How to Make a Resume with No Experience: First Job Examples

Also, if you’re a college student who hasn’t graduated, don’t worry—here’s how to put college on a resume if you haven’t graduated yet.

This is what the education section might look like on a resume with no experience for a college student:

Inexperienced College Student Resume: Education Section

This example shows high academic results because the job offer states that the position will require absorbing daily training sessions in Product knowledge and strategy. In addition, the candidate’s field of study is job related; that’s why listing the relevant courses makes a lot of sense.

Here’s a sample high school student resume with no work experience:

Summary of high school student with no work experience—Education Section

This teen has no work experience, but we can assume that they already have some useful skills!

If you still need more information on how to make the most of the education section on your resume with no experience, read our guide: How to Put Education on a Resume

3. Include your relevant experience on an initial resume (if you have any)

Recruiters want only one thing: hire the candidate who can do the job better than the rest . And the best way to see what candidates can do? Check out what they’ve done in the past!

This is where your relevant experience comes into play. Don’t worry: it doesn’t have to be work experience. You can gain valuable skills in many settings, not just through employment.

The first step in identifying your relevant experience is to look closely at the job ad. Then, think about what you’ve done while in school, doing freelance work, volunteering, helping family members, or pursuing hobbies that matches the job requirements.

Here’s how to do it step by step:

• Read the job posting and make a note of exactly what it is the position you hold. you’re pursuing.
• Think about all the things you’ve done that are related to the skills and duties the employer put in the job ad.
• Write down those tasks, for example: “Wrote product reviews for a local tech-oriented website.” or “I built a website for my favorite band and got mentioned in a Loudwire article.”
• Combine your experience with resume keywords > correct.
• Begin each bullet with a resuming action verb such as collaborated, designed, improved.
• Use numbers to quantify your accomplishments whenever you can.

These guidelines are pretty straightforward. But the question is: where did you get your experience from?

These are your options:

Volunteering

This is one of the best ways to get some serious life experience, and volunteering looks great on a resume. There are literally thousands of charities and NGOs that you can support, and they all offer different opportunities. For example:

• Fundraising: Many charities need fundraisers to contact various businesses and organizations and seek funding. additional. This role helps you improve your communication and negotiation skills. It also helps to set realistic goals and find ways to achieve them.
• Mentoring: NGOs that support children and adolescents often need tutors in various subjects. By mentoring others, you can develop your interpersonal skills, learn to give clear instructions, and provide feedback.
• Organizing events: Organizations often need volunteers to help prepare special events. such as charity auctions, fundraising festivals, etc. It’s a great opportunity to boost organizational skills, learn about budgeting, and work on project coordination.
• Manual labor: NGOs also need people for basic labor, such as reform classrooms, set up a community garden, help in a soup kitchen. These experiences can be helpful; For example, if you are applying for a job at a restaurant, having experience cooking at a children’s shelter may make you stand out.

Internships

Pretty obvious, right?

Internships provide an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of a job while working alongside professionals. It’s best to start looking for internship positions while you’re in college—the sooner you learn, the better your chances of landing good jobs after graduation.

You can add internships to the experience employment or make a separate internship section on your resume.

When listing your internship experience on a resume, always mention:

• Name of the position, such as Intern Accounting
• Company name, location, and duration of internship
• Your roles, responsibilities, and accomplishments

Extracurricular Activities

Your free time at school or college doesn’t have to be spent partying.

Shocking, I know. But sometimes it’s worth spending your free time on activities that can benefit you in the future. Think of student associations you could join. Consider going to conferences. Write articles for a student magazine. Join research projects.

Here are some examples of cool things you can do while you’re in school:

• Set up a Facebook page to create memes about your school and learn the basics of social media marketing in the process
• Have a mock Academy Awards night with students from the Cine Club and learn how to promote events while you’re at it
• Conduct interviews with local small business owners and gain journalistic experience while writing articles about business success

See? You can gain useful experience on any occasion.

Remember that when describing your experience on a resume, you should use resume keywords.

But wait, do you know what exactly resume keywords are?

Many companies use ATS (Applicant Tracking System) software to speed up recruiting. ATS look for key words in candidates’ resumes to decide if the candidate has relevant experience. With this initial assessment, recruiters have fewer documents to review.

This type of assessment requires you to write an ATS-compliant resume. In other words: if you want your experience to count, you should use the wording of the job offer itself.

Here’s what it might look like:

Summary of someone with no work experience: example

Yes, the highlighted phrases include very common keywords. Using this type of jargon to describe your experiences will help you pass the ATS assessment and get noticed by recruiters.

See the difference? This example talks about the same tasks but using different words. Much less impressive, isn’t it?

The above examples will work regardless of your education level. You can use the same approach when making a resume for an inexperienced college or high school student.

If you’re not sure how to describe your experience effectively, read our guide: Make the Best Work Experience Section for a Resume

When doing a resume in our builder, dragInclude some in the experience and education sections, as well as in the objective of your resume.

Not sure how to get the most out of your skills on a resume? Read our guide: 99 Key Resume Skills (Best List of Examples for All Jobs)

5. Add extra sections for maximum impact

When the work experience section of your resume isn’t great, you should take every opportunity to make up for it elsewhere.

If you have language skills to brag about, by all means do so. If you want to include certifications on a resume, include them whenever they are relevant. If your hobbies and interests on a resume show you fit the culture, feel free to mention them.

Everything relevant to the job should make it on your resume—that’s right How you can make a resume with no experience stand out.

Here are a couple of sample additional resume sections to give you some ideas:

Sample Resume First Job: Additional Sections

6. Write a Compelling Resume Objective

At this point, your no-experience resume has everything it needs… except the beginning.

And no, it’s not a joke. The best time to write the opening paragraph of your “starter” resume is when everything else is in place.

Why?

You need to highlight the best parts of your resume… which is only possible once the entire document is ready. Next, write your resume mission statement. It’s a short introductory paragraph that shows who you are and what skills you have that the company could benefit from.

Here’s how a good resume would nail it:

• Read your resume carefully and find up to 3 things you would like to brag.
• Start with your strong character traits (motivated, personable). It’s better to take a look at the job ad to see what the employer needs instead of putting random stuff here.
• Say who you are (student looking to get a bachelor’s degree in.. .) You can mention your academic achievements here (high GPA, for example).
• Mention the company you are applying to by name to personalize your resume.
• Say what you want to do for the company. You can take a look at the job ad to see what tasks are listed.
• Say what your points are strong. You are welcome to include some of your greatest achievements here as well.

Once you have more relevant experience, you will be writing a summary of the Resume: A condensed version of your best professional accomplishments. At this stage, however, a target will be perfectly fine.

This is what a resume objective might look like:

Objective Resume: Examples Without Experience

.