CV template: Graduate with no experience

If you’re a recent graduate or on the cusp of completing your degree, you might be getting a little flustered about finding a job – especially if you have no work experience under your belt.

To make your life that little bit easier, we’ve worked with the experts at StandOut CV to produce a graduate with no experience CV template for you.

While this template will help you structure your CV in the most impressive way, remember it’s just a template. Therefore, use it as a structural guide, but make sure you give the bullet points your own personal spin. After all, recruiters want to get to know you, not a robotic carbon copy.

Use structure to your advantage

If you have no work experience, your degree is likely to be your biggest selling point. But no two degrees are the same, nor are the specialised skills or results.

Our template has ‘placements & projects’ section ahead of ‘Education & qualifications’. However, if you think your grades and qualifications are more impressive than your projects, feel free to switch the sections around.

Remember, the more impressive your achievement, the further up your CV it should sit.

Focus on transferable skills

Despite your limited experience in employment, remember that you have plenty of transferable skills to offer thanks to your degree.

That’s right; your three years of swotting got you more than just a shiny certificate.

Transferable skills, otherwise known as soft skills, are utilised in every role and every industry. And the best part is that you’ve developed a mountain of them through your degree.

Gave a group presentation? That’s teamwork, communication, leadership and presenting skills right there. Submitted your assignments on time? Well you developed time management and organisation skills, too.

Focus on your transferable skills in your CV and you’ll show any employer you’ve got more to offer than a brand new qualification.

Saving space

If you’re struggling to keep your CV to two pages, here are a few quick ways to make room.

Firstly, try narrowing the margins or removing the footer.

Secondly, try reducing the font size. However, make sure you don’t reduce your font size below 10 or recruiters will have to invest in a magnifying glass.

Lastly, try neatening up your grades into one line. For example, you might write your GCSE results like this:

10 GCSEs grades A* – C, including B in English and C in Maths.

We’ve included the English and Maths results because many employers list these qualifications as a requirement.