When you're writing your first job application, you might feel like you'll never get the job because you've recently graduated and have no work experience yet. No need to worry, though. If that were true, then nobody would ever get employed. All you need to do is tweak the structure of your resume a little bit to highlight what you can offer, instead of emphasizing the things you lack, such as on-the-job experience.
Where to Start When Writing Your First Resume with No Work Experience
First things first, take a look at our various guides on how to write a job application portfolio, how to write a resume (and what information to put into it), and how to write a cover letter. These guides contain a lot of helpful information that you can customize with the information in this guide to suit your situation, especially if you have no relevant job experience.
Likewise, while experienced workers will want to include a resume summary at the top of their resume, you'll want to use a resume objective instead. An objective statement is designed to go into more detail about your personal motivation for applying for the job, which is helpful when you can't demonstrate your value to the employer through your job experience. You can find more information and inspiration in our guide on how to write an objective statement.
How Do I Know If My Job Experience Is Relevant?
It's easy to assume that your babysitting experience isn't a "proper job" and shouldn't be put into your resume. But that's not always true. To determine if your job experience is relevant to the position you're applying for, start by carefully reviewing the job listing. You'll notice that these listings provide a very convenient list of skills and traits that your future employer values.
Perhaps the job listing is for someone "willing to work long hours," or perhaps it's a "customer-facing position". This translates to resilience under pressure and good social skills, respectively. Now look at your previous jobs, even if they were "just" summer jobs or part-time jobs. Did any of them require you to have those same qualities? If you've worked as a waiter or waitress, you've probably had to demonstrate social skills, not to mention being able to work under pressure.
If you're applying for a job after a long period of unemployment, make sure that your resume accounts for that time and doesn't contain any gaps. It is irrelevant if you took time off to raise your children or lost your job and were unable to find another employment opportunity for a while. What counts is that you are open and honest about it—while highlighting your positive attributes, skills, and abilities on your resume.
If you find a correlation between what your future employer expects and what you've been able to demonstrate, that's valuable information for your resume—even if you "only" worked part-time during the summer. Just make sure you still emphasize your educational history and put your work history section below that on your resume.
Are My Extracurricular Activities Relevant?
You don’t need professional experience to show future employers that you possess the qualities they seek. If you've been active in a book club, you can use that to illustrate your love for books, your ability to understand complex texts, and your organizational abilities. These are great qualities for working at a library, as a copywriter for the local paper, or even to start training as an editor at a publishing house.
Only include personal hobbies in your resume if they directly relate to the job you're applying for or demonstrate transferable skills.
Make sure, though, that there's an actual, demonstrable connection between the skills you've gained through your extracurricular activities and the requirements of the job you're applying for. It's probably a bit far-fetched to claim you're the perfect choice for an accountancy job just because you handled money as a waiter or waitress, for example.
Likewise, think about whether certain hobbies and extracurricular activities could hurt your application. If you enjoy playing video games in your free time, a recruiter from a young start-up might understand that this could mean you have computer skills; however, a recruiter from a law firm might wonder why you're even mentioning your hobbies. In that case, it might be more useful to bring up any clubs you've participated in, as this demonstrates your ability to work within established structures and hierarchies.
Are Internships and Volunteer Work Relevant?
Volunteer work and internships are absolutely relevant for your resume. Even if these are not directly related to the job you’re applying for, having worked voluntarily or having completed internships outside of what may have been required by your school or college demonstrates your drive to succeed. Always include these experiences in your resume and highlight the specific tasks and responsibilities you undertook during your internship or volunteer work.
What About My Academic Achievements?
If you're entirely new to the workforce, your academic achievements are a significant part of your resume. This includes any honors you received during your education, such as awards for projects you've worked on in specialized courses. You could also mention any Latin honors you earned as part of your graduation, such as "magna cum laude" or "summa cum laude", which show that you graduated among the top percentage of graduates from your college.
You can add such titles and awards as part of your education history section:
Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics
New York University | New York City, NY 2023–2025
How to Write a Functional Resume That Focuses on Your Skills
You should now have a solid understanding of how to write a resume with no job experience to show for, using the traditional resume format. However, there is another option that's increasingly popular among career changers and those entering the workforce with little to no work experience: the so-called "functional resume".
Functional resumes include all the typical sections you'd generally find in a resume:
- Personal details
- Resume objective
- Skills and abilities
- Education history
- Job experience
- Optional: hobbies
The main distinction here is that you'll want to keep your work experience (and perhaps even your education history) sections very brief, while putting more focus on your skills and abilities section. If you choose a functional resume format, you'll still need to list all your education stages and relevant work experience, but you don't have to add bullet points describing them in greater detail. It's enough to mention the name of the school or workplace, its location, and the time frame—and, if applicable, your GPA if it's above 3.5.
This provides you with more space to detail your skills and abilities. You should also emphasize this part of your resume by placing your skills and abilities section before your education/work history sections, or by visually highlighting that part of your resume. For example, you could use a different-colored background for your skills and abilities section.
The primary purpose of a functional resume is to draw your recruiter's attention away from your limited job experience. This is particularly useful for highlighting your skills and soft skills. In a traditional resume, your skills are usually linked to specific education or work experiences. However, by grouping all your skills into a "skills and abilities" section, this helps recruiters find the information they need without having to sift through each individual bullet point in your educational/work history sections.
Here’s an Example of a Functional Resume’s Skills and Abilities Section
If you're choosing a functional resume because you have no experience to showcase, you should first try to identify which of your skills are relevant to the job. Refer to our skills and abilities guide for ideas on how you can identify them. Once that's done, you can structure your resume like this:
If you want to highlight your skills and abilities even more, or if you lack strong examples that demonstrate your skills, you can also use the available space on your resume by adding a visual representation of your (estimated) skill level.
For example, you might create a scale of one to four underneath each skill, represented by four boxes that you fill in based on your judgment of your level of ability (fill all four boxes for skills you excel at). This provides your recruiter with a visual cue of your level of expertise, though you should be prepared to discuss how you determined this during your job interview. Recruiters know that this is just a self-assessment with no objective basis, but if you can confidently justify your assessments, this can earn you valuable points during the interview.
Learn How to Write a Resume with No Job Experience
If you're new to the job market and have no work experience, don't worry! Everyone had to start somewhere. Focus on presenting yourself in a positive light and avoid aiming for the stars by applying for a high-profile position straight away. Remember that the goal of your resume is to stand out from other applications and catch your recruiter's attention.
You can accomplish this by tailoring your resume specifically to the job you're applying for and highlighting your "selling points" for the employer. You have limited work experience? Then keep that part of your resume shorter and focus on other aspects, such as your educational achievements or general skills and abilities. You'll find there are more employers than you think who are willing to give a chance to someone entering the job market for the first time, or after a long absence.