how to write a resume with no experience or education

How to write a resume when you have no education [high school or college]

Landing your dream job can seem impossible when you don’t have a degree, and even more so if you haven’t graduated high school. As long as you can learn how to write a resume with no education, however, you should never hesitate to apply for the job you want. Plenty of people have had successful careers without any formal education, and you shouldn’t let this one thing hold you back.

As long as you have the right skills, the right experience, and a willingness to learn, you can succeed in any field without a degree. Writing a great resume with no education is only the first step.

This article will discuss:

• Writing a resume with no education
• Listing education on a resume with no degree
• Writing a resume with no high school education
• Writing a resume with no college education
• Deciding which sections to include on your resume
• Formatting your resume

• Pick the right resume format

Most resumes use a reverse-chronological format, with a Work Experience section that lists jobs from most recent to least recent. If you have some impressive experience to highlight, this format will work for you. A reverse-chronological resume allows you to focus your work experience over everything else, which can help when you don’t have much education to show.

If you would like to highlight skills over experience, you can also try the combination format . This resume format features a prominent Skills section, where you can highlight your best skills and competencies, as well as a reverse-chronological Work Experience section. If you have a strong skill set that you would like to showcase, you may want to use a combination resume.

• What sections to include on your resume when you have no education

The sections you should include on a resume with no education are:

• Contact information : Your name and contact details
• Summary : A brief summary of your key qualifications
• Skills : A detailed list of the skills that make you suitable for the job
• Work experience : A reverse-chronological list of previous positions, with job descriptions
• Education : Even if you haven’t completed any formal education, you can list your ongoing or incomplete education

For many job-seekers, these sections will be enough. If you have other qualifications you would like to highlight, however, you can also include:

• Awards : Any awards, achievements, or honours you have received
• Certifications : Licenses and other proof that you are able to do the job
• Volunteering Experience : Past or current volunteer positions
• Memberships : If you belong to any professional organizations, you may want to list them
• Interests and Activities : While this section is not necessary, if you participate in any impressive clubs or teams, it can help fill out your resume

The exact details of your resume will depend on your career, your experience, and the job you are applying for, but any information or qualification you think will improve your application should fit in one of these sections.

• How to write a resume with no high school education

Writing a resume with no high school education can be a challenge, but it can be done with the right strategy. Many people have had successful careers without graduating high school, and they all had to start somewhere.

When you're writing a resume with no high school education, you'll need your other resume sections to do the heavy lifting. Focus on your skills and experience instead of your education.

You should still include an Education section, however. If there is no Education at all, the employer or applicant tracking system may think that you have uploaded an incomplete resume and reject your application. It’s better to include the section, even if it requires some explanation.

If you are still in high school, or are pursuing your GED as an adult, you can note this in your Education section. Simply include that your education is in progress, and list the date that you expect to graduate.

If you dropped out of high school, you can list the dates you attended and note that your certification was incomplete with the dates you attended. Then, you can list any other education you may have received. This might be workshops, seminars, apprenticeships, online courses, and any other training. Self-directed education and on-the-job training can be very impressive to employers.

• How to write a resume with no college education

Writing a resume with no college education means putting your skills, experience, and achievements in the foreground. While you should still list your education, it will not be the focus of your resume.

If you never attended college or university, simply list your high school education.

If you started a degree but didn’t finish it, you can include the dates you attended and describe some coursework as long as you note that your degree was not completed. You can make even an incomplete degree sound impressive if you describe the courses, research topics, or important projects you were a part of during your time in college.

You can also include non-college education, such as certificates, licenses, workshops, online courses, and more. All of your education is important to your career, even if it wasn’t at a college or university.

• How to write a resume with no education: a step-by-step guide

Writing a resume with no education will take some effort, but by following these steps, yours will be done in no time. Here is a step-by-step guide to writing a resume with no education.

