Most resume advice for freshers either points you to paid tools like Zety or Novoresume, or expects you to already know how to design something that looks professional. Neither is realistic when you’re a student with no money to spend and no design background.
Here’s the thing though - the best resumes recruiters actually respond to are not the fancy designed ones. They’re clean, well-structured, and ATS-friendly. ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System - the software most companies use to scan resumes before a human ever reads them. A resume with too many design elements, columns, or graphics often fails this scan entirely and gets filtered out automatically. You never hear back and have no idea why.
The template and process in this guide gets around all of that. It’s completely free. It takes about 5 minutes once you understand the steps. And it works for both IT freshers (CS, ECE, IT students) and Non-IT freshers (BBA, BCom, BA, MBA, marketing, HR, finance backgrounds). Read through once, then follow along.
What You’ll Use
Overleaf — a free, browser-based tool for creating professional documents using LaTeX. You don’t need to know anything about LaTeX. That’s the whole point of this guide. Overleaf is what professionals and researchers use to create clean, perfectly formatted documents. The resume output it produces is crisp, ATS-compatible, and looks far more polished than most Word or Canva resumes.
An AI tool — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any AI assistant you’re comfortable with. You’ll use it to fill in your personal details into the LaTeX code without having to touch the code yourself.
That’s all you need. No subscriptions. No design software. Let’s go.
Step 1: Create a Free Overleaf Account
Open your browser and go to https://www.overleaf.com
Click Sign Up in the top right corner. You can sign up with your Google account - it’s the fastest option. Once you’re in, you’ll land on your Overleaf dashboard. It looks like a simple project screen. Don’t worry about anything else on this page.
Step 2: Open the Resume Template
Now open this link in the same browser:
https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/data-science-tech-resume-template/zcdmpfxrzjhv
This will take you to a resume template page. You’ll see a preview of what the final resume looks like on the right side of the screen - clean, professional, single column, exactly the kind of format that passes ATS systems without any issues.
On the left side, you’ll see a green button that says “Open as Template”. Click it.
Overleaf will create a personal copy of this template in your account and open it in the editor. This is now your version - you can edit it however you want and it won’t affect the original template.
Step 3: Look at the Editor (And Don’t Panic)
Once the template opens, your screen will be split into two halves. The right half shows the resume preview - that’s what your final PDF will look like. The left half shows a bunch of code. It will look something like this:
\documentclass[letterpaper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage{latexsym}
\usepackage[empty]{fullpage}
...
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\textbf{\Huge \scshape Jake Ryan} \\
...This is LaTeX code. It looks intimidating. It isn’t. You are not going to learn LaTeX today, and you don’t need to. All you’re going to do is copy this code, hand it to an AI, tell the AI your details, and ask it to give you back a filled version. That’s the entire trick.
Select all the code in the left panel (click anywhere in it and press Ctrl+A on Windows or Cmd+A on Mac). Then copy it (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C). Keep this tab open — you’ll come back to it.
Step 4: Use AI to Fill In Your Details
Open a new tab and go to whatever AI tool you use. ChatGPT (chatgpt.com), Claude (claude.ai), or Google Gemini all work fine for this. Paste the LaTeX code you copied, and then paste the prompt below it.
Here is your prompt — you can copy it directly:
I am going to give you a LaTeX resume template. Your job is to fill it in with my real details and return the complete updated LaTeX code that I can paste back into Overleaf to generate my resume PDF.
I am a fresher — I have no full-time work experience, but I may have internships, college projects, or activities to list.
Before you fill anything in, ask me the following questions one by one and wait for my answers:
- What is your full name?
- What city and state are you based in?
- What is your LinkedIn profile URL? (If you don’t have one, say “skip”)
- What is your GitHub or portfolio URL? (If not applicable, say “skip”)
- What is your email address?
- What is your phone number? (If you prefer not to include it, I’ll add a placeholder)
- What is your college name, degree, and graduation year?
- What is your CGPA or percentage? (Optional — only include if it’s above 7.5 or 75%)
- List your top technical or professional skills — tools, software, languages, platforms you actually know and have used.
- Have you done any internships? If yes, give me the company name, your role, the duration, and 2 to 3 things you did or contributed there.
- Tell me about your top 2 or 3 projects — what was the project, what did you build or do, what tools did you use, and what was the outcome or result?
- Any certifications, courses, or achievements worth mentioning?
- Any leadership roles, volunteering, or college club involvement?
Once I’ve answered all questions, fill in the LaTeX template with my answers. Make the language sound natural and human — written the way a person would describe their own experience, not like an AI wrote it. Use active, direct language. Avoid filler phrases like “passionate about,” “keen learner,” or “excellent communication skills.” Every bullet point should describe something real and specific.
For any information I say “skip” to or don’t provide, remove that section from the resume entirely. Do not add placeholder or made-up content except for fields I explicitly ask you to leave as dummy data.
Return the complete LaTeX code at the end so I can copy it directly into Overleaf.
