Many graduates face the challenge of writing a CV without the benefit of work experience.  In this situation, it's important to concentrate on your life skills. During your education, you've picked up more skills than you realise, so think carefully about which of these skills are most relevant to the job or employment agency to which you are applying. 

Getting started

Keep your format simple. You don't need to write more than one page of A4 for this type of CV. Choose a simple layout and make it and easy to read with a professional style of font. Always spell and grammar check, and proofread your work at least twice. One of the most common reasons for rejection is poorly written work full of errors.

Contact Information

Obviously, it's important that any potential employer can contact you easily. Start with your full name, address and postal code, telephone numbers, and email address. Keep your email address professional too; if necessary, create a new one specifically for job and agency applications.

Objective and education

In a couple of brief sentences, describe what your objectives are as a job seeker. For example, "I would like to obtain a position in the avionics sector, because I love travel and I've been a member of my college's plane-spotting club."

Following this, list details of your education, including what you graduated in, which college or university you attended and the dates you attended.

Summary of qualifications

Your summary should include the skills you have gained during your education that match the job you're applying for. These could be writing ability, teamwork, management etc.

Pre-professional experience

Bearing in mind that you have no work experience to include in your CV, it's important that you use this sub-heading to cover all the relevant skills that you have, together with details on how you acquired them. This information could include any volunteer work you've done, academic achievements or courses you've taken, and any clubs or societies you belong to.

In conclusion

If you have no work experience, it's absolutely vital that you sell your skills and match them to the job for which you're applying. If you have a little work experience but it's totally irrelevant to the job you're applying for, it's probably better to leave it out altogether.

Tailor your CV specifically to the vacancy you are chasing, keep it neat and tidy and make sure it's free from grammatical and spelling errors. For more advice and information on writing your CV, have a chat with your local employment agency.