How to write a CV with no work experience, at any age

First, list what people have relied on you for

Having no formal job is not the same as having done nothing. Before you choose a layout, write down every situation in the last five years where someone depended on you to turn up, get something right or handle money, people or a deadline. Family, neighbours, a mosque, church or club, a charity, an online buyer: all of them count.

The National Careers Service suggests the same exercise in its guide to identifying skills: think about the skills you have gained in daily life, reflect on past education, and talk to people who know you well outside work for a different perspective. A friend will often name a strength you take for granted.

Four questions for each item on the list

1. Who relied on you, and for what?
2. How often, and for how long: weekly for two years, every day for six months?
3. What could have gone wrong if you had not done it?
4. What can you show: a certificate, a message of thanks, a shop page, a person willing to speak for you?

Where evidence comes from when you have never had a job

Each source below can carry a skill heading, provided you describe what actually happened and do not borrow a job title you never held.

The CV lines are illustrations of the form. Replace every detail with your own, or leave the line out.

Informal work: describe it, do not dress it up

"Helped in a relative's shop on Saturdays" is honest and still evidence of reliability and handling money. "Retail Supervisor" for the same thing invites a reference check that fails. The title should be what you would say out loud if the employer phoned the person concerned.

Home and caring: skills, not the story

Write the task, not the circumstances. "Coordinated hospital appointments and transport for a family member, 2021 to 2024" shows planning without telling the reader anything private. You decide whether to say more at interview.

The skills-based layout, section by section

Prospects describes the skills-based CV as particularly useful for recent graduates with limited work experience, and as a fit for people with gaps in their work history or unrelated jobs. CareerOneStop, the US Department of Labor career site, gives a precise recipe: start with a Skills section listing the three or four major skills for the job title you want, and under each one put your related experience. It adds that a summary at the top can highlight accomplishments from volunteer or community work and academic work that would not otherwise appear.

1. Name and contact details: phone, email and town.
2. Profile: two or three sentences on what you can do and the job you want.
3. Skills: three or four headings taken from the advert, each with two lines of evidence from the table above.
4. Volunteering and activities: a short dated list, newest first, so the reader sees when each thing happened.
5. Training and education: certificates and courses first if they are recent and relevant, then school.
6. References: a line saying they are available, once someone has agreed.

Take the headings from the advert

Prospects' own skills-based example uses headings such as Teamwork, Organisation, Communication and IT, and advises matching skills to the job description or person specification, as long as you can demonstrate them. If a warehouse advert asks for accuracy, reliability and working to deadlines, those are your three headings, not a generic list.

Keep a dated list at the bottom

A skills section on its own leaves the reader asking when any of it happened. The short dated list of volunteering, courses and informal work answers that, and stops the CV from looking as if something is being hidden.

Example: a skills-based CV for a first job at 31

Illustrative example. Amira Haddad and every detail below are invented; the lines show the form, not facts to copy.

• Amira Haddad · Bradford · 07700 900789 · amira.haddad@example.com
• Profile: Organised and calm under pressure, with eight years of running a busy household and two years of weekly food bank volunteering. Applying for a customer service adviser role, available Monday to Friday.
• Skill: Dealing with people. Greets and signs in about 60 food bank clients a shift, some distressed, and refers them to the right volunteer. Handled phone calls with the council, GP surgery and school for a family of five.
• Skill: Organisation. Planned weekly shopping, payments and appointments for six people, 2017 to 2025. Rebuilt the food bank volunteer rota in a shared spreadsheet after two missed shifts.
• Skill: Accuracy with money. Sold hand-made cards online, about 120 orders in 2025, keeping a monthly record of sales and postage costs.
• Skill: IT. Google Sheets and Docs, online banking and booking systems; typing about 40 words a minute, tested on a free online course.
• Volunteering and activities: Food bank volunteer, Bradford, Sep 2024 to present. Online card shop, Jan 2025 to present. School reading volunteer, 2019 to 2021.
• Training: Customer Service Level 2 certificate, adult education college, 2025. GCSEs in English and Maths, 2010.
• References: food bank coordinator, available on request.

What each heading proves to the employer

Free help and ways to add a first entry

• England: the National Careers Service says volunteering can help you develop new skills and get useful work experience, and points first-job applicants to skills from projects, work experience or volunteering. It also links to the DWP CV builder.
• England: the same service lists ways to find free courses and training, and says you might get support with funding or childcare while doing one.
• US: CareerOneStop says to have your resume reviewed by others and to contact your local American Job Center for professional resume feedback.
• Türkiye: İŞKUR runs on-the-job training programmes (işbaşı eğitim programları) for registered jobseekers to gain workplace experience; the Turkish version of this page covers the conditions.

A course or a structured volunteering role started now gives you a dated, checkable entry within weeks, and a coordinator who can act as a referee.

Proof: sources read on 13 October 2026

When another page fits you better

• You are at university now: the university student CV guide covers campus jobs, societies and your grades.
• You have just finished a degree: the new graduate CV guide puts the degree and dissertation first instead of a skills section.
• You are a teenager after a first part-time job: the high school student CV guide has the legal hours by age.
• You worked before and then stopped: the employment gap guide shows how to name a break in a dated history.
• You have years of jobs in another field: the career change CV uses a hybrid layout that keeps your job history visible.

Next steps

• Draft a three-paragraph cover letter: the job, the two strongest pieces of evidence, and when you can start.
• Ask the person behind each piece of evidence whether they will act as a referee.
• Check the finished file with the free checker on this page; it needs no account and reports missing contact details, unreadable dates and layouts a parser may misread.
• CitedCV builds a CV only from facts you give it and asks follow-up questions. With no jobs on file, one of them asks which project or task is closest to the job you want and what you personally did.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. CareerOneStop (US Department of Labor): Resumes and applicationswww.careeronestop.org/JobSearch/Resumes/resumes-and-applications.aspx
2. Prospects: Example CVs (May 2025)www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/example-cvs
3. Prospects: Skills-based CV example (May 2025)www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/example-cvs/skills-based-cv-example
4. National Careers Service: CV sectionsnationalcareers.service.gov.uk/careers-advice/cv-sections
5. National Careers Service: Identifying skills and upskillingnationalcareers.service.gov.uk/careers-advice/identifying-skills-and-upskilling/