How to Write a CV with No Experience: 5 Tips

Think of your CV as an excellent introduction to who you are and what your potential might be. You can convey your skills and knowledge without any professional experience. However, you will need to craft an effective CV or resume that showcases your abilities and potential for prospective employers. Having dedicated sections for a summary and a list of skills can round out your CV.

CV with no experience: Template

Templates can help you organise your thoughts, inspire you with ideas, and take the guesswork out of formatting your CV. However, starting a CV from scratch can be daunting, regardless of your experience. 

Explore a sample CV filled out below.

How to write a CV with no experience: 5 tips

If you have no experience to point to in your CV, highlight your education, include relevant non-work experience, list your skills, and include a summary. Get started by using a template.

1. Highlight your education.

If you have little work experience, emphasising your education is a great way to showcase your strengths, interests, and background. Some items you’ll want to consider including in the education section of your CV include the following:

• Relevant coursework: Be sure to list any courses that will emphasise skills that can be helpful for the job. These might include courses that focus on technical skills—like economics, maths, or computer science. But don’t forget the importance of courses like English or writing that can show your competence in communication or other human skills. Look through job descriptions to see what kinds of skills are desirable for the field you’re interested in.

• Degree classification and honours: If you scored a 2:1 or higher, list your degree classification on your CV [1]. It’s a good idea to list any academic honours you received, too.

• Relevant projects: If you’ve completed projects in classes that are particularly relevant to the job you’re applying to, list and briefly describe them. If you have more than one, this can be its own section.

• Certifications and online courses: If you’ve completed any coursework outside of school or received a professional credential, list these under the education section as well.

2. Include relevant experience.

When you first start putting together a CV, you might feel like you don’t have any relevant experience to refer to. But a little digging into your life could unearth several experiences that show your professionalism, interests, and character—all things a potential employer can consider important.

You can include the following in a section titled “Relevant Experience”:

• Volunteer experience: Volunteering demonstrates your community involvement, ability and willingness to work with others and your interests. It might even have gained you some hands-on experience in a related field. 

• Part-time jobs: Maybe you worked part-time whilst you were in school, tutored or babysat children, or helped your parents out at their small business. If you’re applying for your first full-time job, don’t shy away from including these. Part-time jobs can demonstrate your employability and experience with key skills like customer service.

• Extracurricular activities: Whether you played sports, were part of a cultural club, or participated in student council, extracurricular activities can help show a willingness to explore your interests, develop new skills, and work on a team. Don’t forget to include any leadership positions you might have held in these activities.

3. List your skills.

Even if you don’t have any formal work experience, you probably have skills that will be useful in the field. Look through several job descriptions of positions you’re interested in to determine those that employers commonly request.  

The relevant skills you’ll choose to list will likely depend on the job but might include: 

• Research

• Microsoft Office products like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint

• Communication

• Computer programming

• Leadership

• Social media

• Foreign languages

• Public speaking

• Customer service

Not sure if you have the skills you need to land the job you want?

Try emphasising your transferable skills, like critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork. Or try taking some coursework in essential skills in your field. For example, data analysis, IT, UX design, and digital marketing skills are all in demand across many industries.

You can also look for entry-level jobs, which typically have fewer skill requirements than other jobs.

4. Include a summary.

A CV summary is a brief description of your experience and qualifications. Usually one to three sentences long, it helps recruiters quickly understand your background and assets as a worker. 

Don’t forget to emphasise traits and skills that fit the job you’re applying to. You can also include a sentence about your objective—what type of job you’re looking for. The following offers two examples:

Recent graduate with a background in computer science and communications. Seeking to leverage strong skills in Python, C++, and public speaking for full-time engineering opportunities.

Curious and hard-working college student with a passion for working with children and one year of experience babysitting. 

5. Use a template.

Eliminate the stress of creating your own layout by using one of the many CV templates you can find online, like this one. 

Customise any template you find to fit your needs and tastes. A word processing program like Microsoft Word or Google Docs can be helpful here. Need access to one? Try approaching your local public library. If you’re a learner, your school library will likely have resources you can use. You can also create a Google account for free.

Next steps

A strong opening statement and a focus on the skills you have developed, including transferable ones like collaboration and problem-solving, can help demonstrate your potential to employers no matter how much experience you have. To craft a dynamic CV with no experience, you also want to highlight your education, activities, and the elements that make you who you are.

You can also start building skills for an in-demand career in project management, data analytics, UX design, IT support, sales, or social media marketing with a Professional Certificate from industry-leading companies like Google, Meta, and HubSpot. Gain hands-on experience through job-relevant projects you can add to your CV or portfolio.

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