CV writing 7 min readUpdated 4 August 2026

Writing a CV with no work experience

A page-one plan for first jobs, graduates and career changers: what to put where when you have no employment history to list.

“No experience” almost never means nothing to show. It means your evidence is not in the shape of a job title — so you change the shape of the CV, not the truth of it.

Reorder the page

  1. 1Summary — three lines: what you are training for, your strongest concrete proof, the role you want.
  2. 2Education — degree or course, institution, years, plus two or three lines on relevant modules, grades or a thesis.
  3. 3Projects — the section that replaces experience. Coursework, personal builds, volunteering, competitions, events you organised.
  4. 4Work of any kind — retail, hospitality, warehouse, tutoring, family business. Reliability and customer contact are real skills.
  5. 5Skills — tools you can actually use, plus languages.
  6. 6Extras — certifications, driving licence if relevant, availability.

Write projects like jobs

Give each project a title, a timeframe, and two bullets: what you built or ran, and what happened as a result. Scope counts as a result when there is no revenue attached.

“Course project — delivery route planner (spring 2026). Built a Python tool that cut a 40-stop route by 18% versus the manual plan. Presented to a class of 60 and a visiting logistics manager.”

Things that hurt

  • Padding to two pages. One strong page is more convincing.
  • Listing school subjects unless you left school in the last year or two.
  • Soft-skill lists with no evidence: “team player, hard-working, motivated”.
  • Apologising for inexperience anywhere on the page.

Answer a few questions and we will draft this structure from your own material.

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