How to Write a Resume With No Work Experience

What Hiring Managers Look For

Reviewers move fast. CareerOneStop's guidance for job seekers 55 and over notes that in current hiring practice, reviewers typically spend six or seven seconds reading through resumes (U.S. Department of Labor, undated). Before that, your file may be read by an applicant tracking system — CareerOneStop says all of its resume guidance reflects ATS use (undated). So the first job of a no-experience resume is to be machine-readable and scannable, not to explain your situation.

Two elements carry the weight when work history is thin:

• A headline and summary naming the target job title. CareerOneStop describes this section as announcing your job target and quickly summing up why you are a good candidate, and calls it usually a stronger section than an Objective (undated). A reviewer with six seconds has nothing to anchor on without it.
• A Volunteering/Activities section, or Military Experience. CareerOneStop's resume guide for justice-impacted job seekers lists both as sections that can substitute for limited work history (undated). These get real bullets, not a one-line mention.

Then list anything checkable that the posting asks for and you actually hold: a state driver's license if the role involves driving, any certification or food-handler or safety card the employer names, and the software you can genuinely use — spreadsheets, word processing, scheduling tools, a point-of-sale system from a school store or fundraiser. An employer cannot verify that you learn quickly. It can verify a license and ask you to sort a spreadsheet column.

For the wording in between, CareerOneStop advises using keywords that match words from the job posting or description (undated), and suggests checking an Occupation Profile for the knowledge, skills and abilities listed there (undated). O*NET OnLine groups transferable skills — the ones usable across different jobs — into categories including Complex Problem Solving Skills, Resource Management Skills and Social Skills (sponsored by U.S. Department of Labor, undated), which is a useful place to find words for what you did in a club, a classroom or a kitchen.

How to Write the Resume

A BLS Career Outlook article describes four main steps to creating a resume: compiling information about yourself and the occupations that interest you, choosing a format, adding style, and proofreading the final document (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). Work through the sections in this order.

1. Contact information. Name, city and state, phone, professional email. No photo. Check the voicemail greeting on the number you list — it is part of your contact information whether you think of it that way or not.
2. Headline and summary. Name the job title from the posting, then give three to four accomplishments or skills, as CareerOneStop's template defines the section (U.S. Department of Labor, undated). Adapt: "Warehouse Associate — volunteer stockroom experience across two school years, forklift safety certification, and an attendance record with no unexcused absences."
3. Skills. A short list built from the posting's wording and the knowledge, skills and abilities listed for the occupation. Mix tools with habits you can prove. Adapt: "Inventory counts and spreadsheet tracking; cash handling at a multi-register checkout; scheduling a volunteer team; bilingual customer service, English and Spanish." CareerOneStop's guide for justice-impacted job seekers offers phrasing such as "Strong communication skills" and "On time and excellent attendance record" (undated) — use those lines only with proof attached.
4. Experience, paid or not. Rename the section Experience, Volunteering/Activities or Military Experience and treat each entry like a job: organization, your role, dates, then bullets. CareerOneStop's resume guide for job seekers 55 and over recommends four to five bullet points to describe each job, and says to include numbers and data such as the number of people served, documents produced or events coordinated (undated).
5. Education and training. Credential, school, location, and expected completion date if you are still studying. If coursework is your strongest evidence, add course titles or a project line underneath. Adapt: "Coursework in medical terminology, anatomy and HIPAA privacy rules; completed clinical observation placement."

Example Resume Bullets

Each example below turns unpaid or informal work into something a reviewer can measure. The figures are placeholders — count your own shifts, people, dollars and hours before you write, and use only numbers you could defend in an interview.

Volunteering

Food pantry volunteer

Sorted and shelved roughly 400 pounds of donated food per shift across 18 Saturday shifts, keeping the distribution area stocked for 120 families a week.

Class or capstone project

Group research project

Led a 4-person team over 6 weeks and delivered a 20-page report and 10-minute presentation on deadline with no missed milestones.

Club or team role

Student club treasurer

Collected dues from 45 members and reconciled an $1,800 annual budget across two semesters with zero unexplained discrepancies.

Event work

Fundraiser coordinator

Coordinated an event attended by 150 people, recruited and scheduled 12 volunteers, and ran cash sales at a 3-register checkout table.

Family responsibility

Household and caregiving duties

Managed appointments and transportation for 3 siblings, including 2 medical visits a week, and tracked a $200 weekly grocery budget in a spreadsheet.

Tutoring

Peer tutor

Tutored 6 elementary students in reading for 4 hours a week across 2 school years, with written progress notes for each student.

Before You Submit

• Save the file as FirstLast_Resume.pdf, unless the posting asks for a .docx file.
• Copy the job title from the posting into your headline, spelled exactly as it appears there.
• Use each keyword you pulled from the posting twice in the document — CareerOneStop's ATS guidance says to aim for twice and that more is not helpful (U.S. Department of Labor, undated).
• Delete every graphic, logo, chart, table and column, and set margins to 1 inch on all sides, as CareerOneStop's ATS guidance recommends (undated).
• Delete any text you set in white font; CareerOneStop states this will not trick an ATS (undated).
• Left-align all text except headings and confirm the document runs 1 to 2 pages, per CareerOneStop's resume overview (undated).
• Call your own listed phone number and confirm the voicemail greeting states your name.
• Read the resume from the bottom bullet upward, then have one other person proofread it before you attach it.