How to Write a CV With No Experience (Fresh Graduate Guide)

Recruiters often spend less than a minute on a CV before deciding whether to read on. When you have no formal work experience, your CV has to show something else: that you are capable, reliable and ready to learn. The good news is that you have more to show than you think.

The layout that works

Keep it to one page, or two at most. Use a clean layout with clear headings and plenty of white space. Use this order:

1. Contact details: full name, phone number, a professional email address, your town, and a LinkedIn link if you have one.
2. Profile: three or four lines about who you are and what you are looking for.
3. Education: your highest qualification first.
4. Experience: attachment, internships, volunteering, part-time work, projects.
5. Skills
6. Achievements, leadership and activities
7. Referees

You can build this layout in minutes with our free CV builder. It works on your phone and lets you download the result as a PDF or Word file.

Write a profile that says something

Avoid empty lines such as "hard-working, self-motivated team player". Every applicant writes them. Be specific instead:

Business Administration graduate (Second Class Upper) from Moi University with three months' attachment in the finance office of a county government. Comfortable with Excel and basic bookkeeping. Looking for an entry-level role in accounts or administration.

Turn what you have done into experience

Experience does not have to be a paid job. Include:

• Industrial attachment or internships
• Volunteering with a church, NGO, youth group or community project
• Helping in a family business
• Part-time or casual work, such as sales, tutoring or an M-Pesa shop
• Final-year projects and research
• Student leadership: class rep, club official, event organiser

For each one, write two or three bullet points describing what you did and what changed because of it. Start each bullet with an action word and include numbers where you can:

• Weak: "Responsible for filing."
• Strong: "Organised and digitised over 400 supplier files, making documents faster to find during the annual audit."

Education: give it detail

Because education is your strongest section, add more than the course name. Include your grade or class, relevant units, your final project title and any awards. For school leavers, include your KCSE mean grade and the subjects relevant to the job.

Skills: be honest and specific

List skills you can prove in an interview: "Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP)", "Customer service", "Kiswahili and English (fluent)", "Canva", "Driving licence (class B)". Avoid rating yourself with stars or percentages; they mean nothing to a recruiter.

What to leave out

• Your ID number, date of birth, religion, tribe and marital status. Employers do not need these to shortlist you, and you can share them later if asked.
• A photo, unless the advert asks for one.
• Primary school details, once you have a secondary or higher qualification.
• Hobbies that say nothing about you. "Reading and travelling" adds little; "Captain of the university chess team" says a lot.

Referees

Give two or three referees: a lecturer, your attachment supervisor, or someone you volunteered with. Ask their permission first and let them know which jobs you are applying for, so they are ready if called.

Tailor it for each job

Read the advert and make sure the skills and experience it asks for appear clearly on your CV, using the same words where they are true for you. Many employers scan for keywords. A CV tailored to the job will nearly always beat a generic one.

Final checks

• No spelling mistakes. Ask someone else to read it.
• Save it as a PDF named with your name, for example Jane-Wanjiru-CV.pdf.
• Check that your phone number and email are correct.

Once your CV is ready, browse entry-level jobs and internships and graduate programmes. If you would rather have a professional write it for you, see our CV writing service.