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Writing a CV with no work experience
Change the heading, change the frame
Stop writing “Work Experience” when you have none. Use “Experience”, and include internships, freelance work, volunteer roles, paid personal projects, society positions and university projects. Hiring managers care about what you can do, not whether you were on a payroll.
A two-week volunteering stint where you coordinated five volunteers for a college event is more relevant to a community manager role than most people’s first job.
Describe outcomes, not duties
“Was responsible for social media” tells a recruiter nothing. “Ran the society’s Instagram account through two semesters, growing followers from 180 to 740 and driving sign-ups for three events” tells them you can be trusted with something.
You do not need impressive numbers. You need specific ones. Numbers that are small and real beat numbers that are large and vague.
Build a projects section that does the heavy lifting
Each project gets three lines: what it was, what you personally did, and what happened as a result. Link it if you built something. Two strong projects can carry a CV with no experience at all, because they let a recruiter see you doing the actual job before you have been paid to do it.
Be honest about team size and your role. Claiming a group project as entirely your own is the fastest way to lose an interview.
Make the rest pull its weight
Your education section should list modules that are relevant to the job, not your whole syllabus. Your skills section should be specific enough that someone could test you on it — “Figma, user interviews, usability testing, basic SQL” rather than “design, computers, team player”.
Cut anything you would not be comfortable explaining for five minutes in an interview. If you cannot explain it, it is taking up space that a real strength could be using.
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