How to Write a Resume With No Experience (With an Example)
Everyone starts with an empty work history. A first resume works when it shows what you have done, in school, volunteering, part-time or family work, and connects it to the job you want.
What counts as experience
Experience isn't only paid, full-time jobs. On a first resume, anything where you had responsibilities and got something done counts:
- Part-time, seasonal and gig work: retail, food service, delivery, tutoring, lifeguarding, babysitting, pet sitting
- Volunteering: food banks, shelters, church or community events, fundraising
- School projects: group projects, lab work, a business plan, a website, a research paper
- Clubs, teams and leadership: team captain, club treasurer, event organizer
- Internships and job shadowing
- Things you run yourself: selling online, a small lawn-care business, a social media page you grew
- Courses and certificates: CPR/First Aid, food handler card, Google or Microsoft certificates
The order that works for a first resume
- Contact details: name, phone, a professional email, city and state. No full street address needed.
- Summary: two or three sentences about who you are and what you bring.
- Education: school, degree or diploma, expected graduation date. Add relevant courses or honors.
- Experience: any jobs first. If you have none, call this section "Projects and Volunteering".
- Skills: tools, languages and practical skills that match the posting.
- Certifications, if you have any.
Write a short summary
Say what you're studying or finishing, what you're good at, and what you want to do next. Keep it specific.
Business student at Lakeshore Community College with two years of part-time retail experience. Comfortable with cash handling, inventory counts and busy weekend shifts. Looking for an office assistant role where organization and customer service matter.
Turn school and volunteering into bullet points
Use the same formula as any job: an action verb, what you did, and a result. Numbers help, even small ones.
| Vague | Specific |
|---|---|
| Helped at the food bank | Sorted and packed donations for about 150 families each Saturday during the holiday drive |
| Did a group project | Led a 4-person team that built a budget plan for a campus coffee cart and presented it to faculty |
| Babysat | Cared for two children after school three days a week, including homework help and meals |
| Club treasurer | Tracked a $1,200 club budget in a spreadsheet and reported spending at monthly meetings |
Examples with made-up details. Use your own.
Pick skills that are true and useful
List the skills you would be comfortable using on your first day: Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, cash handling, scheduling, a second language, social media, basic bookkeeping. Show qualities like "hard-working" or "reliable" through your bullets instead of listing them.
A full example
A made-up person.
Maya Torres
(555) 014-2290 · maya.torres@email.com · Columbus, OH
Summary
Recent high school graduate with a year of part-time cashier experience and weekend volunteering. Friendly with customers, careful with money and quick to learn new systems.
Experience
Cashier, Greenfield Market, Columbus, OH · 2025 – Present
• Served 80 to 100 customers per shift and balanced the register at close
• Trained two new cashiers on the point-of-sale system
Volunteer, Eastside Food Pantry · 2024 – Present
• Sorted donations and restocked shelves for Saturday distributions
Education
High School Diploma, Northland High School, 2025 · Honor roll, 3 semesters
Skills
Cash handling · Customer service · Google Sheets · Spanish (conversational)
Mistakes to avoid
- An email address you made up in middle school: create a simple firstname.lastname one
- A photo, birth date or marital status: US employers don't expect them
- "References available upon request": it takes space and says nothing
- Stretching to two pages: one page is right for a first resume
- Typos: read it out loud, then ask someone else to read it