Use this TemplateHow to Write a Resume With No Experience
Don’t let a lack of experience stop you from landing your desired job. When writing a no experience resume, you must focus on other sections, primarily the education and skills sections.
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Resume with no experience: example
This no-experience-first-job-beginner resume sample features all the required sections, but as you can see, the candidate reorganized them to showcase their strengths first. This resume example emphasizes the candidate’s achievements in the skills section while keeping the details of the work history minimal.
You can easily build a resume with no experience with our Resume Builder. In addition, to help you format your resume correctly, our Builder suggests personalized content you can copy and paste onto each of your resume sections. You’ll have a stellar resume with no experience in just a few minutes!
How to write a resume with no experience
Most new job seekers have experienced the frustration of applying to “entry-level positions” that require unreasonable experience. If you’ve ever asked yourself: “How am I supposed to start getting professional experience if no company wants to hire someone with no experience?”
You’re not alone. Today’s job seekers can’t land entry-level jobs because over 35% of these job postings require multiple years of prior experience, keeping these young professionals in a frustrating cycle.
To help you overcome this struggle, we’ve compiled the best industry tips to help you draft a resume with no work experience that will genuinely attract the attention of recruiters.
First of all:
- There’s no such thing as no experience: You can draw from experiences in your academic or personal life to show recruiters you possess valuable professional skills. For example, school club activities, sports, internships and personal projects are all valid experiences where you develop key skills and specialized knowledge.
- Emphasize your education and skills: If you have to leave your work experience a little bare, double down on the education and skills section. Mention relevant coursework, GPA scores and honors or awards to boost your education section. Consider adding multiple skill sections to show employers you have robust knowledge that is ready to implement.
- Choose a resume template that works for you: Resume templates are not all about designs. They also organize your sections in a way that spotlights your strengths while downplaying your weaknesses. There are three resume formats you can choose from. Check out our functional resume templates to write a seamless resume with no experience.
Now that you understand how to make a resume with no experience let’s get down to the specifics of writing each section of your no experience resume.
How to write a summary for a resume with no experience
Every resume begins with a resume profile where you introduce yourself to recruiters and mention your most relevant qualifications for the job.
The resume summary is the most common approach for this section and the one you’re likely more familiar with. However, the career objective is the best approach when writing a resume with no experience.
A resume’s career objective section should have some, if not all, of the following:
- Your current or desired job title.
- Your degree or any certification relevant to the position.
- What you hope to achieve in the role.
- The skills that qualify you for the position.
- A specific achievement that helps you stand out.
Let’s visualize it with this high school student resume with no work experience career objective section:
Resume objective example
“Current high school student specializing in communication studies eager to bring social media management skills, interviewing, branding, networking and negotiating skills to Seventeen magazine’s spring internship program. As social media manager of Tulane High School’s Instagram account of 24k followers and TikTok account of 47k, I can revitalize Seventeen’s social media to connect with a Gen Z audience.”
Although the resume objective strategy makes the most sense for applicants with little or no experience, the resume summary is a common approach these days and can work for any type of applicant.
Expand your resume skills section
If your work experiences are lacking, you can keep the work history minimal and focus more on your skills, which is where the functional resume format comes in handy.
When you use the functional format, the skills section becomes your resume’s primary source of information.
To build your resume with no experience skills section, you will:
- 1 Pick three or more hard and soft skills you have mastered that are either a requirement for the job or highly relevant.
- 2 For each skill, you will add a couple of bulleted phrases describing experiences demonstrating that you have mastered the skill.
- 3 Draw experiences from volunteer work, schoolwork or extracurricular activities. Remember that the focus is on what skills you’ve developed, not where you learned them.
Check out what a functional skills section looks like for a college student resume:
Skills
Customer service
- Answered phone calls and replied to texts and emails sent to Howard, Gleason & Hanes legal office daily.
- Greeted students requesting information and services from college mental health clinic. Treated them with tactfulness and followed established safety procedures.
Coffee-making skills
- Awarded as Best Latte Artist in CoffeLab’s barista graduation showcase among 15 other students.
- Completed certification from CoffeLab’s barista training course with flying colors, excelling in latte art, espresso machine handling, pour-over coffee-making technique, French press and cold brew preparation.
Leadership
- Led volleyball team to back-to-back state championships during my junior and senior years.
- Organized a mentorship program for computer science students to teach underserved students from minority backgrounds to learn basic computer skills and the essentials of programming.
Add key achievements to your education
When writing a resume with no experience, you’ll want to put more effort into your education section.
