You open a CV template, type your name, add your contact details and fill in your education. Everything is going well until you reach the section labelled Work Experience.
What are you supposed to write there when you've never had a job?
This is where many first-time job seekers get stuck. Some leave the section empty. Others fill their CV with words like hardworking, passionate and dedicated, hoping those qualities will make up for the experience they don't have.
But here's what you should understand: Your CV doesn't have to prove you've had a job before. It needs to show an employer what you know, what you can do and why you're worth considering.
And there's a practical way to do that.
Start With What the Job Actually Requires
Before you start writing your CV, open the job description for the role you want.
Let's say you're applying for a Social Media Assistant position. The employer wants someone who can create content, use Canva, write captions and manage social media pages.
Now think about what you've done that relates to those requirements.
Perhaps you designed flyers for your department in university. Maybe you helped a friend promote their small business on Instagram or managed your fellowship's social media page.
You may never have been employed as a Social Media Assistant, but you've already done some of the work.
That's what your CV should bring forward.
The same applies to other roles. If you're applying for a data analyst position, a project where you cleaned data in Excel could be relevant. If it's customer support, experience responding to enquiries while volunteering or helping with a small business may be worth including.
The goal is to connect what you've done to what the employer needs.
Give Your Projects and Activities Some Space
One mistake people make when writing their first CV is thinking the Work Experience section must contain a company name and a salary-paying job.
It doesn't have to.
You can create a section called Relevant Experience, Projects or Volunteer Experience, depending on what you have.
For example, instead of writing:
Social media management, Canva, content creation.
You could write:
Social Media Volunteer | University Departmental Association | 2025
-
Designed promotional flyers for departmental events using Canva.
-
Wrote captions and created content for the association's Instagram page.
-
Helped respond to student enquiries about upcoming activities.
See how much more useful that is?
An employer can now understand where you used those skills and what you were responsible for.
You can do the same with school assignments, personal projects, internships, NYSC experience, volunteering or freelance work.
And if you genuinely haven't done anything relevant yet, you can create a small project. Build a simple website, analyse a publicly available dataset or develop a sample content calendar for a fictional business.
Include the completed work in your portfolio and label it honestly as a personal project. You don't need to pretend someone hired you to do it.
What Should Your First CV Actually Contain?
You don't need a complicated format. For most fresh graduates and first-time job seekers, a well-organised, one-page CV is a good place to start.
Here's what to include.
1. Contact Information
Your full name, phone number, professional email address and location (city and country). Add your LinkedIn, GitHub or portfolio link if it's relevant.
You don't need to include your full home address, marital status or a photograph unless the employer specifically requests it.
2. Professional Summary
This is a short introduction, usually two or three sentences, explaining your background and relevant abilities.
For example:
Mass Communication graduate with experience creating social media content for student organisations. Skilled in Canva, content writing and social media management, with an interest in entry-level digital marketing roles.
This tells a recruiter more than describing yourself as a passionate individual looking for an opportunity to contribute your quota.
3. Education
Include your qualification, institution and graduation year. You can mention a relevant final-year project or academic achievement if it strengthens your application.
4. Projects or Relevant Experience
Include the activities most closely related to the job. For each one, state what you worked on, the tools you used and what you accomplished.
You don't need impressive numbers. If you organised an event, say what you handled. If you built something, explain what it does. If you have a measurable result, include it, but don't invent one.
5. Skills and Certifications
List skills you can actually demonstrate, especially those mentioned in the job description.
For a marketing role, that might include Canva, copywriting, content planning and basic SEO. For a technical role, it could be Python, SQL, Git or Excel.
Add relevant certifications you've completed, but don't turn your CV into a list of every webinar you've attended.
Before You Send That CV, Check These Things
Your CV should be easy for someone who has never met you to understand.
Read it once as though you were the recruiter. Can you tell what role this person is applying for? Are their most relevant skills easy to find? Is there anything they've listed that they wouldn't be able to explain in an interview?
Also, avoid sending exactly the same CV to every employer.
If you're applying for both an Administrative Assistant role and a Customer Support role, you may have experience relevant to both. But the administrative role might require more emphasis on organisation, scheduling and Excel, while the customer support role might require more attention to communication and handling enquiries.
Adjust the order and details to suit each application.
Keep the formatting simple, use clear headings, proofread carefully and save your CV as a PDF unless the employer requests another format.
You can also upload your CV to TalentApply to check for areas that need improvement. Its CV tools can help you review your document, with limited CV fixes available on the free plan.
One Last Thing
Your first CV will probably look different from the CV you'll have three years from now. That's expected.
Right now, you may have a university project where someone else has three years of professional experience. You may have volunteer work where another applicant has an internship.
You cannot change your employment history overnight, but you can make sure the experience you do have is presented clearly.
So before you decide there's nothing to put on your CV, go through the projects you've completed, the responsibilities you've taken on and the skills you've practised.
You may have more to write about than you initially thought.
Start with what you've done. Explain it properly. And give the employer something useful to judge you by.
