Career AcceleratorFoundation

Resume Building

Resume structure, relevant achievements, ATS-friendly formatting and personal resume review.

Talk to a counsellor about Resume Building

Fees, batch dates and timings are shared by a counsellor. No payment is needed to ask.

What you will cover
  • Resume structure
  • relevant achievements
  • ATS-friendly formatting
  • personal resume review

Topic list from the institute's programme record.

Certification

Certificate terms for this programme are confirmed by the institute at admission. Any ADIVAS course-completion certificate is an institute certificate; it is not a university degree, an externally accredited qualification or a vendor certification (such as AWS or Microsoft) unless the institute states so in writing.

Curriculum 0.1 · Draft: written for ADIVAS and awaiting academic review and approval. Topics and weeks may change before your batch starts.

Your skill trail

You move through 1 stations. Each week builds one skill you can show, not just a topic you have heard.

  1. Build, tailor and review your resume

    Move from a blank page to a reviewed, tailored one-page resume in one guided week.

    • Week 1 From blank page to reviewed resume
  2. Tailored one-page resume

    Your project, reviewed by a trainer.

The ADIVAS mastery ladder: how each skill is recognised
  1. Explored You have seen the idea and tried a first example.
  2. Practising You can do it with hints and keep improving.
  3. Proficient You complete the weekly practical task correctly on your own.
  4. Proven You apply it in a project reviewed by your trainer.

Skill-level tracking is being added to the learner workspace. Your trainer already reviews weekly practical work.

What you will be able to do

  • Choose a resume structure that suits your stage: fresher, experienced or career changer.
  • Rewrite duties as achievements using action verbs and numbers you can honestly support.
  • Format a resume that automated screening systems (ATS) can read: simple layout, standard headings, keywords.
  • Tailor the resume to one job advertisement without inventing experience.
  • Review your own and a peer's resume with a checklist and make the revisions.

Who it suits

  • School Senior school students preparing a first profile for internships, scholarships or college applications.
  • College Final-year students and fresh graduates writing their first job resume.
  • Professional Working people changing roles or returning after a break who need a sharper resume.

Prerequisites: Basic typing and ability to use a word processor. Tools: Word processor (Word or LibreOffice Writer), PDF export, A real job advertisement chosen by the learner, Resume review checklist (provided).

Weekly plan

Build, tailor and review your resume Weeks 1

Week 1: From blank page to reviewed resume

Theory
  • Resume structure: header, summary, skills, projects, experience, education
  • Turning duties into achievements with action verbs and numbers
  • ATS-friendly formatting: single column, standard headings, plain fonts, no text in images
  • Matching keywords to a job advertisement honestly
  • Self and peer review using a checklist
Lab
Four guided hours: draft the structure, rewrite five bullet points as achievements, format and export to PDF, tailor to one advertisement. Two practice hours: peer review and a personal review of the final resume.
Homework
Prepare a second version of the resume for a different type of role and note which lines changed.
Deliverable
A one-page resume in editable and PDF form plus a list of the changes made after review.
Weekly checkpoint
Checklist-based review of the final resume and a short quiz on structure, achievements and ATS rules.
You will be able to
Choose a resume structure that suits your stage: fresher, experienced or career changer. Rewrite duties as achievements using action verbs and numbers you can honestly support. Format a resume that automated screening systems (ATS) can read: simple layout, standard headings, keywords. Tailor the resume to one job advertisement without inventing experience. Review your own and a peer's resume with a checklist and make the revisions.

Sample lessons

Week 1

Duties to achievements

A duty tells the reader what your job was. An achievement tells them what you changed or delivered. Recruiters scan a resume in under a minute, so each bullet should begin with a strong action verb and show a result: a number, a time saved, a quality improved. Only write results you can explain in an interview. If you do not have an exact number, use an honest estimate such as 'about 40 students'.

  1. 1Duty: what I did
  2. 2Action verb
  3. 3Number or result
  4. 4Achievement bullet
Turn a duty into an achievement.

Step by step

  1. List what you did in one role or project in plain words.
  2. Ask: what was the result, for whom, and how much?
  3. Start the bullet with an action verb such as organised, built, reduced or trained.
  4. Add the number or outcome and keep the bullet to one or two lines.
  5. Check that you can explain it in an interview.

