How to Write a CV With No Work Experience: UK Examples

Applying for your job can seem impossible: you have no work experience, but employers probably expect to see some on your CV to even consider you. It can seem like you can’t win, can’t it? 

Don’t worry: 

Not all jobs require work experience, and writing a great CV with no experience is easier than you think.

This guide will show you: 

• A CV with no experience example better than 9 out of 10 of those out there.
• How to make a CV with no experience and land more interviews.
• Tips and examples of how to put skills and achievements on a CV with no experience.
• What to put on a CV with no experience to get any entry-level job you want.

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Sample CV made with our builder—See more CV examples and create your CV here.

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• 100+ CV Examples for Every Industry

CV with no experience sample

Now, here’s how to write a CV with no experience, step by step:

1. Choose the right format for a CV with no experience

Writing a CV, especially a CV with no experience, is not a freestyle affair. Hiring managers are used to dealing with a particular CV format. Handing them something unfamiliar will only hurt your chances.

Once you have some work history under your belt, the reverse-chronological CV format will be for you. It places work experience front and centre and is what employers expect to see. Trying to use this format now, though, is like trying to cram a square peg into a round hole.

For a CV with no work experience, go with the skills-based format. This CV format puts the spotlight on your skills and doesn’t suffer from a lack of work history. It includes a header, CV objective, skills summary, education section, and some “extra” sections.

Make each section stand out by making the subheadings a little larger and bold. Surround them with enough white space to make scanning through your CV quick and easy.

Pick a basic font for your CV, like Arial or Calibri, and set it to 11–12 pt. Leave the page margins at one inch on all sides and use standard line spacing (1–1.15).

Once you’re done, check the job advert for a preferred file format. They want *.docx files? Go with that. If there’s no preference you can find, save your CV in PDF. It makes viewing and printing easier on a huge range of devices.

The first thing in your CV is a header with your contact information. Add your full name, phone number, email, and—if you have one—your LinkedIn. (On that note, remember to clean up your online profiles, especially if they’re set to public. Employers will check them out, whether you list them on your CV or not.)

After the header will be your CV objective, also known as a career objective or personal statement. That’s not where you should start writing, though. Not if you want to avoid writer’s block. Instead, start with your skills summary and come back to the CV objective at the end.

Read more: What Should My CV Look Like? UK Examples & Guide

2. Start with a skills summary—It’s the backbone of any CV with no experience

When writing a CV with no work experience whatsoever, your skills are your biggest selling point. With no paid work experience to back up your claims, a simple list of skills is not going to cut it. Instead, make the main part of your CV a skills summary.

Start by choosing 3–5 “headline skills”. Brainstorm some key skills that you have and that you feel would be suitable for the kinds of jobs you’re applying for. Then, look through the job advert for this specific job and highlight all the skill requirements.

Grab those of your skills that match the requirements. These will be your “headline skills”. Make each one bold and surround them with some white space to make them stand out—like headlines.

Create 2–5 bullet points under each headline. Each bullet point should offer a bit of proof for and an example of the given skill in action. Draw on your academic achievements and general life experience for evidence of your skills.

Put numbers to everything you can. What sounds better, “got good grades” or “maintained a 93% average”? Start each bullet point with a strong verb. Look into accomplishment statements to help you structure your bullet points.

How to write a CV with no experience—Key skills

Huge difference, right?

The second sample is hardly terrible, at least it’s not just a laundry list of skills. But “not bad” doesn’t get you the job if even one other candidate has a good, let alone great, skills summary.

The first example is much more convincing, relying on concrete details and numbers.

Here’s a list of key skills for every type of job to help you get started: 99+ Key Skills for a CV—Examples for Every Job

When making a CV in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional CV template here for free.

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When you’re done, Zety’s CV builder will score your CV and tell you exactly how to make it better.

3. Spotlight your education

The reason you see so many CV examples for students with no experience out there is that students are the most likely to be looking for their first job. But whether you’re still studying, just graduated, or finished school years ago, your education section is an important part of your CV.

