The short answer
Lead with what you do have: education, projects, internships, volunteering and skills. Open with a short summary that names the role you want, move Education above Experience, and describe projects and activities the way you would describe a job, with what you did and what came of it. One page is enough.
Updated September 30, 2026
What counts as experience
Employers hiring for entry-level roles don't expect a long work history. They want signs that you can learn, show up and finish things. Plenty of what you've already done shows that, even if nobody paid you for it.
- School or university projects, a thesis or a final-year assignment.
- Internships, work placements and job shadowing.
- Volunteering and community work.
- Part-time, weekend and seasonal jobs, even in an unrelated field.
- Clubs, sports teams and student associations, especially if you held a role.
- Personal projects: a website, a shop, an event you organised, a channel you run.
- Courses and certificates you completed outside your studies.
Order the sections around your strengths
A resume puts the strongest material first. With little work history, that usually means this order:
- Contact details: name, phone, a professional email address, city, and LinkedIn or a portfolio if you have one.
- Summary: two or three lines on what you're looking for and what you bring.
- Education: degree or diploma, school, dates, and relevant subjects or a strong grade.
- Projects or relevant experience: internships, volunteering and projects, described like jobs.
- Skills: the tools, languages and methods the job ad mentions and you can actually use.
- Extras: languages, certifications, awards.
Write a summary that names the job
A vague opening line wastes the most-read part of the page. Say what you studied or did, what you can do, and which role you want.
Hard-working and motivated student looking for an opportunity to grow.
Business graduate with a 3-month marketing internship and two campaign projects. Looking for a junior marketing role where I can use my copywriting and analytics skills.
Describe activities like jobs
Give each activity a title, an organisation and dates, then one to three bullets that start with a verb and end with a result. Numbers help, even small ones.
Member of the university debate club
Treasurer, University Debate Club · 09/2024 – 06/2025 Managed a $2,400 budget and organised 3 regional tournaments for 120 participants
Match the job ad
Read the ad and mark the skills and tasks it repeats. Where you truly have them, use the same words on your resume. Applicant tracking systems and recruiters both search for those terms, and a short resume that matches the ad beats a longer generic one.
What to leave out
- A "References available on request" line. Employers ask when they need them.
- Skills you couldn't answer a question about in an interview.
- Filler added only to reach a second page.
- Every school subject and grade. Keep the ones that relate to the job.
Checklist
- The summary names the role you want
- Education sits above experience
- Projects, volunteering and activities have dates and results
- Skills match the job ad and are ones you can show
- Everything fits on one page with no typos