What replaces experience
A course or a certification
A qualification, a professional certificate, a short course, a MOOC you completed: with the skills you gained.
Concrete projects
Course projects, volunteering, a personal project, helping out in a family business. What you produced counts.
Transferable skills
Organisation, customer relations, rigour, teamwork: drawn from other settings, and always illustrated.
Experience in another field
For a career change, your previous job is still an asset: show what carries over to the new role.
A profile summary that makes them read on
Two or three lines at the top of the CV, written for this role.
- First job: "BTS in SME Management, comfortable with invoicing tools and supplier relations. Looking for a first role as an administrative assistant in Annecy."
- Career change: "Ten years in hospitality, three of them as front-of-house manager. Training in web development (professional qualification in progress), looking for a first front-end developer role."
- Return to work: "After a three-year break, trained in basic accounting and Excel. Available immediately for an accounts assistant role."
No fake experience to fill a gap: a period without work is easy to explain, an invented role gets found out at interview.
The sections, in the right order
Header and summary
Name, target role, contact details, then the two or three lines above.
Skills
Placed high up, since they are what qualifies you. The tools and know-how asked for in the ad, actually practised.
Education and certifications
The most recent and most relevant to the role first.
Projects and experience
Anything that shows those skills in action, even outside paid work.
Interests and commitments
Optional, useful if they strengthen your application.
Mistakes to avoid
Apologising for your background
"Despite my lack of experience" has no place on a CV. Talk about what you do have.
A list of qualities with no proof
Dynamic, motivated, rigorous: show them with an example, don't just claim them.
A generic CV
With no experience, tailoring to each job matters even more: reuse the terms from the ad that you genuinely master.
Make your CV with Joblio
A guided form
Joblio asks you the right questions and helps you write up your projects and skills. The AI rephrases, it never invents a job or a qualification.
One CV per job
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Free, on one page
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Frequently asked
questions
How do I write a CV if I have never worked?
Highlight your education, your projects, your volunteering and the skills you gained from them, with an example for each. A clear summary says straight away which role you are after.
Should I hide a period without work?
No. A gap can stay unexplained on the CV, or be summed up in one line (training, personal project, family reasons). It is easy to talk about at interview.
Can a CV with no experience fit on one page?
Yes, and it should. One page full of facts beats two padded pages.
Can I include a course I am still taking?
Yes, with the expected end date. It shows you are training for the job you want.
See also
Apprenticeship CV
Writing a CV for an apprenticeship: what employers read first, your schedule and course, example wording and a free one-page template.
Student CV
Writing a student CV when your background is short: sections, making the most of internships, jobs and projects, mistakes to avoid, a free template.
Create a free CV
Make a free CV online: what to include, mistakes to avoid, one-page templates that recruitment software can read. No sign-up needed to start.
Your next application, ready in a few minutes
Drop in your CV, see the result, and only create your free account to download it. No card needed.