How to write your first CV after graduation

You have a degree, a handful of projects, maybe a part-time job, and a CV template staring back at you like it expects ten years of experience.

It doesn’t. “No experience” usually means no directly relevant full-time job yet — not no evidence. Your course, dissertation, group work, society roles, volunteering, caring responsibilities and paid work all show something when you connect them to what you actually did.

To write a strong graduate CV, build a broad evidence inventory first. Then choose the evidence that proves your fit for one entry-level role, present it clearly and tailor it honestly to that role. You are not trying to sound senior. You are making your real story easy to find.

Start with the role, not a blank CV template

A template gives you boxes. A job advert tells you which boxes matter.

Before choosing a font or writing your profile, read one entry-level finance advert carefully. Pull its requirements into five groups:

• Technical skills: For example, Excel, financial analysis or accounting fundamentals.
• Transferable skills: For example, written communication, organisation or presenting.
• Behaviours: For example, attention to detail, curiosity or reliability.
• Qualifications and context: For example, a degree, relevant modules or interest in a particular part of finance.
• Keywords: The words and phrases used to describe the role, where they genuinely match your experience.

The National Careers Service guidance on CV sections recommends starting with the job advert, its essential criteria and the company details. Use that advice as a reading order, not as permission to copy every phrase into your CV.

Turn each requirement into an evidence question:

• Where have I analysed information and reached a conclusion?
• Where have I used spreadsheets or handled numbers carefully?
• Where have I explained something clearly to people who did not already know it?
• Where have I worked to a deadline with other people?
• Where have I checked details or corrected an error?

You do not need to match every requirement. You need enough truthful evidence for the employer to understand how you could contribute and where you are still learning.

This role-first step also stops a common graduate mistake: writing a general CV about everything you have ever done, then hoping a recruiter will work out why it matters. They may not, so give them a route through the page.

Build your evidence inventory before choosing a structure

Do not draft the final CV while you are still trying to remember what counts. Make a private list first. A CV can include achievements and interests inside and outside academic work, which is a useful mindset for a first CV: your evidence is wider than formal employment.

Create headings for:

• Degree, qualification, grades and relevant modules.
• Dissertation, research and substantial coursework.
• Individual and group projects.
• Presentations, reports and software used.
• Placements, apprenticeships, freelance work and part-time jobs.
• Volunteering, societies, sport and committee roles.
• Caring responsibilities or other regular commitments.
• Prizes, languages and interests that show useful behaviour or knowledge.

Write rough notes, not polished CV bullets. Capture the context, what you did, the tools or people involved, the output, the result or scope, and anything you learned, or use Kira, Kata-ru’s chat assistant to write it. Add numbers only when you can verify them.

Kira’s first inventory might look like this:

• BSc Economics, final year. Relevant modules: corporate finance and financial modelling.
• Dissertation: analysed how a group of listed companies reported investment decisions; produced a 9,000-word report.
• Group project: built a spreadsheet model, compared three scenarios and presented recommendations to a seminar group.
• Economics Society: events officer. Contacted speakers, booked rooms and promoted four student events.
• Supermarket job: worked weekend customer-service shifts while studying.
• Volunteering: helped a local community group organise monthly donation records.
• Languages: English and conversational French.

That list is not a CV. It is the raw material for several honest CVs. The inventory stays broad; the application becomes selective.

What counts when you have no formal work experience?

Evidence counts when it shows a skill in a real context. Naming an activity is not enough.

“Member of the swimming club” tells a recruiter very little. “Created a training plan with short- and long-term goals” shows planning and motivation because it explains the behaviour behind the hobby. That is the difference between listing an interest and using it as evidence.

Use the same test for your own experience:

• Activity: What was the setting?
• Action: What did you personally do?
• Result or scope: What did you produce, organise, improve or complete?

For example:

• Society: “Helped with the Economics Society” is vague. “Coordinated speaker logistics and promotion for four student events” gives the reader a role and scope.
• Project: “Completed a group finance project” is vague. “Built a scenario model and presented recommendations based on three cases” gives the reader an action and output.
• Part-time work: “Worked in a supermarket” is a job title, not evidence. “Handled customer queries during busy weekend shifts and followed cash-handling procedures” shows what you did without pretending it was financial analysis.

Your first CV does not need a dramatic transformation story. It needs specific, believable evidence.

Choose a structure that makes your strongest evidence easy to find

For a recent graduate with limited work history, education can sit immediately after the introduction. Once you have substantial relevant experience, work history may deserve the earlier position instead. Treat the order as a role-sensitive choice, not a permanent rule.

A clean first graduate CV usually has:

1. Contact details
2. Short profile, if it adds useful direction
3. Education
4. Selected experience and projects
5. Skills
6. Optional interests or languages

Use reverse chronology within education and experience: most recent first. Consistency in dates, punctuation, headings and bullet styles makes the page easier to scan. A two-page CV is common UK guidance, but do not force two pages by adding padding. Follow the role and sector. If your strongest evidence fits clearly on one page, one page can be the better document.

