A resume with no work experience still has an experience section. It holds the things you did that were not jobs: a project with users, a volunteer role, a club you ran, a summer at a studio. Written as roles, with dates and bullets and a number each, they read as experience, because they are. The layout puts education first, because that is the most recent thing with a name, then those roles, then skills. One page. The example at the end is the whole thing.
Key points
- Education first, then experience, then skills. The experience section holds projects, volunteering and part-time work, written as roles.
- Every entry has a title, a place, dates and bullets, like a job.
- One number per bullet: users, members, hours, grades, sales.
- Skills with evidence only. A tool on the list has a project that used it.
- One page, with white space. Padding is visible.
The layout
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Name and contact | Name, a title line for the role you want, email, phone, city, one link |
| Summary | Two or three sentences: what you studied, the one thing you made, what you want to do first |
| Education | Degree or diploma, school, year, and the two or three courses or projects that match the posting |
| Experience | Projects, volunteer roles, part-time work, internships, each as a role |
| Skills | Tools and methods, grouped, each one backed by an entry above |
The summary carries the proof. "Communication design graduate, June 2026, with a final project in usability research on hospital intake forms." The reader knows in one line that there is a thing to look at.
A project with a user is experience. Write it the way a job is written.
Writing a project as a role
A role has four parts: a title, a place, dates, bullets. A project has all four.
- Title: what you were. "Designer and developer", "Research lead", "Organiser".
- Place: the project's name, or the organisation, or your own name for a solo project.
- Dates: months and years, like a job.
- Bullets: verb, scope, result. The guide on bullet points has the formula.
Designer and developer, Club booking site, Sep 2025 to Jan 2026
- Designed and built the booking site for a 140-member rowing club, replacing a shared spreadsheet.
- Ran three rounds of testing with eight members, cutting the booking flow from six screens to three.
- Live since January, 90 bookings a week, maintained by two members I trained.
Three bullets, three numbers, and a reader who now knows you can finish a thing and hand it over.
What counts
Anything with a user, a result, or a responsibility. In rough order of weight:
- An internship or a part-time job in the field.
- A project with real users, including one built for a course if someone outside the course used it.
- A volunteer role with a named deliverable.
- A club or society role with a budget or a team.
- Part-time work outside the field, when it carries a number: shifts, customers, cash handled.
The fifth one surprises people. "Served 200 customers a shift in a 40-seat restaurant, trained four new starters" is a bullet about pace, responsibility and teaching. A hiring manager reads it that way.
What to leave off
- Coursework with no project attached. A list of module names is read as filler.
- Soft skills as list items. Put them in bullets as things that happened.
- A photo, an objective, "references on request", hobbies without a point.
- High school, once you have anything after it.
The skills list
Six to ten items, grouped, each one with an entry above that shows it in use. For the example resume: Design (Figma, prototyping), Research (usability testing, interviews), Build (HTML, CSS, a little JavaScript). Nothing on it that the bullets do not back.
A full example
Alex Rivera Junior product designer alex.rivera@example.com · +1 555 0134 · Lisbon · alexrivera.design
Communication design graduate, June 2026, with a final project in usability research on hospital intake forms. Built and shipped a booking site that a 140-member club runs on. Looking for a junior design role on a team that tests with users every week.
Education BA Communication Design, University of Lisbon, 2026. Final project: usability study of a hospital intake form, 24 participants, redesigned form adopted by the clinic.
Experience Designer and developer, Club booking site, Sep 2025 to Jan 2026
- Designed and built the booking site for a 140-member rowing club, replacing a shared spreadsheet.
- Ran three rounds of testing with eight members, cutting the booking flow from six screens to three.
- Live since January, 90 bookings a week, maintained by two members I trained.
Design intern, Bright Anvil Studio, Jun to Aug 2025
- Produced wireframes and prototypes for three client sites, two of which shipped.
- Set up the studio's first shared component library in Figma, used on every project since.
Skills Design: Figma, prototyping, component libraries. Research: usability testing, interviews, surveys. Build: HTML, CSS, basic JavaScript.
One page, white space and all. Every number is checkable. Every skill has a line above it.
Questions
I have nothing with users. What do I write?
Then the first job is to make one thing, and the guide on getting a job with no experience has the eight week version. A resume cannot be written around nothing. It can be written around one thing.
Do I include a job unrelated to the field?
Yes, when it carries a number or a responsibility. It shows you turn up and handle pace. Two bullets, not four.
How do I handle a low grade?
Leave the grade off. The degree stays. Nobody asks about a grade that is not on the page, and few ask about the ones that are.
Is a cover letter needed?
For a first job, usually yes, because the resume is short and the letter is where you say why. The guide on a cover letter with no experience has the shape.
Can I use the builder for this?
Yes. The builder on this site has a projects section, an education section with a details line, and the score checks that each bullet has a verb and a number, which is the whole method above.