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Google Cloud Professional, and Microsoft Azure certifications are widely sought.
For fresh graduates, a Projects section listing two to three academic or personal projects with technologies used and outcomes is standard and expected. Open-source contributions and Kaggle competition results are valuable signals.
Key Mistakes to Avoid
- Including PAN or Aadhar number — sensitive national identity numbers never belong on a resume
- Not signing the declaration — unsigned declarations are considered incomplete
- Generic objective statements not tailored to the role and company
- Exaggerating CGPA or percentage — these are verified during onboarding
- Overlong resumes for freshers — two pages maximum; campus recruiters see hundreds