How to write a graduate CV with no experience

"Experience" on a graduate CV is broader than paid work in your field. Graduate recruiters are looking for evidence of the skills that predict success in an entry-level role: learning quickly, working with others, managing time, solving problems, taking responsibility and communicating clearly. All of these can be shown through things you have already done.

Before you write anything, make a list of everything you have done in the last three or four years, without judging whether it counts. Include:

For most graduates, the strongest order is: contact details, a short profile, education, relevant experience or projects, other work experience, and a skills section. Education comes near the top because, at this stage, it is your most substantial and most relevant credential. As you gain professional experience over the next few years, it will move down.

One page is right for most graduates in most markets, including the UK, the US and Singapore. Two pages can be justified if you have genuinely substantial relevant content, such as a long placement plus significant project work, or if you are applying in markets that expect more detail. Do not stretch thin content to fill a second page; a tight single page reads as confident, and a padded two pages reads as the opposite.

The profile should be two or three lines, specific to the kind of role you want. "Recent economics graduate with strong data skills, seeking a graduate analyst role" followed by one concrete strength is enough. Avoid the generic ambitions that appear on every graduate CV, such as "seeking a challenging role in a dynamic organisation where I can grow". They waste the most valuable lines on the page.

If you are applying to a structured graduate scheme, the application form may ask for much of this information separately, and some schemes do not accept CVs at all. Where a CV is requested, it is often read alongside online test results or form answers, so keep the details consistent across every part of the application.

Most graduates list their degree as a single line: the name, the university, the dates and the grade. That wastes your strongest material. Under your degree, add a few lines that show what you actually did and learned, chosen to match the roles you are applying for.

Relevant modules are worth listing if they map directly onto the job, for example statistics and econometrics for an analyst role. A dissertation or final-year project deserves a line or two describing the question, the method and the finding, written so that a non-specialist can follow it. Group projects are valuable evidence of teamwork if you describe your specific role: "led the data analysis for a four-person consultancy project for a local business, presenting recommendations to the owner" says far more than "completed group projects".

Include your grade if it is good or expected in your market, and be accurate about it. If you are still awaiting results, state your predicted or current grade clearly as such. Schools and pre-university results matter less once you have a degree, although some graduate employers and schemes still ask for them, so check the application requirements.

A part-time job in a café or shop may seem irrelevant to a graduate role in finance or marketing, but it demonstrates reliability, working under pressure, handling customers and, often, responsibility beyond the job description. The trick is to describe it in terms of what you did and what it showed, not what the job was.

"Served customers and operated the till" is a duty. "Trained four new starters on opening procedures and was trusted to lock up and cash up alone within three months" is evidence of reliability and responsibility. "Worked weekends throughout my final year while maintaining my grades" shows time management without needing to claim it. The same applies to society roles: a treasurer who managed a budget and organised events has practical experience that many graduates lack.

Keep these descriptions short, usually two or three bullets per role, and put the most transferable point first. If you have several minor jobs, you can group them under one heading such as "Part-time work alongside study" to save space.

In many fields, especially technology, data, design, marketing and writing, a well-chosen project can outweigh a short internship because it shows what you can produce on your own. A small web application that people use, an analysis of a public data set with a clear finding, a campaign you ran for a student society, a design portfolio, or a blog with consistent, well-written posts are all real evidence.

Give significant projects their own section and describe each like a job: what it was, what you did, what tools you used and what the result was. Include a link where the work can be seen, such as a portfolio site or a code repository, and make sure what is behind the link is tidy, because recruiters in technical fields often click. A project that is unfinished or undocumented can do more harm than good, so select only the ones you are happy to discuss in detail.

If you have no project yet and a few weeks before applications close, starting one is often the most useful thing you can do. Choose something small enough to finish, relevant to the roles you want and visible to others. A completed modest project beats an ambitious one abandoned halfway.

Graduate skills sections often list abilities with no evidence and vague ratings, such as five stars for "communication" or 80 per cent for "Excel". These add nothing, because the reader cannot tell what they mean, and they can confuse applicant tracking systems. Instead, list concrete, checkable skills: specific software, programming languages, analytical methods, languages you speak and the level, and any relevant certifications.

Only list what you could demonstrate in an interview or a test. Graduate recruitment often includes practical assessments, and claiming advanced spreadsheet skills that you cannot use under test conditions will be exposed quickly. Soft skills such as teamwork and leadership are better shown through the bullets in your experience and project sections than claimed in a list.

Languages deserve a precise description. "Fluent" or "conversational" means more than a star rating, and if you hold a recognised language certificate, name it. For international employers, a second or third language can be a genuine differentiator.

Graduate CVs tend to fail in predictable ways. Checking for these before you apply takes ten minutes and removes most of the easy reasons to reject you: