How to write a resume with no work experience

How to write a resume with no experience, step by step

Follow these five steps to put together your first resume, even if you have never had a job:

1. Write a summary aimed at the job. Sum up in two or three sentences what you study or have studied, what you can do and what kind of role you are looking for.
2. Put your education first. Without work experience, your education is your strongest card: place it right after your summary, most recent first.
3. Add internships, projects and volunteering. Describe each one as if it were a job: what you did, which tools you used and how much responsibility you had.
4. Highlight skills, languages and certifications. Include the skills you have really mastered, your language level and the courses or certifications you can prove.
5. Tailor your resume to each job. Put first what best fits the role and use the terms from the job posting when they describe something you have actually done.

Which sections to include

Having no work experience does not mean having nothing to say. Almost everything you did while studying has a place on your resume:

In Beatjob you can turn on only the sections you need (Internships, Projects, Volunteering, Certifications, Achievements or Languages, among others) and reorder them by dragging, so the most relevant content comes first.

How to present your education, internships and projects

Describe each degree, internship or project as if it were a job: what you did, which tools you used and how much responsibility you had. That way the recruiter sees concrete skills instead of a list of titles.

Education

Besides the degree, the school and the dates, mention the courses, assignments or tools that best match the job. If you have strong grades or a scholarship, add it under Achievements.

Internships

Describe the tasks you actually did, starting with a verb: “Assisted with the monthly bank reconciliation in the accounting department” says much more than “Accounting internship”. If you only helped out, say “assisted” or “contributed to”, not “managed”.

Academic and personal projects

A thesis, your own website or an app built in class shows what you can do. Explain what it is about, which part you did if it was a group project and which tools you used.

Volunteering and activities

Volunteering shows commitment and skills such as working with people, organization and teamwork. Describe it with the same care as a job.

Highlight your skills without exaggerating

Include the skills you could demonstrate in an interview or a technical test. A short, honest list is more convincing than a long one full of things you have not mastered.

That is also the advice of EURES, the European employment services network: when you have limited experience, focus on your skills rather than the positions you have held, including those you gained through your studies or part-time jobs, and only mention the ones relevant to the job.

• Use the exact names of tools: “Excel”, “Canva”, “Python”, not “computer skills”.
• State your language level honestly and, if you have an official certificate, add it under Certifications.
• Soft skills (teamwork, organization) are more believable when they show up inside your internships, projects or volunteering.

To describe each experience accurately, check our list of action verbs.

Tailor your first resume to each job

Your first resume deserves care: according to Eurostat, in August 2026 the unemployment rate for people under 25 was 15.4% in the European Union, more than double the overall euro area rate of 6.4%. With so much competition for entry-level jobs, a generic resume has fewer chances than one tailored to each posting.

Tailoring your resume means putting first what best fits each role and using the terms from the job posting when they describe something you have actually done. Many companies screen applications with an ATS, so those terms matter.

You can see which terms each industry tends to look for in our guide to ATS keywords by industry and learn how these filters work in the ATS guide. For more ideas on structure, read our resume writing tips.

Frequently asked questions about resumes with no experience

Sources

• EURES, the European employment services network, “Four tips for writing a CV when you have limited experience” (February 2021)
• Eurostat, “Euro area unemployment at 6.4%”, August 2026 data (October 2026)