How to write a CV with no work experience (NYSC and fresh graduates)

Every fresh graduate in Nigeria is told they need experience to get a job and a job to get experience. Recruiters know this. What they are actually checking for is whether you can describe your work like someone who understands outcomes — and most graduates never learn how.

You have more than you think

• NYSC service, including your Place of Primary Assignment. That is eleven months of supervised work with a title, a supervisor and duties.
• Final-year project — research, data collection, analysis, a written report and a defence.
• Industrial training (SIWES) — usually three to six months inside a real organisation.
• Volunteering and association roles — treasurer of a student body, organising a conference, running a tutorial group.
• Freelance and side work — design, writing, sales, tutoring, thrift collection, social media for a family business.
• Certifications — Google, Meta, HubSpot, ALX, Cisco, Microsoft Learn. Free or nearly free, and they show direction.

Lead with education, then show the rest

For a first job, education goes first. Then a section called Experience — even if the entries are NYSC, an internship and a volunteer role. Label it Experience rather than “Other Activities”; it is work, and it belongs there.

After that, Projects (your final-year work and anything you built or ran), then Skills, then Certifications.

Turn schoolwork into experience

The pattern is the same as a professional CV: what you did, the tool you used, the result. Compare these two lines describing the same final-year project.

The second version answers the questions a recruiter has: how many, where, what tool, what happened, and how well did you do.

How to present NYSC

Put it under Experience with the dates and your PPA's name:

If you are still serving, say so plainly: NYSC — currently serving, available from [month].

Certifications worth the effort

• Google Digital Skills for Africa — free, broad, recognised by Nigerian employers.
• HubSpot Academy — inbound marketing, sales, customer service. Free, certificate in an afternoon.
• Microsoft Learn — Excel, Power BI and Azure fundamentals.
• Cisco Networking Academy — networking and cybersecurity basics.
• ALX / Coursera — project work you can describe, not just a badge.

Two relevant certificates beat eight random ones. Put the year next to each.

Keep it to one page

A graduate with no full-time experience should not need two pages. If your CV spills over, you are describing duties instead of results, or listing every secondary-school certificate you own.

What to leave off

• Primary school and JSS results. Your WAEC and degree are enough.
• Every certificate you have ever received. A workshop attendance slip is not a qualification.
• Hobbies that tell a recruiter nothing. “Reading and travelling” is space you could use for a skill.
• Referees who have not agreed. Two people who know you will answer the phone; the MD of a company you have never met will not.
• A photo, unless the advert asks.

The two-line note that goes with it

When you have no experience, the email matters more than usual. Two lines, no essay:

Four sentences, one number, one attachment. That is the whole email — and it is more than most graduate applications contain.