#1. List your contact information

Your contact information should be right at the top of your resume. Your contact information should include:

• Phone number
• Email address
• City and state/province
• Relevant social media

No matter what else you include on your resume, your contact information has to be easy to find. Your resume won’t do you any good if hiring managers don’t know how to contact you.

Make sure your email address, as well as any social media accounts you link to, are professional and appropriate for work. If you link to a Twitter or Facebook account, for example, double check to make sure your online behaviour will be acceptable to any company who sees it.

When you have no education, an online portfolio can be an important asset. Linking to a Github profile or online profile with examples of your work is a great way to show that you can do the job, even if you are self-taught. If you have impressive work that you can link to online, linking to it in your contact information is a good idea.

#2. Write a resume summary

A summary is a short paragraph or bulleted list that highlights:

• who you are as a candidate
• what skills and specialties do you bring to the job
• your key achievements or qualifications

A resume summary is an essential part of a resume with no education. It's an opportunity to make a great first impression with your resume and underline what you can bring to the company.

Your summary should come right at the top of your resume, and it should be good enough that anyone who reads it wants to keep reading.

#3. Highlight your skills

When you don’t have much education to discuss, your skills section is a very important part of your resume. In fact, this may be where you want to put most of your effort. A great Skills section can show that you have what it takes to succeed at the position, even if you learned these skills yourself.

To really emphasize skills, you can create a heading for each skill type, with examples of skills, tools, or achievements underneath. A Skills section like that could look like this:

Professional skills

Graphic design

• Designed logos, gifs, animations, and branded content for website
• Proficient with Adobe Suite, Crello, and CorelDraw
• Developed various promotional materials including catalogues, flyers, business cards, posters, product packaging, and merchandise

Web development

• Expert in HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, Python, and Java
• Front-end development for eCommerce websites
• Developed documentation on ReactNative to onboard new team members

SEO & Content writing

• Used Moz and Ahrefs to research keywords and topics for clients
• Write highly-technical, SEO-friendly content for company blog
• Used targeted keywords and pillar content to increase website traffic by 400%
• Managed team of seven people for content management and web development department
• Trained and mentored interns and junior developers

If you prefer something shorter, however, you can simply list your skills in a single bulleted list. The exact format of your Skills section will depend on your specific resume.

#4. Describe your work experience

A robust work experience section is vital for a resume with no education. Alongside the skills section, the work experience section will form the main body of your resume.

You should list previous positions in your work experience in reverse-chronological order, beginning with your most recent job and working backwards. Each item in your work experience should contain:

• Position or job title
• Company name
• Bulleted list of accomplishments and duties in the role

Each job description is very important to the success of your Work Experience section. As you describe each role, try to use quantifiable achievements as much as possible, such as sales numbers or customer success scores. This will make your experience sound credible. You should also use active language as much as possible so that you sound like a productive employee with leadership abilities.

A Work Experience section might look like this:

Work Experience

Game programmer.

17-Bit , Seattle, WA June 2016 - March 2022

• Write code for games using C++ and Java for domestic and international market
• Extensively test code and game before beta release
• Work on several projects simultaneously, communicating with team and management to ensure deadlines are achieved
• Write code reviews and compiled documentation
• Supervise and mentor junior devs and interns
• Assist CGI team in research and development of new technologies

ABC Games , Lynchburg, VA Oct 2010 - June 2016

• Recruited from the internship in bug testing department
• Provided feedback and testing for several successful games
• Developed several simple first-person shooters that reached the top 20 on the AppStore
• Coding 2D and 3D graphics for our flagship puzzle game

#5. List awards and honours

Your work history and skills will be doing most of the work in your resume. If you have any other qualifications you would like to showcase, however, you should create a section for them as well.

If you have received any awards, honours, or rewards in previous positions, you can describe them in an Awards section. This is a great way to show that you have done well, and been recognized for it.

