What to Put in Your CV When Starting Your Career

Whether you are applying for an entry-level accounting role, a retail position, or a graduate scheme, you will quickly notice that many job adverts ask for prior experience. If you are at the beginning of your career without a formal employment history, it is natural to wonder how you can gain experience if nobody gives you a first opportunity. While breaking into the job market can feel challenging, employers hiring career starters are primarily looking for potential, reliability, trainability, and transferable skills rather than a long list of previous job titles.

By structuring your CV strategically and reframing your academic, voluntary, and personal achievements, you can prove to hiring managers that you are ready to add value from day one. Here is what to include—and how to present it—when writing your first CV.

Start with a Focused Personal Profile

Modern recruitment advice recommends opening your CV with a concise three-to-four-sentence personal profile directly beneath your contact details. Instead of writing a generic statement about “seeking a challenging role,” use this space to state your career direction, your highest qualification, and two or three core strengths tailored to the advert. Keep your contact section clean and modern—include your name, phone number, professional email address, town or city, and a link to an updated LinkedIn profile, while leaving out outdated details such as your date of birth, marital status, or a photograph.

Lead with Your Education

When you have limited work history, your education is your strongest credential. Place your education section in the upper half of the first page, listing your qualifications in reverse chronological order. Include the name of your school, college, or university, the dates attended, and your grades. If you are early in your career, be sure to include GCSE English and Maths grades, as many UK employers treat these as baseline requirements. You can also add bullet points beneath your degree or A-levels highlighting relevant modules, dissertations, research projects, or academic awards that relate to the target job.

Consider a Skills-Based or Hybrid CV Format

Traditional chronological CVs place heavy emphasis on employment dates, which can leave a career starter’s page looking sparse. Instead, career services such as the University of York Careers Service recommend considering a skills-based or hybrid CV format. Group your evidence under clear skill headings requested in the job advert—such as “Communication,” “Organisation,” or “Digital Literacy”—and back each one up with concrete examples from coursework, part-time tasks, or group projects.

Highlight Volunteering, Projects, and Virtual Experience

Unpaid work counts as genuine experience when presented professionally. Sustained volunteering, caring responsibilities, campus societies, and independent personal projects demonstrate initiative and commitment. List these using the same structure as paid employment: state your role, the organisation, the dates, and bullet points describing what you achieved. If you want to build practical credentials quickly, you can complete short online courses or employer-led simulations through platforms like Forage to show proactive industry interest.

Sports and Extra-Curricular Activities

Non-academic pursuits provide compelling evidence of character and teamwork. Captaining a sports team, mentoring younger students, or organising fundraising events shows employers that you are dependable, motivated, and capable of leading others under pressure. Use active verbs to describe your contribution—for example, noting that you “coordinated weekly training schedules for 20 team members” carries far more weight than simply listing “football” under hobbies.

Optimise Your CV for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Many employers use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to scan and filter CVs before a human recruiter ever reads them. According to guidance from Indeed UK, you can ensure your CV passes automated screening by following a few essential formatting rules:

• Mirror Job Description Keywords: Read the job advert carefully and weave exact phrases and required skills naturally into your personal profile and bullet points.
• Keep Formatting Simple: Use a single standard font (such as Arial or Calibri at 11pt or 12pt), clear section headings, and clean bullet points. Avoid tables, graphics, text boxes, or placing contact details inside headers and footers, as screening software often struggles to read them.
• Keep It Concise: At the start of your career, aim for one well-structured page—or a maximum of two pages—saved as a clean PDF or Word document.

Pair Your CV with a Captivating Cover Letter

A tailored cover letter remains one of the best ways to bridge an experience gap. Rather than apologising for what you lack, focus on your enthusiasm for the organisation, explain how your academic background and transferable skills match their needs, and outline how the role aligns with your long-term career goals. For step-by-step templates and section checklists, explore the official CV and cover letter guides at the National Careers Service.

Everyone starts their career somewhere. By focusing on measurable achievements, clear structure, and genuine enthusiasm, your first CV will show employers not just where you have been, but what you are capable of achieving next.