What to put on a CV when you have never worked
Use your name, phone number, email address and town or city, followed by a short profile, education, relevant skills and activities. Add volunteer work, community responsibilities or projects when they give a useful example of your abilities. You do not need to fill an empty employment section with invented work.
Read the advert before you write. For an administration role, an accurately maintained class register or a spreadsheet project may be relevant. For a customer-facing role, helping at a community event might demonstrate communication. Only include these examples if you actually did them.
A simple first-CV section order
- Contact details: use a working phone number and an email address you check.
- Profile: two or three sentences about your current education, relevant strengths and the type of opportunity you want.
- Education: name the school or college, qualification and completion year. Make it clear if you are still studying.
- Skills: describe tasks you can demonstrate, such as creating a basic spreadsheet, typing a document or speaking particular languages.
- Projects and activities: explain what you did and what responsibility you held.
- Referees: ask permission before listing someone who can speak about your work or conduct.
Example profile for a first job
Recent matric school-leaver seeking an entry-level office support role. Practised document formatting and basic spreadsheets through school assignments. Comfortable communicating in English and isiZulu and willing to learn the organisation’s filing procedures.
This is a fictional example, not text to copy unchanged. Replace the qualification, skills, languages and goal with facts that are true for you.
Turn an activity into evidence
Instead of writing “excellent leadership”, describe a responsibility. A truthful example could be: “Coordinated a four-person school project, divided research tasks and combined the final presentation.” If you helped at an event, say what you handled, such as welcoming attendees or organising supplies. Do not invent attendance numbers, results or job titles.
Paid informal work can also be relevant. Label it accurately, for example “Occasional family shop support”, and describe your actual tasks and dates. Do not present occasional help as a permanent employed position.
Keep the first version focused
A short CV with relevant details is more useful than extra pages of generic claims. Use clear headings and readable text. Follow any length or document-format instruction in the advert. Proofread your phone number and email address, then open the exported file to check that nothing is cut off.
Build it in EaziCVmaker
Start with Personal details and Education, then use Skills and Projects & activities for evidence. You can try the fictional Matric example to understand the structure; replace its details before applying. Choose a design, review the preview and download a PDF or editable Word file. Your draft stays in the same browser, and an editable backup lets you move it to another device.