How to Write a Resume With No Experience: Examples & Guide

No work experience? No problem! Everyone needs a resume for their first job, but figuring out how to write one without a work history can feel overwhelming.

The good news is that building a strong resume with no experience is easier than you might think when you know how to highlight your strengths and tailor them to each role you apply for.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to make a resume with no experience by focusing on transferable skills and activities that showcase your value and help you land more interviews.

How to Make a Resume for a First Job

When creating a resume with no prior work experience, focus on your skills, education, and relevant accomplishments from internships, class projects, courses, volunteer experiences, and extracurricular activities. Let’s explore how to create a resume with no experience.

STEP 1Choose a Format for Your First Resume

Here’s a secret many first-time job seekers don’t know: choosing the right resume format can significantly improve your chances of landing interviews—even without work experience. 

For a beginner's resume, the functional resume format is typically the best choice because it emphasizes skills rather than work history. 

This format also offers flexibility in how you present your qualifications. For example, you can group skills into targeted categories to highlight what’s most relevant for each role and place your education section near the top of your resume to make it more visible.

STEP 2Select a Professional Resume Template

Writing a resume with no work experience can feel daunting. That’s why resume templates are incredibly useful tools for writing a first resume.

They make it easier to create a professional resume by providing a clear framework that organizes your information and highlights your qualifications. Here's an example:

Build my resume

Zoom

What’s more, resume templates save time by ensuring your resume is ATS-friendly, properly formatted, and visually appealing. This way, you can focus on tailoring your resume for the job you want. See how to make an ATS-friendly resume for additional tips and tricks.

STEP 3Prepare Your Information

Having your job information ready will save you time in the long run, so you can confidently put your best foot forward. To prepare your beginner resume, review the job description carefully and note the requirements. Then, think carefully and honestly about what you offer; you might be surprised!

You could discover that you picked up skills and work experience through activities such as: 

• School activities like participating in sports or the school orchestra
• Clubs or organizations, like the student council or a college sorority/fraternity
• Community activities, such as volunteering at a soup kitchen
• Hobbies like writing, photography, or leading a neighborhood group

As you reflect on your experiences, make note of awards, honors, and other significant accomplishments, like graduating magna cum laude or becoming student body president.

Consider the skills you gained through those experiences, especially transferable skills such as research, organization, and teamwork, and interpersonal skills like communication and active listening, which are useful beginner skills for a resume. 

Next, match all those skills and experiences you have acquired and your unique personality with the job requirements.

STEP 4Add Your Contact Information

When you make a resume with no experience, include a header with contact information so recruiters and potential employers can reach you. Consider adding a resume headline under your name to boost your resume. Your contact information must be professional, up to date, and easy to find.

Include the following information: 

STEP 5Highlight Strengths in Your Objective Statement

Start strong with a resume objective that explains your goals for the job and highlights some of your job-relevant skills. Here's an example of a no-experience resume objective: 

Notice how this example objective for a resume with no experience displays a mix of hard (curriculum development), soft (communication skills), and technical skills (innovative teaching methods).

It also tells the potential employer exactly what the job applicant’s goals are: “Eager to support students’ academic and personal growth….”

STEP 6Showcase Transferable Skills

Focus on 5 to 10 relevant skills in your resume skills section. This way, you’re emphasizing your qualifications without overwhelming the recruiter or hiring manager.

Create a targeted resume by matching your skills to the job requirements. Take this sample resume skills section, for instance:

Browse our collection of resume examples for more ideas about how to write a resume with no job experience. You’re sure to find several resume examples for a first job to inspire you!

STEP 7Emphasize Your Education

Display your educational background prominently to emphasize your readiness for the job. Highlight relevant coursework, academic awards and honors, scholarships, or participation in study abroad programs in this section. Your education section should look like this:

STEP 8Add Certifications or Licenses

If you are working toward or have specialized certifications and licenses for a job like nursing, accounting, or teaching, you can create a separate section on your resume labeled “Licenses and Certifications” and place it just below your education section. 

