First Job CV Template UK (No Experience Needed)

Writing your first CV is strange. Every template seems built for someone with a decade of work behind them, and you're staring at a blank page wondering what on earth goes in the "Experience" section. Here's a first job CV template that's built for where you actually are, and the good news is, you have more to put on it than you think.

What a first CV actually needs to do

Your first CV has one job: get you a conversation. It doesn't need to summarise your life or compete with people who've been working for years. It needs to show an employer that you're reliable, capable of learning and worth fifteen minutes of their time.

That's a much smaller, much more achievable target than "impressive CV".

The first job CV template, section by section

1. Contact details, name, phone, email, town/city, LinkedIn if you have one. No full address needed. No date of birth, no photo.

2. Personal statement, three or four lines. Who you are, what you're looking for and your single best selling point. Example: "Reliable and organised school leaver looking for a first role in retail. Two years' experience helping run a family business at weekends, with a track record of turning up early and getting on with people."

3. Key skills, four to six skills, each with a one-line example. Not "good communicator", "Communication: handled customer queries on a busy market stall every Saturday."

4. Education, your school/college, dates, qualifications and grades. If your grades are strong, lead with them. If they're not your strength, keep this brief and let the skills section do the work.

5. Experience, and here's the reframe: this section is not just paid jobs. Include part-time work, weekend work, volunteering, work experience placements and significant projects. Each one gets a line or two, led by what you did and what came of it.

6. Additional, certificates, a driving licence, languages, anything relevant.

Ten transferable skills you already have

If you've done any of these, you have evidence for a real skill:

Pick your strongest four to six and evidence them. That's your skills section done.

Before and after

Before: "I am a hard-working person looking for any job. I have no experience but I am willing to learn."

After: "Reliable school leaver seeking a first role in customer service. Two years volunteering at a local charity shop, where I served customers, handled the till and trained two new volunteers."

The "after" doesn't invent anything. It just names the real experience properly and leads with what was actually done.

The ATS basics even a first CV must get right

Even entry-level applications often go through applicant tracking software. Keep it simple and it'll parse cleanly:

• One column, no tables or text boxes
• Standard headings ("Experience", "Education", "Skills"), not "My Journey"
• A common font, black text, no graphics or photos
• Saved as a PDF unless asked otherwise
• British spelling and date formats

Build yours free in minutes

You don't have to build this from a blank page. TAILOR's first CV builder is made for exactly this: it asks you 13 straightforward questions about your real life, school, hobbies, volunteering, any work you've done, and turns your answers into a clean, UK-format, ATS-safe CV. It's free, no card needed and your answers save as you go so you can stop and come back.

Build your first CV free →

Your first CV isn't about hiding what you don't have. It's about naming what you do have, clearly. You've got more than enough to start.

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