Your first resume: what to write without work experience

Make a contribution inventory

List things you have built, organized, investigated, documented, or helped deliver. Include class projects, volunteering, student groups, part-time work, and independent practice. For each, note the problem, your contribution, collaborators, and how you knew the work was useful. Collect evidence before worrying about whether it sounds impressive.

Choose evidence for the role

Select two or three experiences that demonstrate relevant behavior. A team assignment may show collaboration; a scheduling task may show coordination; a personal application may show testing. Explain a few contributions well. Label their context accurately as academic, personal, volunteer, or paid work.

Academic project — campus event planner: implemented event search, tested invalid input, and documented setup instructions for teammates.

Give projects and education space

Use contact details, an optional focused summary, education, selected projects, and supported skills. Move the strongest evidence higher. There is no need to fill an empty employment section with invented roles. Mark an unfinished qualification as expected or in progress and select coursework only when relevant.

Prepare to discuss your choices

For each project, explain a challenge, a choice, and something you would improve. Check that public links work and contain no confidential material. A small tool list you can demonstrate is more credible than claiming expertise in everything you encountered in class.