Should I write a CV if I have never had a job?

Yes. Instead of employment history you describe your education, projects, courses, volunteering and any casual work. Employers hiring for entry-level and graduate roles expect this and are reading for potential, not a track record.

Should I include my grades or degree classification?

Include your degree classification (or GPA in the US) if it is good and you graduated recently. Individual module grades only if a specific one is relevant to the job. After two years of work nobody looks at them.

How long should a first CV be?

One page. Always. If you cannot fill it, that is a sign to add a project, not to widen the margins.

Is a part-time job in a shop or a restaurant worth listing?

Yes, especially if it is your only paid work. Describe it in terms an employer in your target field will recognise: handling cash and stock, dealing with complaints, working shifts to deadlines, training new staff. Reliability is the thing they are most worried about with a first hire.

Should I apply if I do not meet all the requirements?

For entry-level roles, usually yes. Job adverts describe the ideal candidate, and few applicants match every line. If you meet the essential requirements and can show something for the rest, apply and let the personal statement address the gap directly.

CV with no experience: what to write when there is nothing to write

A blank CV is rarely a lack of experience. It is usually a failure to recognise it. Almost everyone has more material than they think; it just did not come with a payslip.

Reorder the sections

A standard CV opens with work experience. Yours should open with education and skills, because right now they are your strongest material, and the experience section, however you fill it, comes after.

The personal statement at the top matters more here than anywhere else. It is where you explain why, despite the lack of a job history, you are a sensible candidate. Two or three sentences: what you are studying or have just finished, what you can actually do, and what kind of role you want. Employers recruiting for entry-level positions expect exactly this shape of CV; nobody is surprised by it.

What counts as experience

A recruiter is looking for evidence that you can see something through to the end and work with other people. A job is only one kind of evidence.

University projects, coursework and your dissertation, especially where there was a concrete output: a tool, a dataset, a report someone used, a presentation to an external audience.
Internships, placements and work shadowing, even short or unpaid ones. Describe what you did, not just that you were there.
Volunteering, student societies, sports teams and community roles. Treasurer of a society is finance experience. Organising a club's events is project management.
Courses and certifications that ended in a real project. The certificate alone weighs little; the project you built to earn it weighs more.
Part-time and casual work in retail, hospitality or warehousing. It proves reliability, customer contact and working under pressure, whatever field you are moving into.
Personal projects: a website, an app, an online shop, a YouTube channel, an open-source contribution, anything that exists and can be looked at.

How to write the personal statement

Keep it factual and specific. Say what you have done, not what kind of person you believe you are. The point is to give the reader one concrete reason to keep going.

Weak: "Highly motivated and enthusiastic graduate with excellent communication skills and a passion for learning, seeking an exciting opportunity to grow."
Strong: "Economics graduate (2:1, University of Leeds) with a year of part-time retail work and a dissertation on regional house-price data built in Python and Excel. Looking for a junior analyst role in property or finance."
Weak: "Career changer looking for a fresh start in a new industry."
Strong: "Secondary school teacher with eight years of experience moving into learning and development. Designed and delivered training to 30 staff a year, managed a department budget and completed a CIPD Level 5 in 2025."

Skills: be specific and be honest

List things a recruiter can verify or test: software, programming languages, spoken languages with a level, certifications, a driving licence if the job needs one. Leave out "hard-working", "team player" and "attention to detail"; every applicant claims them, so they carry no information.

Do not inflate. "Advanced Excel" will be tested in the interview, and "fluent Spanish" will be tested by the first Spanish-speaking colleague. Saying "working knowledge of Excel including pivot tables and VLOOKUP" is less impressive and far more useful, because the recruiter now knows exactly what they get. The same applies to the guide on how to write a CV generally: concrete beats grand every time.

Career changers: what transfers

If you are moving industries rather than starting from nothing, your problem is different. You have plenty of experience; it just has the wrong labels on it. Rewrite each previous role in the language of the new field. A nurse moving into medical sales has years of clinical conversations with patients and doctors. A chef moving into operations has run a team under time pressure with tight margins every night.

Lead with a summary that names the change openly and gives the reason. Then cut the details of the old career that do not transfer, however proud you are of them. A two-page CV of unrelated achievements reads as a mismatch; a one-page CV that draws the line from what you did to what they need reads as a plan.

What not to do

Do not write "no experience" anywhere. The sentence adds nothing except emphasis on the weakness. Do not pad the document with soft skills that nothing backs up. Do not stretch it to two pages; one good page beats two thin ones. Do not list every module from your degree, and do not include your secondary school once you have a degree.

And do not invent anything. Employment history is easy to check, and a stumble in the interview costs more than an honest gap. If the CV feels empty, the answer is a project or a volunteer role you can add in a month, not a job you never had.

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Frequently asked questions

Should I write a CV if I have never had a job?: Yes. Instead of employment history you describe your education, projects, courses, volunteering and any casual work. Employers hiring for entry-level and graduate roles expect this and are reading for potential, not a track record.
Should I include my grades or degree classification?: Include your degree classification (or GPA in the US) if it is good and you graduated recently. Individual module grades only if a specific one is relevant to the job. After two years of work nobody looks at them.
How long should a first CV be?: One page. Always. If you cannot fill it, that is a sign to add a project, not to widen the margins.
Is a part-time job in a shop or a restaurant worth listing?: Yes, especially if it is your only paid work. Describe it in terms an employer in your target field will recognise: handling cash and stock, dealing with complaints, working shifts to deadlines, training new staff. Reliability is the thing they are most worried about with a first hire.
Should I apply if I do not meet all the requirements?: For entry-level roles, usually yes. Job adverts describe the ideal candidate, and few applicants match every line. If you meet the essential requirements and can show something for the rest, apply and let the personal statement address the gap directly.