How to write a resume with no experience (students and career starters)
By FindAJobAI teamPublished
Every entry-level job ad seems to want experience, and every first resume seems to have nothing to put in that section. The good news is that employers hiring for junior roles know you haven’t had a career yet. They’re not comparing you with someone with five years in the job; they’re comparing you with other students and career starters. What wins is evidence that you can do the basics, learn fast and turn up reliably.
This guide shows what counts as experience when you have no job history, the best layout for a first resume, how to turn part-time jobs and student projects into strong bullet points, and a complete example you can adapt. It works for a US resume or a UK CV; the differences are noted where they matter.
What counts as experience (more than you think)
“Experience” on a resume means evidence that you’ve done something relevant, not only paid jobs in the field. All of these count:
- Part-time and summer jobs: retail, hospitality, tutoring, delivery, call centres. They prove reliability, customer handling and working under pressure.
- Internships, placements and work experience, even a week.
- Projects: coursework, a dissertation, a hackathon entry, a website or app, a portfolio, an analysis you did for fun.
- Volunteering: charity shops, events, mentoring, fundraising.
- Societies, clubs and sports, especially roles with responsibility: treasurer, captain, event organiser.
- Freelance or gig work: babysitting, social media for a family business, selling online.
- Courses and certifications relevant to the job.
Write these down before you think about layout. Most people find they have eight to ten items once they stop filtering for “real jobs”.
The best layout for a resume with no experience
Keep it to one page. Use a plain, single-column layout and a standard font, because many employers screen applications through an applicant tracking system. Then order the sections so your strongest material comes first:
- Header: name, town, phone, email, and a LinkedIn, GitHub or portfolio link if you have one.
- Profile or summary: two or three lines.
- Education: first, because right now it’s your main qualification.
- Projects: if they’re relevant to the job, they go above work history.
- Experience: jobs, internships, volunteering and positions of responsibility, newest first.
- Skills: specific tools and languages.
Avoid “functional” resumes that list skills without dates or context. They’re often suggested for people without experience, but recruiters find them hard to trust. A dated list of what you actually did, however small, reads better.
Section by section
Profile. Say what you’re studying or just finished, your single most relevant piece of evidence, and the role you want. Skip “hard-working and motivated”: everyone writes it, so it tells the reader nothing. Our resume summary examples include a graduate version.
Education. Degree or qualification, institution, year (expected year if you’re still studying), and your grade if it helps: a 2:1 or First in the UK, a GPA of 3.5 or above in the US. Add two or three relevant modules and your dissertation or capstone title if it relates to the job.
Projects. Give each a name, the tools you used, and one or two bullets on what you built and what happened. A project that someone else actually used is worth more than three that only you have seen.
Experience. Job title, employer, place and dates, then two or three bullets. Even in a shop job, pick the parts that match the new role: handling money, solving customer problems, training new staff, spotting something to improve.
Skills. Be specific. “Microsoft Office” is assumed; “Excel: pivot tables, XLOOKUP, charts” is a skill. List languages with a level. Only list skills you could be asked about in an interview.
Turning everyday jobs into strong bullet points
Start each bullet with a verb, say what you did, and add a result or a number where you honestly have one. Some before-and-after pairs (replace X with your own figures):
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Worked on the till | Served around X customers per shift and balanced the till at close with no discrepancies |
| Waitress at a busy restaurant | Looked after up to X tables at a time on weekend shifts; trained two new starters |
| Group project for my course | Led a four-person team analysing X survey responses; wrote the final report and presented it |
| Treasurer of a society | Managed a £X budget, reconciled spending monthly and cut event costs by switching venues |
| Made a website | Built a booking site for a local tutor in HTML, CSS and JavaScript; now handles her weekly bookings |
| Volunteered at a charity shop | Sorted and priced donations; redesigned the window display each month |
Don’t invent numbers. If you don’t know the exact figure, use a range you can stand behind (“20–30 customers an hour”) or leave the number out and describe the outcome instead.
