Resume Builder

Build it locally, export a clean A4 PDF — and decide deliberately which of the conventional Indian personal details belong on it.

Your resume
Exactly as you want it read. No photograph, no date of birth and no marital status anywhere on this form — that is deliberate.
One line. A parser often reads this as your most recent job title.
A city is enough. A full street address is no longer expected and gives away more than it needs to.
Three or four lines. Optional, but it is what a recruiter reads before deciding whether to read the rest.
Most recent first. Reverse chronological is the expected order in all five markets.
One achievement per line. Leading dashes are stripped. A number in the line is worth more than an adjective.
Commas or one per line. Plain text on purpose — a skills bar chart contains no text and parses as nothing at all.

How this is worked out

You type, it lays out, and the PDF is written in your browser with no upload and no account. Paper is A4, which is what Indian printers and Indian HR systems expect; a Letter-sized PDF reads as foreign and prints with the wrong margins.

The deliberate omissions are the point of this page. There is no field here for a photograph, a date of birth, marital status, gender, father's name, caste or religion. Those appear on a great many Indian resumes and are still requested by some Indian employers — and every one of them is a liability on an application to a US, UK, Canadian or Australian employer, where a resume carrying them is sometimes discarded before it is read, precisely so the employer cannot be accused of having seen them.

This is not a claim that the Indian convention is wrong. It is a statement that the two conventions are incompatible, that you cannot satisfy both with one document, and that a builder which quietly added a photo field would be making the choice for you. If an Indian employer's form requires a detail, supply it in their form rather than baking it into the resume you also send abroad.

What the checks look at is machine readability: a findable email, a role with dates against it, a document that is not longer than the local convention, and text that is text rather than a picture of text. A single-column layout with real headings parses; a two-column layout with the contact details in a sidebar frequently does not, and that is why this tool produces one column.

A worked example

Paper size
A4
Length — experienced hire
One to two pages
Length — fresher
One page
Order
Reverse chronological, most recent first
Photograph
Not offered — conventional in India, a liability abroad
Date of birth, marital status, father's name
Not offered, for the same reason
Academic detail
10th, 12th and degree, with CGPA and the scale
CGPA
State the scale: "8.4 / 10", not "8.4"
Notice period
One line, factual, near the end
Export
PDF written in your browser — nothing uploaded

The personal details question, answered honestly

Indian resumes conventionally carry a "Personal Details" block: date of birth, marital status, father's or husband's name, nationality, sometimes a passport number, and a photograph in the top corner. Many Indian employers still ask for them, some application portals will not submit without them, and a fresher advised by a college placement cell has almost certainly been told to include them.

A US, UK, Canadian or Australian employer will not ask, does not want them, and in some organisations a resume carrying a photograph or a date of birth is set aside unread — not out of rudeness, but because having seen protected characteristics creates a discrimination exposure the recruiter is instructed to avoid. The same document cannot be optimal for both audiences.

So: keep two versions. The Indian one can carry whatever a specific employer asks for. The international one carries none of it. This tool builds the second, because it is the version people get wrong, and because supplying a detail in an employer's own form is always safer than printing it on a document that will be forwarded to people you did not choose.

Academic detail, and stating a CGPA so it means something

Indian employers and Indian academic forms expect more education detail, and for longer, than Western ones: 10th standard, 12th standard and the degree, each with the board or university, the year, and the mark. A US resume drops school entirely once you have a degree; an Indian one routinely does not, and for a fresher the 10th and 12th marks are sometimes screening criteria.

Always state the scale. "CGPA 8.4" is ambiguous — it could be a ten-point AICTE CGPA, a CBSE school CGPA, or something else. "8.4 / 10" is not. If you convert to a percentage, name the formula, because there are at least five published ones and on a CGPA of 8.0 they give 76.0%, 76.0%, 80.0%, 75.0% and 75.5%. The CGPA calculator on this site shows all five on your own figure.

Picking the most flattering formula to clear a threshold is a misrepresentation your transcript will contradict at the verification stage, which in Indian hiring is routine rather than exceptional. Use your university's published formula and say which it is.