In real life

Two fresh graduates both worked at a college library desk. One wrote 'Handled books'. The other wrote 'Catalogued 800 books in a new spreadsheet, cutting search time for students'. The second resume gives the interviewer something to ask about.

Worked example

Problem. Rewrite: 'Responsible for social media of the department.'

Solution. 'Managed the department Instagram page, posting 3 times a week and growing followers from 400 to 650 in one semester.' It starts with a verb, has a frequency and a measurable result.

Common mistakes

  • Starting with 'Responsible for' and listing duties only.
  • Inventing numbers that cannot be defended in the interview.

Try it yourself

  • Rewrite three duties from your own experience as achievement bullets.
  • Swap with a peer and ask them to underline the weakest verb.

Week 1

ATS-friendly formatting

Many companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), software that reads resumes and sorts them by keywords before a person sees them. A resume that looks beautiful but uses tables, text boxes, icons or two columns may be read in the wrong order or not at all. A simple single-column layout with standard headings such as Skills, Experience and Education is safest, and it also reads well for people.

ATS-friendly

  • Single column
  • Standard headings
  • Plain text and fonts

Risky

  • Tables and text boxes
  • Skill rating bars
  • Text inside images

Step by step

  1. Use one column and a plain font such as Calibri or Arial at 10-12 points.
  2. Use standard headings: Summary, Skills, Projects, Experience, Education.
  3. Avoid text inside images, tables and header or footer boxes.
  4. Include keywords from the advertisement that are true for you.
  5. Export to PDF and select all text to check it copies in a sensible order.

In real life

A candidate in Madurai used a stylish two-column template with skill bars. When pasted as plain text, the skills were mixed into the education section. After switching to a single column, the text copied correctly.

Worked example

Problem. The advertisement asks for 'Tally Prime and GST filing'. Your resume says 'accounts software'. What should you change?

Solution. If you have used Tally Prime and prepared GST returns in practice, write 'Tally Prime' and 'GST return preparation' in skills and in a bullet. If you have not, do not add them.

Common mistakes

  • Putting a photo, rating bars or icons that hide the real text.
  • Copying keywords you cannot back up.

Try it yourself

  • Export your resume to PDF and copy all text into a notepad to check the order.
  • Mark each heading that is not a standard one and rename it.

Try the questions

The same skills are asked at three levels: School (Classes 6–12), College and Professional. Switch the level and the language (English or Tamil), and say how sure you are before you check: knowing what you are unsure about is part of learning.

Classes 6–12: everyday examples, no prior knowledge. Practice only. Nothing here is graded or saved.

Question 1 / 4 · Purpose of a resume

What is the main purpose of a resume?

What is the main purpose of a resume?
How sure are you?

Projects

Tailored one-page resume

Create a one-page resume for a real job or internship advertisement of your choice. It must be honest, readable by an ATS and show results through specific achievements rather than a list of duties.

Tasks

  1. Choose one advertisement and underline six skills or keywords it asks for.
  2. Write a three-line summary and a skills section that uses those keywords only where they are true for you.
  3. Rewrite at least five duties as achievement bullets with an action verb and a number or outcome.
  4. Format in a single column with standard headings and export to PDF.
  5. Review with the checklist, exchange with a peer and revise.

Sample input

Duty: 'Helped in college fest.' Advertisement keyword: 'event coordination'.

Expected output

Achievement: 'Coordinated 6 volunteers and a 300-person registration desk for the college fest, finishing check-in 20 minutes early.'

How it is assessed

CriterionWeight
Structure and one-page layout20%
Achievement-based bullets with evidence30%
ATS-friendly formatting20%
Honest tailoring to the advertisement20%
Review notes and revisions10%

Stretch challenge: Add a short LinkedIn-style headline and about section that match the resume.

How you are assessed

One short quiz (structure, achievements, ATS) plus a checklist review of the learner's own resume and one peer review, completed within the six hours.

Practical work. The learner's final resume is reviewed against a checklist for structure, achievements, formatting, honesty and tailoring, with written feedback from the trainer.

What trainers look forWeight
Structure and clarity25%
Achievement quality30%
ATS-friendly formatting25%
Revision after review20%

Where this can lead

  • Prepares you to apply for jobs and internships with a clear, tailored resume.
  • Builds a base for interview preparation and online profile writing.

These describe skills you will build. ADIVAS does not guarantee jobs, placement or salary.