Fresher CV format: how to write a CV with no experience

The recommended order for a fresher CV

• 1. Name and contact details (phone, professional email, area and city, LinkedIn link)
• 2. Career objective or short summary, 2 to 3 lines, specific to the type of role
• 3. Education, with CGPA and SSC and HSC results
• 4. Projects and thesis
• 5. Internships, part-time work and freelancing
• 6. Skills (tools and skills you can demonstrate)
• 7. Extracurricular activities and leadership
• 8. Training and certifications
• 9. Languages

Career objective or summary: make it specific

Freshers can use a career objective, but most objectives are so general that recruiters skip them. Name the type of role, your degree and two real strengths. If you are applying to different kinds of jobs, change this line for each one.

Education: CGPA, thesis and relevant courses

As a fresher, education is your strongest section, so put it near the top. Write your degree, major, university, year and CGPA out of 4.00. Add SSC and HSC (or O and A levels) on one line each with GPA out of 5.00, because many Bangladeshi employers ask for them.

If your result is not published yet, write 'Result expected' with the month. If the job ad sets a minimum CGPA, state yours plainly. If your CGPA is lower than you would like and the ad sets no minimum, you can still include it; leaving it out often makes recruiters assume the worst. Never round it up.

Add your thesis or final-year project title if it relates to the job, and 3 to 5 relevant courses for technical roles (for example 'Database Systems, Financial Modelling, Supply Chain Management').

Projects: your best substitute for experience

University projects, a thesis, a case competition or something you built on your own all show how you work. Write them like job entries: a title, what you did, the tools you used and the result.

Internships, part-time work, tuition and freelancing

Any work counts if you describe it honestly. An internship, even an unpaid or short one, belongs here. So does private tuition, a part-time job in a shop or call centre, freelancing on an online platform, or helping run a family business.

Focus on what the work shows: responsibility, communication, handling money, meeting deadlines, dealing with customers. 'Tutored 4 HSC students in Accounting for 2 years; all 4 passed with GPA 4.5 or above' tells a recruiter that you are reliable and can explain things. Use the real outcome, not an impressive-sounding one.

Skills: specific and honest

List skills a recruiter can check: MS Excel (VLOOKUP, pivot tables), Tally, Canva, Python, SQL, Google Analytics, English writing. Avoid long lists of soft skills such as 'hardworking' and 'team player'; show those through your projects and activities instead.

Be careful with levels. A Daily Star report in 2024 described graduates who were shortlisted but could not complete a basic Excel test, and recruiters who said many entry-level ads asked for one to two years of experience. Listing a skill you cannot demonstrate hurts you at the test stage. If you are still learning something, say so: 'Python (beginner, completed online course)'.

Extracurricular activities that recruiters value

Clubs, volunteering, debate, sports and competitions show initiative and teamwork, but only if you say what you did. 'Member, Business Club' says little. 'Event Secretary, Business Club: organised a career fair with 12 employers and about 500 student visitors' says a lot.

Pick the 2 to 4 activities where you had a real role or result. Leave out school-level activities unless they are exceptional.

Before and after: a fresher CV section

Here is the top of an invented fresher CV before and after. In the new version the personal details are gone, the objective names a real target, and the internship is described with specific, checkable results.

Common fresher mistakes to avoid

• Using the same CV for every job. Change at least the objective and skills to fit each role.
• Adding father's name, religion, marital status, blood group or NID. Bdjobs and government forms ask separately if needed.
• Spelling and grammar mistakes. Ask someone careful to read it, and read it aloud yourself.
• An unprofessional email address or a phone number you do not answer.
• Claiming experience or skills you do not have. It usually comes out in the interview or test.
• Paying anyone a 'security deposit' or processing fee for a job. Real employers do not ask for this. Fake job offers taking deposits through bKash have been reported in Bangladesh.