Notice period, current CTC, and expected CTC

These three are asked in Indian hiring constantly and almost nowhere else. A recruiter screening a shortlist genuinely uses the notice period — a ninety-day notice against a role that needs filling in four weeks is a real obstacle, and saying so early saves everyone a round.

Notice period belongs on the resume, as one factual line near the end: "Notice period: 60 days (negotiable)". It is useful information and it costs you nothing.

Current CTC does not belong on the resume. Once it is printed there it anchors every subsequent conversation, it follows the document to people who had no business seeing it, and you cannot take it back. Answer it when asked, in the form or in conversation, where you can also say what the figure includes — and remember that a CTC includes your employer's 12% EPF contribution and gratuity accrual, so it is not comparable with a number someone quotes you as a salary. Expected CTC, on a resume, is simply a ceiling you have set on yourself.

Length, layout, and the things that break a parser

A fresher's resume is one page. An experienced hire's is one or two. Longer documents remain common in Indian practice and in some public-sector and academic contexts are expected, but for a private-sector role two pages is the working ceiling and the third page is rarely read.

What breaks machine parsing, in rough order of how often it happens: a two-column layout with contact details in a sidebar; a header or footer containing the email, which some parsers never read; text rendered inside an image or a logo; tables used for layout; a role with no dates against it; and a PDF exported as a scan rather than as text. This tool avoids all of them by producing a single-column document with real headings and real text.

One more that is specific to India: file naming. "Resume.pdf" arrives in an inbox alongside two hundred others with the same name. "Priya-Raghavan-Frontend-Engineer.pdf" survives being saved to a folder. It is not a parsing issue, it is a being-found-again issue, and it costs nothing to fix.

Assumptions and sources

Paper size
A4, per assets/js/locale.js — the standard for India, unlike the Letter default in the US and Canada.
Personal details
Stated as competing conventions rather than as a rule: the Indian convention includes a photograph and personal details; US, UK, Canadian and Australian employers do not request them and some organisations instruct recruiters to set aside documents carrying them. Nothing here is legal advice on any jurisdiction's discrimination law.
CGPA conversion formulas
Five published institutional formulas, giving 76.0%, 76.0%, 80.0%, 75.0% and 75.5% on a CGPA of 8.0. Held with their sources in assets/js/tax/work-2026.js and shown on the CGPA calculator. checked 2026-09
CTC composition
Cost to company includes the employer's 12% EPF contribution and gratuity accrual on top of gross salary. Held with sources in assets/js/tax/in-2026-27.js. checked 2026-09
Parsing behaviour
Applicant tracking systems differ and most are not publicly documented. The checks here target behaviours that are known to break parsing generally; no format guarantees a pass through any particular system, and this tool does not claim one.
Rates current as of 2026 — verify before relying on this. Indian resume conventions differ by sector and by seniority, and they differ sharply from what a US or UK employer expects. This tool checks machine-readability, not conformity to any one convention, and it does not claim to guarantee a pass through any applicant tracking system.
Questions

What people ask about Indian resumes

Should I put a photo on my Indian resume?

It depends who is reading it. It is conventional in India and some employers ask for it. It is a liability on an application to a US, UK, Canadian or Australian employer, where some organisations instruct recruiters to set aside documents carrying a photograph or date of birth. Keep two versions rather than one compromise.

Do I include date of birth, marital status and my father's name?

Only if a specific Indian employer asks — and then in their form rather than on the resume itself. Once printed on the document they travel to everyone it is forwarded to. This builder deliberately offers no field for them.

How do I state my CGPA?

With the scale: "8.4 / 10", never a bare "8.4". If you convert to a percentage, name the formula, because five published formulas give five answers — on a CGPA of 8.0 they range from 75.0% to 80.0%. Use your own university's and say which it is.

Should I put my current CTC on my resume?

No. It anchors every negotiation that follows and it follows the document to people who never needed it. Answer it when asked, where you can also explain what the figure includes — a CTC includes your employer's EPF and gratuity, so it is not the same kind of number as a quoted salary.

How long should an Indian resume be?

One page for a fresher, one or two for an experienced hire in the private sector. Longer documents are still common and are expected in some public-sector and academic contexts, but the third page of a private-sector resume is rarely read.

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