How to Write a CV With No Experience
The most common mistake on a first CV is treating it as an apology for a short work history. A first CV is not a document where you lack things — it is a document where you lead with different things. Education, projects, skills, part-time work, volunteering, and the evidence of how you think and what you have built are all legitimate content.
This guide is specifically for people who have little or no formal work experience: school leavers, university students and recent graduates, career changers re-entering the job market, and anyone writing a serious CV for the first time.
1. Reframe what counts as experience
Experience on a CV does not mean paid employment. It means evidence that you have applied skills to real situations and produced outcomes. A university project that involved managing a team of four and delivering a working prototype is experience. Six months of volunteering as a helpline counsellor is experience. Running the social media for a university society with 1,200 members is experience. Building a personal website or mobile app is experience.
Before you assume you have nothing to put on a CV, make a complete list of everything you have done over the past two to three years that involved any of the following: working with other people, solving a problem, delivering something on a deadline, learning a technical skill, leading or organising anything, or communicating with an audience. You will usually find more than you expected.
Once you have that list, the task is to translate it into CV language. The translation is simple: describe what you did, who it affected, and what the result was. The result does not have to be spectacular. Completing something, learning something, or improving something all count.
2. Lead with education — and know what to include
For candidates with limited work experience, education should come first in the CV, not second. A recent graduate or school leaver's strongest credential is usually their qualification, so lead with it. List the most recent qualification first: degree (class, if known), A-levels or equivalent, GCSEs or equivalent if they are strong or relevant.
Beyond the qualification name, add detail that demonstrates relevance. Relevant modules: if you are applying for a data role and your degree included statistics, machine learning, and research methods, list those modules. Dissertation or final year project: give the title and a sentence about what you did and found. It shows the recruiter the kind of problem you find interesting and that you can complete a sustained independent project.
Do not list every module — only the ones that are directly relevant to the role. Do not list GCSEs if you already have a degree, unless there is a specific reason the recruiter might want to see them. A single clean line — 'BSc Computer Science, University of Leeds, 2026, First Class Honours' — does the job if your degree is recent and strong.
3. Projects and coursework as proof of skill
A well-described project can carry the weight of a work entry on a first CV. Whether it is a software project, a design brief, a research paper, a marketing campaign for a university society, or a business plan for a module — if it involved real work and produced something, it belongs on the CV as an experience entry.
Format project entries the same way you would format a job: project name (and a link if it is live or on GitHub), dates, and bullet points describing what you built, what technologies or methods you used, and what the outcome was. 'Built a full-stack web app to track personal fitness data using React and Node.js, deployed on Vercel — reached 200 active users in the first month after posting on Reddit' is more useful to a recruiter than 'Proficient in React and Node.js' in a skills list.
Group projects together in a section called 'Projects' or 'Selected Projects' — below education, or below any actual work experience if you have some. Keep it to two or three of your strongest projects; a long list of minor projects dilutes the section.
4. Part-time and volunteer work — treat it seriously
Part-time jobs, casual work, and volunteering are real experience and should be listed as such. A year working weekends in a café or retail environment demonstrates reliability, customer service, and the ability to work under pressure — all of which are relevant to many graduate or entry-level roles. Do not hide it or minimise it.
Write bullet points for part-time roles the same way you would for any other position. 'Barista, Costa Coffee, June 2024 – Present' followed by 'Handled up to 150 customer orders per shift during peak periods, trained two new starters on drink preparation and till operation, maintained a 4.9/5 customer satisfaction score on monthly in-store surveys' is genuinely useful information to a recruiter hiring for a customer-facing role.
Volunteer work belongs on the CV with the same level of seriousness. If you volunteered as a mentor, a trustee, a campaign organiser, or in any capacity that involved responsibility — describe it with specifics and results, not just the activity.
5. Writing a personal statement when you have no career behind you
The personal statement on a first CV cannot draw on years of professional experience, so it should draw on direction, motivation, and relevant evidence of capability instead. The structure is: what you are studying or have studied, what you are good at or have demonstrated, and what kind of role you are looking for and why.
A weak personal statement from a graduate: 'A hardworking and enthusiastic recent graduate looking for opportunities to develop my skills and contribute to a dynamic team.' This says nothing. Every other applicant is equally hardworking and enthusiastic, and every team calls itself dynamic.
A stronger version: 'Computer science graduate with a particular interest in backend systems and API design — my final year project was a distributed task queue built in Go, processing 10,000 jobs per minute under load testing. I am looking for a junior software engineering role where I can work close to infrastructure and develop expertise in system reliability.' This has content: a specialism, a concrete project, a result, and a clear direction. A recruiter reading it immediately knows what kind of role to consider you for.
6. Skills section strategy for a first CV
The skills section on a first CV is often over-reliant on generic soft skills ('communication', 'teamwork', 'time management') that every applicant lists and no recruiter finds useful. These are not wrong — they just need to be evidenced rather than claimed. The skills section should list concrete, verifiable abilities.
For technical roles, list specific tools and languages with some indication of level. 'Python (pandas, scikit-learn, matplotlib), SQL (PostgreSQL, 3 years), R (statistical modelling and visualisation)' is more useful than 'proficient in multiple programming languages.' For non-technical roles, lead with sector-specific skills and tools: 'Adobe Creative Suite, DSLR photography and post-production, copywriting and editing for web audiences.'
Soft skills can earn their place if they are evidenced in the body of the CV — not just listed. If you have described leading a team in a project section, 'team leadership' in the skills section has evidence behind it. If you list 'leadership' without any evidence elsewhere in the document, a recruiter will discount it.
7. Formatting for a one-pager
A first CV should almost always be one page. You do not have the volume of experience to justify two pages, and a one-page CV that is full of strong, specific content makes a better impression than a two-page one that is clearly padded.
Section order for a first CV: contact details and headline, personal statement, education (with relevant modules and projects), work experience (if any, including part-time), projects (if not included under education), skills. If work experience is thin, put education above it. If you have a strong internship, put work experience above education.
Keep margins generous (1.5–2cm), font size 10–11pt for body text, and use clear section headings. Avoid cramming text to fill the page — empty space is fine. A clean one-page CV signals confidence in the content you have, rather than anxiety about what is missing.
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