You want employers to know that even though you don’t have that real-world savviness just yet, you have all the necessary knowledge and education to excel at your job.
Your education section should, at the very least, include:
- Your highest level of education
- The name of your degree if you possess higher education
- The university or school name
To make the education section more impactful, you may also add:
- Your GPA
- Your minor or concentration
- Distinctions like valedictorian, salutatorian, summa cum laude
- Relevant coursework
- Honor Roll
- Awards
If you’re a high school student, this is how your education section would look:
Education
High School Diploma
John Madison High School | Buffalo, NY
Check out this education section sample for a college graduate resume with no experience:
Education
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
Minor in Public Relations and Advertising
University of Nashville – Nashville, TN
- Class of 2022 Valedictorian
- 4.5 GPA
- Relevant coursework: Client Consulting Project: Strategic Management
If you’re a college student in academia, you might wonder how to write a CV for a job with no experience. Fortunately, curriculum vitae are more customizable than resumes, so you can get away with including many more sections that showcase your unique abilities.
Check out our academic CV examples for students with no experience or reference our How to Write a CV guide for everything you need to know about tailoring your CV to a job.
Replace your work history with other experiences
If you’re writing a resume to apply for your first job, you don’t need to leave the work experience section blank.
You can use non-work-related experiences that demonstrate you have the skills and knowledge to thrive in a particular job.
Understanding what employers are looking for
Even without formal work experience, you surely have a lot to offer to employers. For entry-level positions, employers want to have trustworthy employees that are professional, disciplined, organized and can work well others and authority figures.
Most experiences in school, after school activities, sports, clubs and even personal projects teach you how to develop these interpersonal and professional skills.
A few examples of informal work experiences where you can develop these valuable professional skills are:
- Tutoring
- Babysitting
- Manual labor (mowing lawns, cleaning pools, etc.)
- Lifeguard duty at your community pool
- Volunteer camp counseling
- Helping out at a family business
- Free lessons (arts, crafts, sports)
- Internships
These experiences are beneficial when writing a teenager resume with no work experience. You can list these experiences as you would with any job in a traditional work history section.
Here’s an example of how you could list volunteering experience in your resume:
Work History
Boys & Girls Club of America | New Orleans, LA
Tutor Jan 2022 – Current
- Supervised homework completion and assisted in clarifying instructions for over 12 children ages 10-15.
- Imparted math tutoring every Tuesday and Thursday, arrived on time, prepared material beforehand and graded all worksheets.
- Helped all 12 students pass their mathematics class with individual grade point averages of 90 and up.
Do you help out in summer and holiday breaks at your family’s small business? Here’s how you can write an impressive work experience section:
Work History
Durry’s Ice Cream Shop | The Jersey Shore, NJ
Ice Cream Server Summers 2021 – 2023
- Provided exceptional customer service to over 50 customers daily, enhancing the shop’s reputation for friendly and efficient service.
- Managed cash register operations and processed transactions accurately, handling up to $1,000 in daily sales.
- Developed extensive product knowledge of 30+ ice cream flavors and related products, effectively upselling items to increase sales by 15%.
Include custom sections for additional accomplishments
Another way to add value to your job application when you have little or no work experience is by customizing your resume with additional sections that accurately reflect all you have accomplished.
Some common extra sections you can include are:
- Volunteer experience
- Internships
- Extracurricular activities
- Languages
- Awards
- Hobbies and interests
- Accomplishments
- Certifications
Here’s an example of a certification section for an administrative assistant resume with no experience:
Certifications
Microsoft Office Specialist Certification
Issued by: Microsoft
Date Obtained: March 2023
Proficient in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, essential for document creation, data management, and presentations.
Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence (PACE)
Issued by: American Society of Administrative Professionals (ASAP)
Date Obtained: July 2023
Recognizes proficiency in office administration, communication, and organization.
In our Resume Builder, you can easily add any custom sections to your resume and the Builder automatically organizes them all into one page. This way, you don’t have to figure out the layout or worry about overlapping sections.
Resume examples with no experience
If you need extra help on how to write a resume with no experience, check out these first-time resumes with no experience samples.
Showcase your strengths in a cover letter
The cover letter is an underused resource when applying for a job without work experience.
With our guide to writing a cover letter for a first job, you can learn how to explain your lack of experience and showcase your professional strengths.
If you’re already dreading writing yet another document, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Writing a cover letter is easy and quick when you use our Cover Letter Builder.
Draw inspiration from our best cover letter examples for 2024 and get a fully personalized, legit cover letter done in minutes!
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