By Haseeb Kamran, Founder of VeloApply, 8+ years in recruiting · Updated July 24, 2026 · 8 min read
Quick answer: Lead with a short summary of what you can do, then use education, projects, coursework, volunteering and part-time work as your evidence sections. Describe each one with what you did and what resulted, not just what it was called. A first resume looks empty when it lists titles instead of outcomes, not because the person lacks material.
Key takeaways
- No experience almost never means no evidence. It means the evidence is not in job form yet.
- Lead with a short summary of what you can do, because you have no job titles doing that work for you.
- Projects, coursework, volunteering and part-time work are all legitimate evidence sections.
- Describe each item with the situation, what you did, and what resulted. Titles alone say nothing.
- Part-time and unrelated work still demonstrates reliability, customer handling and working under pressure.
- Tailor the wording to each posting, because a first resume has less margin for a generic version.
- Keep it to one page and keep the formatting simple so it parses correctly.
On this page
What counts as experience when you have no jobs
The phrase "no experience" is almost always inaccurate. What people mean is that they have no paid full-time roles in the field they are applying to.
These all count as evidence, and employers hiring at entry level know it:
- Academic projects. Especially anything with a defined problem and a result.
- Personal projects. Something you built, wrote, organised or ran because you wanted to.
- Coursework with a deliverable. Not the module name, the thing you produced in it.
- Volunteering. Real responsibility, often with less supervision than a paid role.
- Part-time and unrelated work. Retail and hospitality demonstrate reliability, pressure handling and dealing with difficult people.
- Societies, clubs and teams. Especially any role where you organised others.
- Freelance or informal work. Including things you did for family businesses or friends.
The gap is not usually material. It is that people list these as titles and stop.
The structure that works for a first resume
A standard resume leads with work history because that is the strongest evidence. Yours should lead with whatever your strongest evidence actually is.
- Contact details. Name, email, phone, city, LinkedIn.
- Summary. Three or four lines. What you can do, what you are looking for.
- Education. Degree, institution, dates, and any relevant modules or results worth naming.
- Projects. Usually your strongest section. Give it real space.
- Experience. Any work at all, paid or unpaid, including unrelated roles.
- Skills. Specific tools and abilities, not adjectives.
- Additional. Languages, certifications, relevant activities.
Keep it to one page. A first resume padded to two pages signals padding, not depth.
Writing the summary when you have no track record
The summary matters more for you than for an experienced candidate, because you have no job titles doing the explaining.
A weak summary describes what you are: "Recent graduate seeking an entry-level marketing position." That tells the reader nothing they could not see from the education section.
A stronger one describes what you can do and points at evidence: what you studied, what you built with it, and what you want to do next. Three or four lines, specific, no adjectives about being passionate or hardworking.
The test: could this summary belong to any other graduate of your course? If yes, it is not doing its job.
How to describe a project so it reads as experience
This is where most first resumes lose. A project listed as a title is invisible. The same project described properly reads as real work.
Use three elements for each item:
- The situation. What was the problem or brief?
- What you did. Your specific actions and the tools you used.
- The result. What happened, what was produced, what was learned or measured.
The result element is the one people skip, and it is the one that turns an activity into evidence. Even without a number, "which the team used for the final submission" or "which is still in use by the society" says more than a title.
Our guide on the STAR method covers the same structure applied to interview answers, and it is worth learning once for both.
Using unrelated work properly
People hide their retail or hospitality jobs when applying for office roles. That is a mistake, provided you describe them for what they demonstrate rather than what they were.
What a shift in a busy shop or restaurant actually shows:
- Turning up reliably, on time, under conditions nobody enjoys.
- Handling frustrated people without escalating.
- Working accurately when it is busy.
- Learning systems and processes quickly.
- Working in a team of people you did not choose.
Those are genuine workplace skills, and a hiring manager for an entry-level role reads them as such. What matters is that you write the skill, not just the job title.
Mistakes that make a first resume look empty
| Mistake | Do this instead |
|---|---|
| Listing project titles with no detail | Situation, action, result for each one |
| Adjectives instead of evidence | Replace hardworking and passionate with something you did |
| Hiding unrelated jobs | Include them and describe the transferable skills |
| Padding to two pages | One strong page |
| A generic version sent everywhere | Adjust the summary and skills per posting |
| Heavy design templates | Simple single-column layout that parses cleanly |
That last row matters more than it looks. Graphic templates with columns and text boxes frequently fail to parse in applicant tracking systems. Our guide on ATS resume format explains what survives and what does not.
A note on honesty
There is a real temptation to inflate a thin resume. Do not.
Not primarily for moral reasons, though those apply. Practically: everything on your resume becomes an interview question. A described project you did not really run collapses under two follow-up questions, and it takes your credibility with it.
Framing your experience well is not exaggeration. Saying you organised a society event that had two hundred attendees is fine if you organised it. Saying you led a team of ten when you were one of ten is not.
The difference is whether the sentence would survive someone asking "tell me more about that." Once your resume is written, run it through our resume score tool against a real posting to see how it reads against the requirements.
This is not only an ethical point. Indeed's Job Seeker Guidelines require you to be truthful about who you are and not to pretend to be someone else or falsely represent yourself, and breaking the rules can result in an account being closed. Presenting a class project as a job is on the wrong side of that line. Presenting it clearly as a project is not.
Frequently asked questions
What do you put on a resume with no work experience?
Lead with a short summary of what you can do, then use education, projects, coursework with deliverables, volunteering, societies and any part-time or unrelated work as your evidence sections. Describe each with what the situation was, what you did, and what resulted.
How long should a resume be with no experience?
One page. A first resume stretched to two pages signals padding rather than depth. One well-structured page with properly described projects is stronger than two thin ones.
Should I include part-time or unrelated jobs?
Yes. Retail, hospitality and similar work demonstrates reliability, handling difficult people, accuracy under pressure and learning systems quickly. Describe the transferable skills rather than only the job title.
Do academic projects count as experience?
Yes, particularly for entry-level roles where employers expect limited work history. Describe the brief, your specific contribution, the tools you used, and the outcome. A well-described project reads as real work; a project title alone reads as nothing.
How do I write a resume summary with no experience?
Three or four lines describing what you can do and what you are looking for, pointing at your strongest evidence. Avoid stating only that you are a recent graduate seeking a role, since that adds nothing beyond your education section. Test it by asking whether it could belong to any other graduate of your course.
Is it okay to exaggerate slightly on a first resume?
No. Everything on a resume becomes an interview question, and a claim you cannot support in detail damages your credibility more than a modest resume would have. Framing your genuine experience well is not exaggeration; claiming responsibility you did not have is.
Keep reading
The ATS resume format that parses cleanly →
How to use the STAR method →
Build a resume free →
Check your resume score against any job →
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