So, you’re ready to start applying for jobs. All you need to do is write a solid CV outlining your skills, education, and… your experience.
But that’s the thing — this is your first job, so you don’t have any experience.
Don’t worry, you can still make an excellent CV without work experience. Just follow these simple steps:
1. Choose your CV format
There are two types of CV format we recommend for entry-level candidates.
The first is the most commonly used: the chronological CV format. It features your personal statement, relevant experience, education, and key skills sections, and orders your experience and education entries chronologically, starting with the most recent experience.
If you have a degree, or have obtained other qualifications that are highly relevant to the role (e.g., T Levels or an NVQ), then use this format and place your education section before your relevant experience section.
The second is the skills-based CV format. Skills-based CVs are structured around your skills and achievements, with each section highlighting a relevant ability for the job you’re applying for.
If you don’t have many formal qualifications, but do have knowledge or traits that are useful in the job you’re applying for (e.g., customer service or sales skills from a volunteer position) – a skills-based CV can help you highlight those skills.
2. Emphasise your skills and enthusiasm in your personal statement
Your personal statement is one of the most important parts of your CV, outlining your expertise, skills, and career direction. For first-time job applicants, it’s a crucial opportunity to persuade the employer that you have all the right qualities to make a great addition to their team.
If you don’t have any work experience, your personal statement should:
- mention your relevant formal qualifications or vocational training
- specify any skills that will help you learn quickly on the job
- outline a career goal or motivation for applying for the job
Here’s an example:
Compassionate individual with a Level 2 certificate in Caring for the Elderly and strong desire to improve people’s wellbeing, seeking a care assistant position at Elder. With volunteering experience work at a local nursing home, I’m equipped with the empathy, social skills, and motivation to provide friendship and medical assistance to the residents at your facility. Looking for a direct-patient-care role with support for CPD training.
3. Write a detailed education section
If you’re just starting out in your career, your education section is likely one of the most impressive sections on your CV.
Emphasise what you’ve learnt and how it’s prepared you for the open position by expanding your education section to include additional information that relates your qualifications to the job:
- Relevant modules you completed at university
- Your dissertation title
- Academic awards and prizes
- University projects and societies
Here’s how an education section might look on a CV for a university student who doesn’t have any work experience:
University of Worcester, 20XX – 20XX
FDSC Health and Social Care (Distinction)Relevant Modules:
Intersectionality in Social Care, Understanding Health Conditions in Person-centred Practice, Communication Skills for Practice, Promoting Health and WellbeingSociety Experience:
Worcester Healthcare Society
- Fundraising Officer, Sep 20XX– July 20XX
- Coordinated fundraising initiatives for the society, including charity events and sponsored activities
- Assisted in planning and organising society events, and recruiting suitable volunteers to help with events
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4. Build an impressive relevant experience section
Yes, in case you’re wondering — you can absolutely build an impressive experience section without any formal work experience.
For most entry-level jobs, employers don’t actually need to see on-the-job experience. They’re interested in whether you have the practical skills to perform well in the role — and there are many ways you can demonstrate that knowledge.
Here are a few examples of experiences you can add to your relevant experience section:
- University projects
- Competitions
- Volunteer work
- Saturday jobs
The formatting rules for informal experience entries are the same as they would be on a regular CV work experience section. This example uses a university project to demonstrate relevant skills:
Mental Health Awareness Campaign, Spring 20XX
Worcester Healthcare Society, University of Worcester
- Organised a successful mental health awareness campaign aimed at reducing stigma surrounding mental health in the local community
- Coordinated 2 workshops with mental health experts, providing valuable information and resources to members of the community
- Created promotional materials, including posters and social media content, to raise the profile of the event
- Collaborated with a local counselling centre (St Martin’s Counselling) to provide additional resources and support for the community
5. Highlight your relevant skills
Without any professional experience, your skill set is likely to play a large role in employers’ decisions, which is why it’s so important to create a tailored and specific key skills section on your CV.
First, review the job description carefully to identify the specific skills the employer is looking for. Then, put together a skills section that mirrors the ideal skill set for the role as closely as possible.
Your skills section should include mostly hard skills (learnt abilities you need for specific industries), but it’s okay to round it out with some additional soft skills (personal traits that help you excel at your job) if you don’t have many relevant hard skills.