Choose clarity over decoration. A single-column layout with standard headings is easy for a person to scan and for applicant-tracking software to read. Avoid photos, icons, charts, skill bars, timelines, sidebars and unusual section names. No format guarantees selection, but clutter can make your evidence harder to find.

What should a graduate CV include?

Include the parts that help this reader understand your fit:

• Contact details: Name, location, email, phone and a relevant professional link if you maintain one.
• Profile: A short, role-specific summary of your qualification, strongest evidence and direction.
• Education: Qualifications, institutions, dates and relevant modules or projects.
• Experience and projects: The selected evidence, written around actions and outputs.
• Skills: Tools, languages and capabilities that the role asks for and your evidence supports.
• Interests or activities: Only when they add context, show useful behaviour or help the reader understand a relevant commitment.

Do not hide relevant coursework just because it was not paid work. Put it in the section where it is easiest to understand, with a clear label such as “Academic project”. Do not turn every module into a paragraph. Selection is part of the writing.

Write a short personal profile that earns its space

Your profile sits near the top, so it must answer three questions quickly:

• What are you now?
• What evidence makes you relevant to this role?
• What direction are you pursuing?

A generic profile says: “A hardworking, motivated graduate with excellent communication skills seeking a challenging opportunity.” It could describe anyone. It makes a promise without showing the basis for it.

A finance-specific version for Kira could say:

Economics graduate with project experience building spreadsheet scenarios, analysing company reporting and presenting recommendations. Comfortable turning detailed information into clear written conclusions and keen to begin an entry-level finance role where careful analysis and communication matter.

That profile is not impressive because it uses grand words. It works because each claim points back to evidence in the CV. If your profile adds no direction or specific proof, omit it rather than using it as filler.

For a deeper pass on this opening section, see how to write a focused CV profile. The same rule applies here: a profile is a selection of your evidence, not a personality test.

Turn coursework, projects and activities into achievement-led bullets

A useful bullet has a context, an action and a result or scope. You can think of it as:

Context → action → result or scope

Start with an active verb: analysed, built, compared, presented, organised, reconciled, researched, wrote, coordinated or trained. Then name what you did and what came out of it.

Weak:

Completed a group finance project.

Stronger and still truthful:

Built a spreadsheet model comparing three scenarios for a group finance project, then presented recommendations and the assumptions behind them to a seminar group.

The second bullet does not invent a commercial result. It names the work, the output and the scope. If you have a real number, use it. If you do not, use a precise output instead: a report, presentation, model, event, schedule, process or set of recommendations.

Another example:

Analysed annual-report information for a dissertation on investment decisions, turning detailed findings into a structured 9,000-word report.

The number here describes the report’s length, not an invented business impact. That distinction matters. A graduate bullet can be strong without claiming you changed a company’s revenue.

Use the role advert to decide which bullets come first. Lead with the evidence that answers the advert’s strongest requirement. If the advert values analysis, lead with the model and dissertation. If it values stakeholder communication, lead with the presentation and event coordination.

Use part-time work, volunteering, societies and hobbies without apologising

A part-time job is not “irrelevant” just because it is not in the same industry. It becomes useful when you explain the behaviour it proves.

For Kira, the supermarket role might include:

Responded to customer queries during weekend shifts, explaining product and payment information clearly and following cash-handling procedures accurately.

That does not turn customer service into banking. It shows communication, responsibility and care with details — qualities that may support an entry-level finance application.

Her volunteering might read:

Organised monthly donation records for a community group, checking entries and flagging missing information before the records were submitted.

Her society role might read:

Coordinated speaker logistics and promotion for four Economics Society events, managing room bookings, communications and deadlines with committee members.

Caring responsibilities can also be included when they demonstrate a sustained commitment or relevant organisation, but you decide how much personal detail to share. You do not owe a recruiter your private life. Describe the responsibility and the evidence, not a story you are uncomfortable publishing.

The test is always the same: what did you do, and what does that help the reader understand?

Tailor your CV manually to one entry-level finance role

Tailoring is not keyword stuffing. It is choosing and ordering truthful evidence so the CV answers one employer’s questions.

Take the finance advert you read earlier and make a must-show checklist:

• A qualification or academic foundation relevant to the role.
• Evidence of analysing numbers or detailed information.
• Evidence of using spreadsheets or producing a structured output.
• Evidence of communicating a conclusion or recommendation.
• Evidence of care, organisation or reliability.

Now select Kira’s three strongest evidence items:

1. The spreadsheet scenario model, because it proves analysis and recommendations.
2. The dissertation, because it proves research and detailed written work.
3. The society events role, because it proves coordination and communication.

The supermarket role still stays, but it can be shorter. The French language stays only if it is accurate and useful. A module that does not support this vacancy moves out or disappears. Selection is part of the writing.

Then make four targeted changes:

• Adjust the profile so it names finance, analysis and the direction Kira wants to pursue.
• Put education directly after the profile because she is early in her career.
• Move the model and dissertation bullets above less relevant activity.
• Reuse the advert’s natural wording only where it describes something Kira genuinely did.

