Free template
CV and résumé template with no work experience
First-job applicants, school leavers and students applying for internships or learnerships.
Sduella ·
A first-job CV needs to show what you can do. A school project, a volunteer shift or helping in a family business can provide evidence if you explain your own work. Label that experience accurately; paid employment is not the only useful evidence.
The download uses one column, ordinary headings and editable text. Start with the job advert, choose the requirements you can demonstrate, and move those examples near the top. In South Africa and the UK this document is usually called a CV; for most US job applications it is a résumé. An academic CV has a different purpose and usually needs more detail.
Modelo de currículo em português (Brasil)
What is in the template
Replace the square-bracket prompts with your own information and remove sections you do not need.
Your full name [City or town] | [Phone] | [Email] | [Portfolio or LinkedIn if useful] PROFILE [Your current qualification or training.] [One relevant skill supported by an example.] [The kind of role you are applying for.] EDUCATION [Qualification] — [School, college or university] [Dates or expected completion date] [Relevant subjects, modules or completed practical work] PROJECTS AND EXPERIENCE [Project, volunteer activity or informal work] — [Dates] • [What you personally did, the tool or method you used, and what happened.] • [A second task relevant to this application.] SKILLS [Skill] — [Where you used it and what you can do without help] [Skill] — [Where you used it and what you can do without help] COURSES OR CERTIFICATES [Completed course, provider and completion date — remove this section if unused] REFERENCES [Provide references in the format requested by the employer. Ask the person before sharing their contact details.]
Build the CV from the advert
Underline the actual tasks in the advert. For a junior administrator, these might be recording information, using spreadsheets and answering enquiries. Beside each task, write one example from your own experience. Use those notes to choose what belongs in the CV.
A useful bullet names the task and your part in it. You can describe the size of the work when you know it: the number of records, the length of a project or the frequency of a shift. If you do not have a measured result, describe an observable outcome instead of inventing a percentage.
Edit the sections to fit your situation
- Keep education near the top while it is your strongest relevant evidence.
- Use a heading such as Projects and volunteering when that describes your experience more accurately than Employment.
- Remove empty sections and all square-bracket prompts before sending.
- Keep contact details as text. Follow the employer's requested file format and filename.
- Check the exported PDF as well as the editable document; a second page should contain useful material, not one stray line.
Choose the file format and filename
Check the application instructions for Word or PDF. Save the requested version with a clear name such as YourName_CV.pdf. Open it once after saving and check page breaks, contact details and the final line of each section.
Illustrative rewrite
Before: Hardworking team player with excellent Excel skills.
Maintained the attendance spreadsheet for a four-week class project, checked missing entries with the group and prepared the final attendance summary.
The second version shows a task, a tool and an outcome. Use this structure with something you actually did; the example is not a claim to copy into your own CV.
Final check
- Your phone number and email are correct.
- Every skill has evidence you can discuss.
- Dates and qualification names match your records.
- No placeholder text or empty headings remain.
Further reading
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