Example: entry-level data analyst resume
A complete one-page example for a recent graduate. The person, employers and details are invented for illustration; copy the structure, not the content.
JORDAN EXAMPLE Bristol, UK · [email protected] · 07700 900456 · github.com/jordanexample PROFILE Economics graduate who has built three data projects in SQL and Python, including a dashboard of local bus punctuality used by a student society. Looking for a junior data analyst role. EDUCATION BSc Economics, 2:1, University of Bristol 2026 Relevant modules: Econometrics, Statistics for Economists, Data Analysis in R Dissertation: How weather affects bike-share demand (regression in R) PROJECTS Bus punctuality dashboard (Python, SQL, Looker Studio) 2025 • Cleaned a year of public timetable data and built a weekly dashboard • Presented findings to the student transport society; they used it in a letter to the city council Spending tracker (Excel, Power Query) 2024 • Built a budgeting workbook with automated monthly summaries EXPERIENCE Sales Assistant (part time), Harbourside Books, Bristol 09/2023 – 06/2026 • Handled the till and stock checks on Saturdays; trusted to open and close • Suggested a weekly bestseller table based on sales data; manager adopted it Treasurer, University Hiking Society 09/2024 – 06/2025 • Managed a budget of £X and reconciled spending every month SKILLS SQL · Python (pandas) · Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP) · R · Looker Studio Languages: English (native), French (intermediate)
Notice how little paid experience it contains, and how it still answers the recruiter’s question (can this person work with data?) through education and projects first.
Use the job ad’s words
Junior roles get many applications, so recruiters and their software look for the skills named in the ad. Read the ad, list the skills and tools it mentions, and make sure every one you genuinely have appears on your resume in the same words. If the ad says “Microsoft Excel”, write that, not just “spreadsheets”.
To see which skills employers ask for most often in your target field, browse the keyword pages built from live job postings, for example data analyst, software engineer or marketing. Our guide to tailoring your resume without lying shows how to adapt one resume for each job in about 15 minutes.
US resume or UK CV: the small differences
For a first job the two documents are almost the same: one page, education first, no photo. A few details change. US resumes use US spelling, often list a GPA and call the opening section a summary. UK CVs use UK spelling, give a degree classification or predicted grade, often call the opening section a profile or personal statement, and may list A levels while you’re early in your career. In both, leave out your date of birth and full home address; a town or city is enough. If you’re applying in the UK, our UK CV format guide has a full template.
Common first-resume mistakes
- An “objective” about what you want. Replace it with a profile about what you offer.
- Two pages of school achievements. One page; cut anything from before age 16 unless it’s exceptional.
- An unprofessional email address. Use firstname.lastname at a free provider.
- A photo, date of birth or full address for US or UK jobs. They’re not expected.
- Spelling mistakes. Read it aloud, then ask someone else to read it.
- The same resume for every job. Change the profile and skill order for each application at least.
Pair the resume with a short cover letter when the application allows one: our guide to a cover letter with no experience has templates.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a resume with no work experience?
Put education first, followed by projects, then any part-time jobs, volunteering or positions of responsibility. Open with a two-line profile naming the role you want and your most relevant evidence, and keep everything to one page in a plain, single-column layout.
What can I put on my resume if I have no experience?
Part-time and summer jobs, internships, coursework and personal projects, volunteering, society or sports roles with responsibility, freelance or family-business work, and relevant courses or certifications. All of these show skills an employer can use.
Should a student resume be one page?
Yes. With little work history, one page is enough in both the US and the UK, and a tight page reads better than a padded two. Move to two pages once you have several years of relevant experience.
Should I include my GPA or grades?
Include them if they help: a GPA of 3.5 or higher in the US, or a 2:1 or First in the UK. Once you have a couple of years of work experience, grades matter much less and can be dropped.