Do this manually for one role and you may spend a long afternoon reading, selecting, reordering and checking. Do it for ten roles and the repetition becomes the job before the job. A tool can earn its place here, but only if it protects the truth. kata-ru is built around that friction: Kira can talk through what she actually did, review the profile it builds, and use the resulting evidence to create a clean CV tailored to a specific job and company. You still review and approve it. It never invents experience or applies for you.

For a broader explanation of this selection process, read how to tailor your CV to each job. The aim is not a different personality for every application. It is the right emphasis for the role.

Worked example: from raw graduate evidence to a finance CV

Here is the transformation in one view.

Kira’s raw notes

• Economics degree.
• Corporate finance and financial modelling modules.
• Dissertation on investment decisions in listed companies.
• Group project with a spreadsheet model and three scenarios.
• Four society events organised.
• Weekend supermarket work.
• Monthly community donation records.

The entry-level advert asks for

• Interest in finance and a relevant degree.
• Ability to analyse information and work with numbers.
• Clear communication.
• Organisation and attention to detail.
• Confidence working with others.

The evidence map

Role requirement	Evidence Kira can show	What the CV says
Analyse information	Dissertation and project model	Analysed reporting; compared scenarios
Work with numbers	Spreadsheet project and records volunteering	Built a model; checked entries
Communicate clearly	Seminar presentation and society events	Presented recommendations; coordinated communications
Organise work	Society deadlines and project delivery	Managed bookings, promotion and outputs
Work with others	Group project and committee role	Collaborated on assumptions and events

The final CV structure for Kira

Profile: The finance-specific version above.

Education: Degree first, with the relevant modules and dissertation selected. Kira does not list every module.

Academic projects: The scenario model and dissertation, written as action-led bullets.

Experience: Society coordination, supermarket work and volunteering, ordered by relevance and recency.

Skills: Spreadsheet tools Kira can genuinely use, analysis, written communication, English and conversational French.

What is left out? Unrelated details that do not prove anything for this role. That is not hiding a weakness. It is making the strongest evidence visible.

The same source material could produce a different honest CV for an operations graduate role: the event coordination and records work might move higher, while the finance project becomes supporting evidence. One real history can support different role stories without becoming a false one.

This is also where kata-ru’s conversation with Kira is useful. The difficult part is rarely typing a template. It is remembering the detail behind “group project”, comparing competing evidence and deciding what deserves the top third of the page for this role. Kira asks about impact, scope and results one question at a time; kata-ru turns the approved profile into a clean CV and a role-tailored version. You remain the editor of your own story.

Make the finished CV clear, concise and easy to review

Give the reader a clean path through the page:

• Use standard headings such as Profile, Education, Experience, Projects, Skills and Languages.
• Keep the layout single-column with readable type and enough white space.
• Put the strongest point first within each section.
• Use the same date format everywhere.
• Keep bullet grammar and punctuation consistent.
• Check that your contact details are easy to find.
• Remove visual elements that compete with the evidence.

An ATS-friendly CV is a readability principle, not a score or a promise. Standard headings and straightforward text help both applicant-tracking software and recruiters understand what they are looking at. They do not guarantee that you will be shortlisted.

If you are unsure whether the problem is evidence, structure or readability, use the three-test diagnosis for why a CV may not get interviews. Do not respond to every disappointing application by adding more words. Sometimes the fix is selection. Sometimes it is a clearer top third.

Proofread it, then look at it again tomorrow

A first CV deserves a final pass that is separate from writing it. Check the details that are easiest to miss while you are still drafting:

• Spelling, grammar and punctuation.
• Names of institutions, employers and software.
• Dates, grades, numbers and contact details.
• Whether every claim is true and defensible.
• Whether the profile matches the role.
• Whether the most relevant evidence appears early.
• Whether the document still reads clearly when you skim it.

Run a spelling and grammar tool. Read the CV aloud. Ask a trusted person to proofread it. These are three practical ways to give the document a careful final review.

Then put it away and read it again tomorrow if you can. A gap makes it easier to spot a missing word, repeated phrase or bullet that makes a claim larger than the evidence supports.

A first-CV checklist for candidates with limited experience

Before you send your graduate CV, confirm that:

• You started with one target role and read its advert carefully.
• You built a broad evidence inventory before selecting content.
• You included education, projects and activities where they prove relevant skills.
• You wrote a profile only if it adds a clear direction and real evidence.
• You turned duties and activities into context-action-result bullets.
• You used numbers only when you can verify them.
• You kept your structure clean, single-column and easy to scan.
• You used reverse chronology and consistent dates.
• You tailored the profile, evidence order and wording to this role.
• You cut irrelevant details instead of padding the page.
• You checked every claim against reality.
• You proofread with software, aloud and with another person.

You do not need to pretend you have already had the career you want. Your first CV’s job is to make the evidence you do have impossible to miss.

That work takes judgement. If you would rather not rebuild the same evidence inventory and role-specific version by hand every time, kata-ru helps you develop a deep professional profile through conversation with Kira, turn it into a clean CV and tailor it to a specific job and company. You review and approve the result, and the system stays grounded in your real experience.

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Your real story, tailored for the right role.