Once you paste the prompt (along with the copied LaTeX code above it), the AI will start asking you questions one by one. Just answer them honestly. For anything you don’t want to include - like your phone number if you’re not comfortable - just say skip and the AI will handle it.
A few tips while answering:
For the skills section, only mention things you’ve actually used. If you’re an IT student, this could be Python, Java, SQL, HTML, specific frameworks, or tools. If you’re a Non-IT student - BBA, BCom, finance, marketing, HR - your skills might include Excel, Tally, Power BI, Canva, Google Analytics, or soft skills you’ve genuinely applied in real situations. Don’t list things you’d struggle to answer a basic question about in an interview.
For projects, don’t worry if they’re college assignments or small personal projects. Describe what you actually did. “Built a simple attendance management system using Python and SQLite for a college project” is a perfectly good project entry. It’s honest and it shows you’ve used real tools.
For internships - even a two-week unpaid internship counts. Mention it. Describe what you contributed, even if it felt small.
Step 5: Paste the Generated Code Back Into Overleaf
Once the AI gives you the updated LaTeX code, copy the entire thing. Go back to your Overleaf tab. In the left panel (the code editor), select all the existing code again (Ctrl+A) and delete it. Then paste the new code the AI gave you (Ctrl+V).
Overleaf will automatically re-render the preview on the right side with your actual details. You’ll see your name, your skills, your projects - all formatted in that clean, professional layout.
Look at the preview carefully. Check everything:
Is your name and contact info correct? Read through each section - Education, Skills, Projects, Experience. Does anything look cut off, misaligned, or missing? Are all the bullet points clear and readable?
If something looks wrong or missing, don’t try to fix the LaTeX code manually. Just go back to the AI and tell it exactly what the issue is. Something like:
“The projects section is showing a blank space after the second project. Also my college name is showing in all caps but it should be normal case. Please fix both and give me the updated code.”
Paste the corrected code back into Overleaf the same way - select all, delete, paste. Repeat until the preview looks the way you want.
Step 6: Download Your Resume as PDF
Once you’re happy with how the resume looks in the preview, click the Download PDF button at the top of the Overleaf editor. It’s usually in the top menu bar - look for a download icon or a button that says “PDF.”
Your resume will download as a clean, properly formatted PDF. Rename it before you start sending it anywhere - use the format: YourName_Resume_2026.pdf. Not Resume_Final.pdf. Not CV_new.pdf. Your actual name, so it’s identifiable when it lands in a recruiter’s inbox or folder.
That’s your resume, completely built for free, no design skills needed.
For Non-IT Freshers: What to Put Where
If you’re from a non-technical background - BBA, BCom, BA Economics, MBA, or any humanities or commerce stream - the template structure stays exactly the same. The content just changes.
Your Skills section is not about programming languages. It’s about tools and competencies you’ve actually used: Excel (basic or advanced), PowerPoint, Google Workspace, Tally ERP, Canva, social media platforms you’ve managed, research tools, any domain-specific software from your course or internship.
Your Projects section can include market research studies, financial analysis reports, event management you organised, a college newsletter you contributed to, a mock business plan from a course - anything where you did real work and can describe what you did and what the outcome was.
Your Experience section can include part-time work, freelance projects, internships (paid or unpaid), NGO volunteering, college fests you managed. It all counts. The recruiter wants to see that you’ve done real things, not just attended lectures.
The resume template handles Non-IT content just as well as IT content - it’s just text in a clean structure. The AI will fill it correctly based on what you tell it.
A Few Things to Double-Check Before You Send Your Resume Anywhere
Read the entire resume out loud once. This sounds strange but it catches errors your eyes miss when reading normally.
Make sure every bullet point describes something you actually did - not something you “assisted with” or “was part of.” Use active language: built, managed, analysed, created, coordinated, reduced, increased. Verbs first.
Don’t list every skill you’ve ever heard of. Recruiters notice when a fresher lists 25 tools including ones that are clearly just buzzwords. Keep your skills section to things you could answer a follow-up question about in an interview.
If your CGPA is below 7.0 or your percentage is below 70%, leave it off the resume. It’s not dishonest - it’s just not highlighting a weakness unnecessarily. Your skills and projects carry more weight for a fresher than academic numbers do.
Check that your email address looks professional. If your email is something like cooldude2003@gmail.com, make a new one with your name before you start applying. It takes two minutes and matters more than most people think.
Once Your Resume Is Ready, Where to Apply
A polished resume means nothing sitting in a folder. Take it to EasyPlace, where jobs and internships are posted fresh and regularly updated for freshers and students across IT and Non-IT fields. Apply early - when a listing is new and only a few people have applied, your resume gets read carefully instead of skimmed. Check the Handpicked Jobs section especially - those are manually verified roles that are genuine and relevant for people at exactly your stage.
Apply with the PDF. And if you want to know how to follow up on applications and reach out to hiring managers directly on LinkedIn after applying, read our guide on how to actually apply for a job in 2026 - it picks up exactly where this one leaves off.
Your resume is ready. Now use it.