If you have specific experiences you can point to as evidence of your skills and want to expand your skills section a bit, you can format your key skills section as a short bulleted list, like this:
Thorough knowledge of health and safety best practices
- Completed NEBOSH National General Certificate (January 20XX)
- Volunteered at local playgroup, maintaining a safe and orderly environment for play while supervising activities
- Helped prepare and distribute snacks for children, ensuring food safety guidelines were met
- Strong understanding of occupational health and safety, having completed two relevant modules as part of my FDSC programme (Occupational Health Psychology, Environmental Health)
6. Include an intriguing hobbies and interests section
Hobbies and interests is an optional CV section that helps the employer get to know you outside of your career and area of expertise. As a candidate with no work experience, you should have a hobbies and interests section on your CV.
List 3–5 specific personal interests and pursuits that relate to the job you’re applying for — or that use relevant transferable skills:
- Piano: Passed Grade 5 exam with distinction and frequently perform in recitals
- Yoga: Practise hatha and vinyasa flow and assist at beginner workshops
- Watercolour painting: Self taught and enjoy painting landscapes and still life when I travel
When you write your hobbies and interests section think about the skills your personal pursuits require.
In the example above, the applicant practises yoga and assists at workshops, which suggests they have strong communication skills, some classroom experience, and are physically fit. These qualities might be appealing to an employer hiring for a healthcare, service, or teaching role.
7. Finalise your application
It’s tempting to fire off an application as soon as you’ve written the last word of your CV, but to ensure you make a professional first impression follow these final steps:
Proofread your CV
Typos and grammatical errors won’t impress employers, so take the time to carefully proofread your CV (and ask a friend to proofread your CV) so you can catch any mistakes before attaching your file.
Choose your file name and type
Recruiters and hiring managers often have to track hundreds of applications, and simple touches can make their lives easier and make your application easier to review.
Job adverts will sometimes contain specific instructions about how to include your documents, so make sure you follow any employer requests.
First, choose a file name that’s professional and informative – stating your name, what the document is, and what role or company you’re applying for. For example, ‘simon-white-cv-marketing-associate.pdf’ is a good file name because it’s clear and easily searchable.
Second, submit your CV as either a Word document or a PDF. If the job advertisement doesn’t specify which is preferred, use a PDF as it will ensure your formatting stays the same.
Include a cover letter
Cover letters help you explain why you’re a good fit for the job and should be hired over other candidates – and can be particularly helpful for entry-level candidates. So write a cover letter to accompany your job application, and you’ll significantly increase your chances of getting called in for an interview.
Sending a cover letter with your CV:
- shows the employer you’re a serious and enthusiastic candidate,
- focuses attention on the skills and experiences you choose to highlight, and
- allows you to explain why you’re prepared for the role even though you haven’t held a similar job before.
4 CV examples with no experience
Here are four great CV examples for people in different situations and industries, none of whom have previous work experience.
CV for students with no work experience
If you’re a university student with no formal work experience, use your key skills and education sections to impress employers.
This CV example for a student includes no work formal experience, but the applicant makes a memorable first impression on employers by relating their core knowledge and university training to the sales associate position they’re applying for:
The CV format this applicant has chosen is perfect for a first-time job applicant with some formal qualifications.
Featuring a prominent key skills section and expanded education section, it directs the employer’s attention to what the applicant knows, rather than where they’ve worked in the past.
To further align their qualifications with the position, the applicant has added three bullet points to their university degree entry, highlighting experiences and achievements from the course that have prepared them for this specific role.
Remember to include your expected graduation date in your university degree entry, so employers have an idea of when you’ll be available full time.
If you’re a university student or recent graduate, your degree is likely one of your most impressive qualifications, so don’t downplay it. Add bulleted subsections like ‘Relevant Modules’, ‘Awards’, or ‘Course Achievements’ to show how your degree has prepared you for the role you’re applying for.
CV for a retail job with no experience
If you’re applying for your first retail job, identify all your relevant sales experiences and skills and highlight them throughout your CV sections, like this business student:
In this CV example, the candidate includes a relevant experience section detailing their experience with the university’s RAG Society in raising donations, promoting events, and handling transactions.
This candidate also uses their education and skills sections to highlight their retail-related knowledge by showcasing modules they’ve taken at uni and the skills they’ve gained that’ll make them adept at sales.