Create a bullet point for every license or certification you have and list them in reverse-chronological order, including: 

Here’s an example of how to list certifications on a resume: 

STEP 9Include Relevant Experience

The trick to filling out a first job resume work experience section is to think of work experience in broader terms. Look at your notes, and you will likely find at least one experience to add.

Relevant work experience can come from:

Hiring managers want to know your contributions. For each experience you add to your first resume, add one to three bullet points that highlight measurable accomplishments.

For even more impact, start every bullet point with an action verb. For example, “Implemented a new customer feedback system, resulting in a 20% increase in overall customer satisfaction scores within the first 3 months of its launch.”

Here are some action words you can include in your resume: 

STEP 10Add Optional Sections to Stand Out

STEP 11Proofread Your First Resume

Typos and grammatical errors are the most common and costly mistakes. 

After you finish writing your resume, proofread it more than once and ask someone else to check it for you before sending it to a potential employer. 

STEP 12Save & Download Your Resume

Making a resume with no experience is about more than how you organize and write it. A polished first-job resume means you also have to name your document professionally and save it in an appropriate file format for the job.

To save your resume, check the job description for the best file type. If a file type is not requested, DOCXs or PDFs are safe choices because most ATS software can read them and most companies prefer them.

Use this formula to name your resume: Your Name-Job Title-Resume-Company Name-Date.

Here's a handy checklist to ensure you have everything you need in your resume: 

Take Your Resume to the Next Level

Our Resume Builder can help you elevate your first resume with professional templates and content suggestions tailored to your target role. 

Build my resume

No-Experience Resume Examples & Templates

Below, you’ll find beginner-friendly resume templates and examples designed to help you stand out and make a strong first impression with employers.

Food Service

Build my resume

Zoom

Retail

Build my resume

Zoom

Flight Attendant

Build my resume

Zoom

Security Guard

Build my resume

Zoom

Babysitter

Build my resume

Zoom

Accountant

Build my resume

Zoom

Bartender

Build my resume

Zoom

Software Developer

Build my resume

Zoom

Marketing

Build my resume

Zoom

Web Developer

Build my resume

Zoom

Formatting Tips for a Resume With No Experience

To start, here are some basic formatting tips to ensure your resume looks polished and professional, as well as easily readable:

• Set margins to 1 inch on all sides of your document.
• Choose an appropriate resume font type and size and stick to it throughout your resume. Good font choices are Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, and Times New Roman in 12-point size.
• Ensure proper spacing between sections of your document. The best practice is to use a single space, but adding extra space between section headers and section body text can sometimes look better, depending on font type and how much content you add to your resume.
• Left-align your page content.
• Use bullet points to emphasize your skills and achievements.

Create a Cover Letter for Your First Job

Landing a job interview takes more than a perfect first job resume. If you want to beat the competition, you need a strong cover letter to complement your resume. 

Writing a strong cover letter shows motivation and allows you to tell employers more about your background than a resume can, a bonus for first-job applicants. 

Use a cover letter as a chance to introduce yourself and connect with prospective employers by telling them why you want the job and why you are the best match for it. 

We can show you how to write a cover letter inspired by our professional cover letter examples. When you’re ready, choose a template and use our Cover Letter Generator to effortlessly make a professional cover letter with no experience.

Key Takeaways

Now you know how to build a resume with no experience! But before you run off to build the perfect resume and cover letter, take these key points about writing a resume with no experience:

1. The functional resume format is the best option for a resume with no experience because it highlights your relevant skills rather than your work experience.
2. When creating a resume with no job experience, transferable skills are your best friends.
3. Most companies use ATS to screen resumes, which can only read resumes with standard formatting.
4. Add optional resume sections like awards or important coursework if they apply to you, and you can’t fit them into other sections of your resume.
5. A resume template, combined with our Resume Builder, is the easiest and fastest way to make a resume with no experience.