A recent graduate with little or no paid work experience writes a credible CV by leading with education, coursework and any hands-on activity that shows real capability, part-time jobs, volunteering, a placement year, a group project, rather than trying to stretch a thin experience section to look fuller than it is; the structure itself should put that strongest material first, since a reader scans top to bottom and the order tells them what to take seriously before they have read a single line of detail.
Put education first, and make it earn its place
For a graduate CV, education is usually the strongest section available, and it belongs near the top rather than at the bottom where a more experienced candidate's education section commonly sits. That does not mean listing only the degree title and the institution; a graduate's education entry can carry more weight than that by naming relevant modules or coursework when they connect to the target role, any dissertation or final-year project worth a line of its own, and a grade or classification when it is worth including. A short line naming two or three specific modules relevant to the role reads as more useful to an employer than a bare degree title on its own, since it gives them something concrete to connect to the job rather than a label they have to interpret themselves.
Give real activity the same structure a job entry would have
Whatever hands-on experience exists, a part-time retail or hospitality job, a volunteering role, a placement year, a significant group project, or organising a student society event, deserves the same structural treatment a paid job would get: a title, a timeframe, and one to three lines describing what was actually done and what came of it. A part-time job unrelated to the target field is still worth including and still worth describing properly, since it demonstrates reliability, time management and working with other people, which are real and relevant even when the job itself was not. The mistake to avoid is describing this kind of entry vaguely, "worked in retail for two years," when a slightly longer version, naming a specific responsibility or a small improvement made, reads as far more concrete without taking up much more space.
A placement year or an internship, where one exists, is worth a fuller entry than a short-term part-time job, written the same way an experience entry for someone further into their career would be: what the role covered, what was delivered, and any outcome that followed from it. Where no internship or placement exists at all, a substantial group project from coursework, a dissertation with a real-world component, or organised volunteering can carry a similar amount of structural weight, described with the same specificity.
Write a summary that states a real target, not a generic hope
A short summary at the top of a graduate CV works best when it states a specific kind of role and a concrete strength, rather than a broad, generic hope that could apply to almost any graduate. A summary that says only "recent graduate seeking opportunities" tells a reader nothing they could not already guess from the rest of the document, while a summary naming the actual field, one or two capabilities backed up by what appears later in the CV, and enough specificity to sound like it was written by one particular person rather than copied from a template, does real work at the top of the page.
Illustrative example: an education-first graduate summary
Illustrative example, before: "Recent graduate looking for an entry-level role where I can grow and learn new skills."
Illustrative example, after: "Business graduate with a placement year in retail operations and a dissertation on supply chain efficiency, looking for an entry-level analyst role where that operational and analytical background is directly useful."
The rewritten version still fits in two sentences, but it names the degree area, points at one concrete piece of experience, the placement year, and one concrete piece of academic work, the dissertation, and states a specific kind of role rather than a generic one, giving the reader something to connect immediately to the rest of the CV.
What to leave off, and what to keep short
A graduate CV commonly includes a short skills section and, where relevant, a line or two on languages or a certification, but it does not need every module ever studied, every short course started and not finished, or a long paragraph justifying the lack of paid experience. A single honest sentence acknowledging limited work history, folded into the summary rather than given its own section, is enough; over-explaining it tends to draw more attention to the gap than simply presenting the strongest available material clearly. For readers specifically targeting a technical or software role, writing a CV for a junior developer with no professional experience covers the same problem with a project-led structure suited to that field in more depth.
Building the structure
Start from the education-first order above, header and summary, then education, then the strongest available projects or work history, then skills, and start building it with each entry given the same treatment: a title, dates, and a short account of what was actually done. How to write a resume covers the general wording and structure choices that apply regardless of how much paid experience the CV has behind it.