How First-Time Job Seekers Can Write a CV with No Experience

As a first-time job seeker, you may not have much job-related experience that you can speak of. Do not despair. You can still put together a solid CV by effectively highlighting your other achievements and volunteer work by showcasing skills and qualities that are relevant to the workplace and to a specific job vacancy. Read this article for tips on how to do that.

Tips to Strengthen Your CV

Follow these steps to highlight your other achievements and capabilities and strengthen your CV if you lack extensive work experience.

Create an “Achievements” Section in Your CV

In addition to the basic sections that are included in a typical CV, people without previous job experience can create an Achievements section in their CV. Devote this achievements section to list various academic accomplishments, personal projects, and other notable successes you have had.

You can quantify your achievements where possible for better impact. For example, you can mention improvements in grades, challenges you have overcome, projects that you completed, and awards you have received both in your academic life and outside.

Emphasise Transferable Skills

Identify skills you have gained from volunteer work, internships, coursework, or various extracurricular activities. All of these have given you many skills that are transferable to the job you are applying for. You need to clearly articulate how these various skills can be applied in a professional setting.

Check out our article on Top Transferable Skills First-Time Job Seekers Can Use on Their CV. It is useful for all CV writers who want to find ways to strengthen their CV.

Use Action Verbs

Action verbs are a great way to include job vacancy keywords as well as your individual skills into your CV. Consider beginning your bullet points with strong action verbs that describe your accomplishments. Action verbs can portray a sense of proactivity and accomplishment. Example: Instead of saying you were "Responsible for event planning," consider saying that you "Successfully coordinated and executed five fundraising events."

Focus on Impact

To do so, highlight the impact of your contributions. Whether it's through volunteer work or academic projects, you need to find a way to emphasize how your efforts made a positive contribution. Most employers are interested in candidates that can contribute positively to a team or organization, beyond their normal job role.

Demonstrate Your Initiative

The initiative is a much-valued commodity in the workplace because it demonstrates leadership potential. In your CV, highlight instances in which you took initiative and made a positive difference such as when you started a project, a club, or a volunteer effort.

Include Volunteer Work Experience

Experience as a volunteer is as valuable as work experience although many job seekers forget to mention such experiences in their CV. Those who are seeking ways to boost up their experience can include details about roles, responsibilities, and any accomplishments in volunteering. You can include activities such as organizing events, managing teams, or achieving specific goals within a volunteer organization in your CV.

Highlight Relevant Soft Skills

People can develop technical and job-specific skills even as students, during school or university days, and sometimes just for fun.

For example, if you studied coding and software and want to be a game creator, share your MIT Scratch and App Inventor public portfolios that contain your creations as proof of technical skills and expertise. In the same way, artists, designers, inventors, and any number of creatives and craftspeople can share online portfolios of their creations. Writers can highlight their blogs and other publications.

Share a Portfolio of Your Work

Whether you are a creative—artist, photographer, designer, animator, architect, or musician—or have any projects that showcase your skills, you can share a link to a portfolio in your CV.

There are many websites and platforms that enable you to do so, which are mostly free or at an affordable price. Depending on the type of work, you can consider Wordpress.com, Adobe Portfolio, YouTube, 500px, Behance, Pexels, Scratch, App Inventor, GitHub, and any other specialized platforms for showcasing your work portfolio.

If you have worked as a gig worker on a global or recognized platform—such as Upwork, Fiverr, Toptal, Gigster, 99Designs, Writer Access, Freelancer, Guru—you can share your online profiles that carry client feedback, work samples, and other details when seeking a freelance gig or a full-time position.

Create a Project Section in Your CV

If you've worked on academic, personal, or passion projects, create a section highlighting these. Describe the projects, your role, and the outcomes achieved. This can demonstrate your ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations.

Tailor Your CV for Each Application

Be sure to customize your CV for each job application. This enables you to highlight achievements and transferable skills that align directly with the job requirements. Don’t forget to use keywords from the job description or vacancy to demonstrate how your skill sets match the needs of the employer.

Include Relevant Courses and Certifications

If you lack job-related experience, consider including a section that lists relevant coursework. This can help showcase your academic background and skills.

Use a Skills-Based CV Format

If you lack work experience, you may want to consider using a skills-based or functional CV format. Instead of highlighting your lack of work experience, these CV formats will allow you to emphasize your skills and achievements.

Seek Internships, Volunteer Work, and Entry-Level Positions

One way to get over the challenge of a “thin” CV is to seek internships or entry-level positions that align with your career goals. Paid or unpaid internships and entry-level positions typically do not ask for previous work experience. Such opportunities can provide you with valuable work experience that you can use later on your CV.

Strategically Leverage Your Strengths in Your CV

By strategically presenting your achievements, accomplishments, volunteer work, and transferable skills, you too can create a compelling CV that demonstrates your capabilities and potential.

For example, if you are applying for a paid or free internship or entry-level position, competing with other school leavers or new graduates, you may want to mention sports and musical instruments you play. You can also mention various extracurricular activities you have taken part in including Boy Scouts or Girl Guides, Environmental Pilots, Rotaract participation, Model UN, and various types of competitions. Highlight your achievements such as medals, awards, and certificates.

Once you follow these tips to write your CV, your lack of job-related work experience may not matter as much as you fear it would.

Share Your Comments and Concerns

Are you finding it challenging to create a CV because you lack extensive work experience? Share your concerns with us.

In the meantime, the Resume.lk team wishes you all the best in your job search!

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