Awards & Achievements

• Digital Marketing Awards: Designer of the Year 2019
• Achieved promotion to manager at DigiMarketing in 2020
• Feature articles on marketing in Forbes, Advertising Age, and Marketing Week
• Improved traffic by 350% for well-known challenger shoe brand, resulting in seven-figure revenue growth

#6. Education

Exactly how important your education is will depend on your industry.

If you want a job as a doctor or professor, for example, your education is very important. In fact, you will likely need to get a degree before you apply for one of these jobs.

In other careers, however, you don’t need a formal education to succeed. For most jobs, your skills and experience are much more important than your education. As long as you have skills you can showcase, you don’t need to rely on your education to land a job.

There are a few ways you can approach writing a resume with no education, depending on your circumstances.

1. List incomplete or in-progress credentials

If you are still in school, you can note this in your education section. Simply explain that you are still pursuing your education and note the date you expect to graduate.

If you started a degree that you don’t intend to finish, you can still mention it in your resume. You may not want to use too much resume space on an unfinished degree, but listing some relevant courses, projects, or research areas can be an asset to your resume, even if you decided not to complete your degree.

2. List alternative education or on-the-job training

Some of the most important education comes from less formal educational settings. You can list certifications, conferences, bootcamps, workshops, on-the-job training courses, online courses, and more in your education section. In some cases, education that you pursued on your own can be more impressive and more relevant than what you learned in school.

In the example below, the candidate includes their unfinished university courses and a 12-week bootcamp. The bootcamp is more recent, more relevant, and more impressive, so it is listed first.

Flatiron Coding Bootcamp New York City (online)

• 12-week course (Spring 2021)
• Software development

BSc in Mathematics with Computer Science (incomplete) MIT, Cambridge, MA 2019 - 2020

Earned credits towards a degree. Coursework included:

• Introduction to Programming 1 & 2
• Fundamentals of Computation
• Data Science
• Operating Systems
• Tips for writing a resume with no education

Once all of your sections are in place, you can begin writing your resume. Here are some tips to get started:

Use a professional resume template

One of the best ways to ensure your resume looks perfect is to use a resume template. To make sure your skills and education get the attention they deserve, a two-column template like VisualCV’s Gallant or Slate templates are ideal for resumes with no education. You can place your Skills and Experience in the larger main column, and keep your Education section shorter in the narrower side column.

Some candidates feel that they won’t get a job if they are truthful about their lack of education. However, even a resume with no high school education can get interviews when you have a great resume summary, skills, and work experience.

Lying about your education is a bad idea. These records are easy for employers to check, and you won’t get an offer if you get caught in a lie. Honesty is the best policy.

Apply, even if you don’t meet the stated requirements

Companies aren’t always as strict as the job posting would make them seem. The minimum requirements listed in the job posting are often more of a wish list than concrete requirements. You might be the right candidate, even if you don’t have the exact degree they requested.

As long as you are confident that you can do the job, there’s no reason not to apply. If your skills and experience have prepared you for the role, your resume will reflect this, even if you don’t have the education.

Community Success Manager & CV Writing Expert

Ben is a writer, customer success manager and CV writing expert with over 5 years of experience helping job-seekers create their best careers. He believes in the importance of a great resume summary and the power of coffee.

A great resume is an important part of a successful internship application.

June 20, 2022

A grad school CV is an important part of applying for post-graduate positions.

March 27, 2024

VP Marketing & Resume Expert

The good news: you're graduating! The bad news: now the job hunt begins. Thankfully, we've put together a guide for job hunting as a student.

May 27, 2022

Content Manager & Resume Expert

Copyright © 2024 Workstory Inc.

Select Your Language:

Protect your data

This site uses cookies and related technologies for site operation, and analytics as described in our Privacy Policy . You may choose to consent to our use of these technologies, reject non-essential technologies, or further manage your preferences.

• Resume and Cover Letter
• How to Create a Resume With...

How to Create a Resume With No Education

5 min read · Updated on November 07, 2024

Once you know how to effectively highlight your skills and experience, a resume with no education won't keep you from getting hired.

You've found a job you know you're qualified for based on your skills and experience — but you don't have the right education or lack a specific degree. Essentially, you have a resume with no education relevant to the position. Should you pass over that job? Absolutely not!

According to a 2019 TopResume survey asking employers to rate what they desire in their candidates, education was at the bottom of the list. Instead, their preferences were potential (45 percent), experience (37 percent), personality (16 percent), and finally education (only 2 percent).

Given this data, a lack of education shouldn't keep you from considering a job you could otherwise perform — and perform well. You just need to put in a little extra effort to create a resume that shows you're truly qualified despite your less-than-compatible educational background.

Choose the right resume format

If you need to create a resume with no formal or relevant education, use a hybrid resume format that combines the best parts of a chronological resume — which shows your work experience in reverse order — and a functional resume, which highlights your skills and achievements.

Also, make sure to put your education section at the end of the resume so that the hiring manager will see how much you have to offer before they see that you don't necessarily meet all of their educational criteria. The goal? To have them find the first parts of your resume so impressive that your education won't matter.

Prepare a persuasive professional summary

The professional summary (versus an objective statement) at the top of your resume is where a hiring manager gets their first impression of you. Briefly state the key experience and skills you possess that make you a great fit for the role. Try to match the job description as closely as possible, using the same keywords and phrases when possible.

Emphasize your strongest relevant experiences

When it comes to your professional experience, make every word count. Provide specific details of your experience doing the same job or similar jobs, including accomplishments such as improving sales, completing projects at or under budget, or successfully supervising a team or department. List the skills you have that match the job description and use language that shows off your industry knowledge.

Basically, help your potential employer see that you would be such an asset to their operation that your lack of formal education or preferred education specific to that job doesn't really matter. You already have the tools to be a valuable employee; you just need to make sure you're highlighting them correctly.

Support your credentials

Make sure you are listing any key achievements or credentials within your professional experience, education, or skills section that are worth knowing. This can include:

Publications: List any published materials that prove you're an expert in your area. These can include books, white papers, and blog posts.

Presentations: Describe any public speaking you've done in your field that you think would be important to a hiring manager. Along with proving your expertise, it shows that you are an effective communicator.

Awards: State any awards you've received for outstanding accomplishments or dedication in a similar job role or in the industry in general.

You can also consider listing any professional memberships you belong to that are relevant to your field, along with listing any volunteer work on your resume done either while employed or unemployed. Give your years of involvement as well as accomplishments or leadership roles you held.

Keep your education section positive and proactive

When creating a resume with no education to list, highlight the ways you've taken the initiative to learn and grow in your field rather than focusing on an incomplete or interrupted education.

List any job-related training you've completed, either through your own initiative or your company's direction. These can include apprenticeships, conferences, seminars, online classes, and certification courses. In some cases, this more recent training is more impressive to an employer than a dated degree and no other training.

If you're in any kind of educational program, show where you are in the process. For example:

COLLEGE (City, State)

Enrolled in Bachelor of Science program, major in [ ... ], degree expected [date]

You can also provide any formal education you've done, even if you're not currently in a program. Ideally, list this after all other training you've done.

Earned XX credits toward a […] degree, [dates attended]

Creating a resume using these tips can help you get past the initial round of screenings and catch a hiring manager's attention since the spotlight will be on your assets and potential, rather than your education. From there, you can follow up with specific details during the interview.

While some employers may immediately reject you because you don't meet specific educational requirements, others will consider you a truly viable candidate because of your skills, experience, initiative, and past success. Those are the companies you can count on to value what you bring to them in the first place.

Not sure if your education section is formatted correctly to help you land the interview? Check today with a free resume review . 

Recommended Reading:

How to Make a Great Resume With No Work Experience

How to Be a Great Candidate Even If You're Under-Qualified for the Job

Ask Amanda: What's the Best Way to List Education on a Resume?

Related Articles:

Do Hiring Managers Actually Read Cover Letters?

From Bland to Beautiful: How We Made This Professional's Resume Shine

7 Signs Your Resume is Making You Look Old

See how your resume stacks up.

Career Advice Newsletter

Our experts gather the best career & resume tips weekly. Delivered weekly, always free.

Thanks! Career advice is on its way.

Share this article:

Let's stay in touch.

Subscribe today to get job tips and career advice that will come in handy.

Your information is secure. Please read our privacy policy for more information.

Write a resume with no experience

When you’re looking to land your first job, your resume needs to impress employers.

If you have little or no work experience, this can be tough.

But, with the right structure and approach, anyone can write an interview-winning resume.

This detailed guide, which includes a resume example, will show you how to write a resume with no experience, that will still impress recruiters, and take you one step closer to landing that first job.

• Resume examples
• Structuring and formatting your resume
• Writing your resume summary
• Your education
• Vital skills for your resume

Resume templates 

Resume with no experience example

This resume example shows you the basic format of a resume, and the type of content you can include when you have no experience.

I will now walk you through how to produce your own effective resume.

You can watch the video below or read through the rest of the guide on this page.

Top tips for writing a resume with no experience

• Although you may have no formal work experience, be creative and fill your resume with anything that can demonstrate your workplace skills
• Use hobbies, interests, after-school clubs, sports teams and volunteering to highlight transferable skills
• Head your resume with a punchy summary or personal statement to sell yourself to employers and explain why they should hire you
• Make your hard skill such as languages, IT software and written communication highly visible
• Provide lots of detail on what you have learnt in school to make up for your lack of experience

Resume structure & format

The key to getting recruiters to notice your resume, is having a structure that enables ease of reading and allows them to quickly navigate your educational background and relevant skills.

Using sections to clearly identify your transferable skills, assisting you in securing an interview.

This infographic will support you in creating a simple-but-effective format and show you what sections to include in your resume

Formatting Tips

• Use bold headers, bullet points and sections to break up information and support recruiters in easily navigating your resume
• Don’t over-design your resume with imagery such as company logos or headshots and instead keep to a subdued color pallet and a clear font
• Maintain a resume length of 2 sides of A4, don’t look to add irrelevant information to fill space and be comfortable with submitting a resume that is 1 to 2 sides

Structuring your resume

Highlight essential information within your resume by breaking up large blocks of text and working to a format that focuses on your relevancy for the sector you’re looking to apply to.

Stick to the below format when putting together your resume:

• Contact details – Make your contact details easily accessible at the top of the page
• Summary – Start your resume will a short paragraph summarizing your skills and qualifications, engaging recruiters to read further
• Education – Display your qualifications, especially those most applicable to the industry you’re looking to apply to
• Work experience – If you have any, detail voluntary experience or any part time employment
• Interests and hobbies – Look to add hobbies that document your transferable skills, providing added value to your resume

You can always use a resume template , if you want to make the structuring process easier and quicker.

Resume contact details

Keep your contact information to the top of your resume, allowing recruiters to easily reach you.

Stick to the essential information as seen below:

• Phone number
• Email address

Remove supplementary information such as marital status, profile pictures or date of birth that aren’t required in your application.

Quick tip: You can save space and add some design flair to your resume by adding some icons to symbolize the contact details in your header.

Resume summary

Start your resume with an attention-grabbing introduction, summarizing why you’re the ideal candidate for the positions you are applying to – in a punchy summary .

Give recruiters an insight into your background and core skills, making your educational history a focal point, displaying your interest into your preferred field – give them some good reasons to consider you.

These tips will support you in producing your resume summary :

• Research your chosen industry prior to creating your summary, making yourself custom-fit to the sector, adopting sector specific keywords
• Your summary should be between 5-10 lines; you’ll be able to elaborate elsewhere in your resume
• Avoid cliché and overused statements such as “I am punctual” or “I am hardworking” and instead, try to include key requirements from the job adverts you are applying to

What to include in your resume summary?

• Qualifications – Make your education a focal point, considering qualifications most imperative to the industry you’re pursuing
• Core skills – Document any transferable or marketable skills you’ve acquired in school or university, reflecting on strengths such as interpersonal skills , problem solving, or any skills that can translate into the workplace
• Passions – Why are you interested in pursuing your chosen career? What makes you a good fit?

Core skills & achievement section

Underneath your resume summary, add a skills section that consists of your core skills, using two to three columns of bullet points to list these strengths.

Allowing recruiters at first glance to establish your most applicable soft and hard skills, which relate to the industry you’re pursuing.

Before putting together this section, look to research the industry you’re applying to, adding keywords that make you custom fit to that sector.

When you’ve limited or no work experience, use your educational history as a focal point of the resume.

Represent the qualifications you have achieved as well as describing examples of coursework completed and including any specific accomplishments from your educational history.

Break up this information by clearly heading the type of qualification achieved, the dates obtained and the school or college you attended.

Use bullet points to list the qualifications you secured.

Clubs and Memberships

Within your education section look to incorporate the clubs you were part of and your role within that group.

For example, whether you were the captain of a football team or a prefect at school, even considering adding any charity work you may have done.

When writing about these; try to draw out relevant skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication etc.

See also: Graduate resume – Student resume

Work experience

Although you may have no formal work experience – be creative and add anything that could be demonstrate workplace skills, such as:

• Big projects
• Work experience placements
• A weekend job
• Volunteering
• Club or sports team membership

Quick tip: If you have no work experience, pick up a volunteer role so that you have something impressive to add to the resume.

Structuring your roles

If you have anything you could add as work experience – add to your resume like the below example.

Structure the information within your roles, by breaking up large blocks of text and using bullet points, and defined sections.

Give an overview of your voluntary position, what were your duties or what skills you obtained from this experience.

“Working in a busy café supporting the kitchen and front of house staff to ensure customers have a clean and safe environment .”

Key responsibilities

Use bullet points to document any duties you had within a position.

• Interacting with the waiting and kitchen staff to collect dishes and cutlery
• Supporting kitchen preparations during opening and closing of the café

Key achievements

Document any key achievements whilst in these positions, add relevant examples integrating any facts and figures to verify these where applicable.

• Achieved employee of the month, 2 months in a row

Interests and hobbies

When you have no experience, your hobbies could help boost your application , documenting your transferable skills gained within them.

Emphasize involvement in any clubs or teams, describing the contribution you had and providing any result driven examples.

Impressive hobbies for your resume could include:

• Being in a sports team
• Being a member of a club (book club, chess club)
• Writing a blog
• Building models or machines
• Running a marathon
• Taking part in school schemes

Look to display your personal pursuits, even if these interests don’t directly correlate to the industry you’re applying to, reveal how you can use the experience or skills gained within the industry you’re pursuing.

For example, if you’re looking to gain employment in technology then exhibit your passion for working with computers and the skills you’ve gained such as the ability to solve problems and work methodically.

Essential skills for your resume

Portray the skills you have obtained throughout your experience in education, placements or extra curriculum activities, explaining how these can transition into a work environment.

Look to include these fundamental skills:

Communication – the ability to speak with people of a variety of levels, whether teachers, professors, customers or colleagues

Organizational Skills – the ability to juggle studies whilst taking on voluntary work.

Teamwork – the capacity to work within a team to overcome obstacles and achieve common goals, whether in a school project or extra-circular team

Commitment and Drive – showcase your passion and commitment towards your chosen career path.

Customer Service – a talent for putting customers first and going the extra mile.

Writing your resume with no experience

When you have no work experience, your resume is your first impression in the recruitment process and your opportunity to display what makes you an ideal candidate.

Highlighting all aspects of your educational background as well as the skills that make you applicable for the industry you’re looking to transition into.

By using this guide, you’ll be able to produce a well-structured resume that will assist you in obtaining your dream career.

Good luck in your next application!