Create an entry for each of your secondary and post-secondary qualifications. List the name of the qualification, the awarding institution, and the dates you attended there. Include an expected graduation or completion date if you’re still studying.

Put all these qualifications in reverse-chronological order—from most recent to least. List your A-levels, but only state the number of GCSEs. Put “including Mathematics and English” after the number of GCSEs. Some employers need to see you’ve passed at least these two.

CV examples for students with no experience—Education section

Read more: CV Education Section: Examples & How to Include It

4. Flaunt everything you’ve got—Add “extra” sections to your CV

In a CV with no experience, all that can set you apart from other candidates is your skills summary and education section. That’s not much. Say you’re applying for a job in IT—that’s a whole lot of people who are good with computers studying IT degrees.

You need to really stand out from the crowd. You also need to show that you’re particularly well-suited to the role. Adding more sections to your CV does both of these things. Of course, you have to know what to add.

Here’s the golden rule: every single “extra” thing you put into your CV has to be clearly and directly relevant to the job application at hand. This means there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

Add 2–4 “extra” CV sections. Choose from certifications, awards or other accolades, memberships in professional bodies, conferences you’ve attended or presented at, volunteer and one-time gigs, even hobbies and interests.

There’ll also be plenty of industry-specific CV sections you can add. For example, programming languages, projects, productions, and performances. Any foreign languages you speak are always relevant.

The following CV with no experience sample will give you some idea of the possibilities.

CV for a teenager with no experience—Additional CV sections

Read more: What to Include in a CV: Full Guide

5. Collect the best bits together to create an impressive CV objective

All the heavy lifting is done at this point. It’s time to go back to the top of your CV and create a CV objective, otherwise known as a personal statement. First, gather all the ingredients you’ll need—you can lift most of these directly from your CV.

Think of an adjective or two that describe you. Make sure they suite the job to which you’re applying. Something like “hard-working”, “creative” or “enthusiastic”.

Go through your skills summary, education section, and extra sections and pick out two or three of your most relevant and impressive achievements. Pick the ones that most clearly and compellingly speak to the requirements in the job advert.

Write a sentence that describes what you intend to do for the employer. Not any employer, but this particular one to which you’re applying. Look through the job advert, the company’s website, and search around the web for hints as to what they need.

You might be writing a CV with no experience, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to offer. They wouldn’t be hiring inexperienced candidates if that were the case. Your skills, personal qualities, and work ethic are your strongest assets.

Now put everything together using this formula:

Adjective + Student or Graduate Status (if any) + Achievements and/or Skills + What You Want to Do for the Employer

These CV examples with no experience will show you how to get it right:

CV with no work experience examples—CV objective

Same candidate, same history, applying for the same job. Which CV objective would impress you more?

The first one is focused on what the candidate can do for their potential new employer. It includes plenty of evidence to back up its claims, including a lot of numbers. It’s packed full of accomplishments, even though the candidate hasn’t worked a day in their life.

Read more about writing an interview-winning CV objective: How to Write a CV Personal Statement: Examples of CV Profiles

6. Include a cover letter—a CV with no experience needs all the help it can get

First things first: have you been explicitly told not to include a cover letter? No? Then forget everything you’ve heard about employers not bothering to read cover letters. The last thing you want is to submit a job application to one of the many who do without including a cover letter.

Writing a cover letter is all downhill once you’ve got your CV ready. Keep it short and to the point. Don’t dwell on your lack of experience. Instead, focus on your skills and what you intend to do for the employer.

Read more: Recent Graduate Cover Letter: How to Write + UK Examples

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your CV will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Key takeaways

Here’s how to write a CV for a job with no experience, step by step:

• Choose the right format for a CV with no experience.
• Create a compelling skills summary that shows you’ve got what it takes.
• Detail your education, it might be your biggest source of achievements.
• Write an impressive CV objective to get their attention from the get-go.
• Include a cover letter to give yourself every chance of landing that interview.

With any luck, your next CV will include some great work experience! Now it’s your turn:

• What did you find most difficult in writing a CV with no experience? 

• What advice do you have for your fellow readers?

Let me know in the comments section. We can’t wait!