How to Write a STEM CV When You Have No Work Experience

Stop apologising for the gap

Early-career employers already know you have no industry experience. What they are screening for is evidence that you have done technical work of any kind and can describe it clearly. Coursework, a final year project, a personal build, a robotics club or a lab module all count.

The structure that works

Keep it to one page and order it like this:

• Contact details and a one-line summary naming the role you want.
• Projects — two or three, each with what you built, the tools you used and the outcome.
• Education — degree, apprenticeship or A-levels with relevant modules listed.
• Work experience — including retail and hospitality, framed around reliability and teamwork.
• Skills — concrete tools only. No skill bars, no percentages.

Write results, not duties

"Responsible for testing" tells a recruiter nothing. "Wrote 40 automated tests that cut manual checking from two hours to ten minutes" tells them how you think. Numbers make a junior CV credible faster than anything else.