CV for a first job with no experience
Finishing school and ready to write a CV for your first job? Here’s a CV for a teenager that effectively markets their interests, skills, and relevant experience:
This CV example uses a skills-based format instead of a traditional CV layout, with a lengthy key skills section that lists the applicant’s abilities as if they were work experience entries.
CV for graduates with no experience
Got your degree and eager to venture out into the job market? Don’t let worries about work experience hold you back. Employers will be understanding of your lack of experience if you show them how your education and skills have prepared you for their open position.
This graduate CV does an excellent job of marketing their knowledge and skills for a teaching assistant position:
This graduate’s degree is highly relevant to the position they’re applying for, so they’ve emphasised it on their CV by listing the relevant modules they took. They’ve also specified their dissertation title.
Including relevant modules and dissertation titles isn’t essential, but it’ll demonstrate your industry expertise, if your degree is relevant to the job you’re applying for.
No experience CV template
Need help organising your experience using a professional CV format? Copy and paste this free CV template for applicants with no experience into your word processor and personalise it with your information.
FAQs about applying for your first job
Need a little more help with your application? Not to worry. Here are the answers to some questions first-time job seekers often ask when putting together their CV:
How do I write a strong personal statement for a CV with no experience?
Here are some tips to help you write a personal statement for a CV with no experience.
1. Write your personal statement last
Though it’s the first section on your CV, your personal statement should be the last one you write. A well-written personal statement should summarise the most marketable skills and experiences on your CV. It’ll be easier to identify what these are once you’ve written out the other sections of your CV.
2. Get to the point
Personal statements are more effective when the employer can scan them in a few seconds. Write 2–4 sentences and only include information that is highly relevant to the specific job you’re applying for.
3. Personalise your statement
Tell the employer why you want to work for them or what your career goals are within their industry. Tailoring your personal statement to the job and aligning your values and interests with those of the employer will make you seem like an excellent fit for the company culture — someone worth investing in, even if this is your first job.
What are good skills for a CV with no experience?
It depends on what type of role you’re applying for but, in general, good skills to include on your CV are any relevant hard skills you’ve picked up – whether through school, extracurriculars, hobbies, or personal projects.
Students have often developed hard skills like these:
- Research
- Data analysis
- Writing
- Editing
- Proofreading
- Computer skills (including any specific software you’re proficient in)
- Media literacy
- Presentation
- Language skills
How do I showcase my transferable skills on a CV with no experience?
Showcasing your transferable skills on a CV is important for explaining why you’re a qualified candidate for the open position. However, you don’t need a work experience section to show the employer what you can do. Here are a couple of tips to help you demonstrate your transferable skills with no work experience:
1. Use action verbs
Strong action verbs (e.g., coordinated, oversaw, tutored) describe your transferable skills and show how you’ve applied them in the past. Use them in your bullet points and personal statement to make your CV more descriptive and compelling.
2. Expand your education, skills, and hobbies and interests sections
You develop transferable skills when you apply yourself to any task, not just through work experience. Add a short bulleted list to your relevant education, skills, and hobbies entries outlining what you achieved in those areas.
For example, you could say you developed strong data skills while researching a university project or customer service skills by helping out at a local market.
What are some common mistakes to avoid when writing a CV with no experience?
Here are two common mistakes to avoid when you’re writing your first CV:
1. Writing generic content
It might be tempting to write one general CV and send it to multiple employers. However, a generic CV is likely to be unsuccessful.
Employers can tell when you haven’t tailored your CV for their job opportunity because it’ll contain information that isn’t relevant or noteworthy for the position. Generic CVs tell the employer that you haven’t put much thought into your application. If that’s the case, they are unlikely to consider you for the job.
2. Neglecting to proofread
By the time you finish drafting the last section of your CV, you might be eager to submit it immediately and be done with your application.
Resist that temptation.
Even if you’re a talented writer, there may be typos and grammatical errors on your CV, and these can make a terrible impression on employers. Make sure to proofread your CV carefully and use a free copy editing tool like Hemingway App to catch mistakes and clunky writing. Have a friend or relative read through your CV before you send it off to employers.
More CV FAQs
Need a little more help with writing your CV? Here are more common questions about CV writing:
