Having dedicated sections for a summary and list of skills can round out your resume.
No Experience Resume: Template
Templates can help you organize your thoughts, inspire you with ideas and take the guesswork out of formatting your resume. And regardless of the experience you have, starting a resume from scratch can be daunting.
Here is a resume template you can use if you have no work experience.
Here is the completed resume below.
Read More: How To Get A Job With No Experience: A Guide For Job Seekers
How To Write A Resume With No Experience: 5 Tips
If you don’t have experience, you can point it out on your resume, highlight your education, include relevant non-work experience, list your skills, and include a summary. Start by using a template.
1. Highlight your education.
If you have little work experience, emphasizing your education is a great way to showcase your strengths, interests, and background.
Some items you’ll want to consider including in the section on Education on your resume are:
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Relevant Courses: Be sure to list courses that will emphasize skills that may be useful for the job. These may include courses that focus on technical skills, such as economics, math, or computer science. But don’t forget the importance of courses like English or writing that can show your competence in communication or other human skills. Look at job descriptions to see what kinds of skills are desirable for the field you’re interested in.
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GPA and honors: A strong GPA may indicate a willingness to work hard and an aptitude for your field. Experts recommend listing your GPA if it is 3.5 or higher [1]. If you’ve received academic honors, it’s a good idea to mention those as well.
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Relevant projects: If you’ve completed projects in class that are particularly relevant to the job you are applying for, list them and briefly describe them. If you have more than one, this can be its own section.
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Certifications and Online Courses: If you have completed any out-of-school courses or have received a professional credential, also list them in the education section.
2. Include relevant experience.
When you start to put together a resume, you may feel like you don’t have any relevant experience to refer to. But digging a little into your life might uncover a number of experiences that show your professionalism, interests, and character—all of which a potential employer might find important.
You can include the following in a section titled “Relevant Experience”:
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Volunteer experience: Volunteering demonstrates your involvement in the community, your ability and willingness to work with others, and your interests. It might even have gained you some practical experience in a related field.
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Part-time jobs: Maybe you worked part-time while you were in school, tutored, or babysit children, or helped their parents in their small business. If you’re applying for your first full-time job, feel free to include them. Part-time jobs can demonstrate your employability and experience with key skills like customer service.
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Extracurricular Activities: If you’ve played sports, been part of a cultural club, or served on student council, extracurricular activities can help show a willingness to explore your interests, develop new skills, and work as a team. Be sure to include any leadership positions you have held in these activities.
3. List your skills.
Chances are that even if you don’t have any formal work experience, you probably have skills that will be useful in the field. Look through several job descriptions that interest you to see what skills are commonly requested.
The relevant skills you choose to list will likely depend on the job, but may include:
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Research
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Microsoft Office products such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint
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Communication
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Computer Programming
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Leadership
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Social Media
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Foreign Languages
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Public Speaking
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Customer Service
You can also look for entry-level jobs, which typically have less skill requirements than other jobs.
4. Include a summary.
A resume summary is a brief description of your experience and qualifications. Typically one to three sentences long, a summary gives recruiters a way to quickly understand your background and assets as a worker.
Don’t forget to emphasize characteristics and skills that fit the job you’re applying for. You can also include a sentence about your goal: what kind of job you are looking for. Here are two examples:
Recent college graduate with a background in computing and communications. Looking to leverage strong skills in Python, C++, and public speaking for a full-time engineering opportunity.
Curious, hard-working high school honors a student with a passion for working with kids and one year of experience caring for children.
5. Use a template.
Take the stress out of creating your own design by using one of the many resume templates you can find online, like this one.
Customize any template you find to suit your needs and tastes. A word processing program like Microsoft Word or Google Docs can be helpful here. Do you need access to one? Try to approach your local public library. If you’re a student, your school library probably has resources you can use. You can also create a Google account for free.
Next Steps
Start building skills for an in-demand career in project management, data analysis, UX design, support IT, sales, or social media marketing with a Professional Certificate from industry-leading companies like Google, Meta, and Hubspot. Get hands-on experience through job-relevant projects that you can add to your resume or portfolio.
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Getting Your First Job: A Guide
Article Sources
1. CNBC. “This is the only time you should include a GPA on your resume, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/31/when-to-include-your-gpa-on-your-resume.html.” Consulted on April 18, 2022.
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