Graduate CV template, and what to put under experience when you have never had a job
A graduate CV template has two jobs: ATS filters have to be able to read it, and the experience section cannot stay empty, because internships, your dissertation, projects and societies all count. Here is the template in Word and how to fill in each part, up to the step almost nobody takes: tailoring it to each job.
The Word template, built for ATS filters
A free Word file for anyone finishing a degree, a master's or vocational training: page one is the template to fill in, page two a filled-in example and page three, how to tailor it to each job.
First, what ATS filters are: the systems that receive your CV when you apply. They pull out the text and let recruiters search applications with the words of their ad. If they cannot read you or you lack those words, you do not show up, and the person who decides never sees you. Getting through takes three things:
That they can read you
One page, one column, ordinary headings and no icons or tables. This template already does that.
That each part says what they look for
How you write the profile, education and experience. That is what comes right below, with examples.
That it is written for that job
Similar jobs do not ask for the same things. It is the step almost nobody takes, and the most important.
First: the profile at the top
It is the two lines at the top, the first thing anyone reads on your CV. When you have just finished, they have three jobs and nothing else:
What you studied
Your degree the way job ads say it: “Marketing graduate”, not the full course title.
How you have put it into practice
Your strongest proof in half a line: an internship, a project, your dissertation.
What you can do from day one
Two or three things with the role's tools, written as the ad writes them, which is how recruiters search. “Measure campaigns in Google Analytics 4” can be checked; “strong analytical skills” cannot.
What to leave out
“Proactive team player, eager to learn.” Everybody writes it and nobody searches for it.
In the template's example: “Marketing graduate with a five-month agency internship running social media for three clients. I can plan content, measure campaigns in Google Analytics 4 and build reports in Looker Studio from day one.”
The profile changes most from job to job, and BeSuix rewrites it for each one. Try it free, no card needed.
Create accountNext: education, the strongest thing you have right now
With little experience, education goes right below the profile, and the ATS reads it too:
The degree, under its ordinary name
Degree, university and years, under a plain “Education” heading: an ATS looks for the headings it knows and leaves an invented one unsorted.
The dissertation, if it really fits the role
What you did and with what. “Designed a survey and analysed 312 responses in SPSS” carries a tool somebody can search for; “dissertation on consumer habits” carries none.
Whatever adds up for that job
A semester abroad, a First or a 2:1, a course under its official name (“Google Analytics 4”, not “analytics course”).
When it moves down
Once you have a year of real work, experience goes first.
What matters: what to put under experience if you have never had a job
The answer is kinder than it sounds: experience is not the same as a contract. From most to least weight:
Internships and placements
Even three months: they are the closest thing to a job and they go first.
Personal projects
A website, an account you run, a small business: they show you do things without being asked.
Societies and volunteering
Organising an event or coordinating a group is management and people. With numbers, it reads as responsibility, not as a hobby.
Summer jobs
They say you are reliable and you deal with customers. One line is enough.
And each one with what you really did, with which tool and what came of it (or what you learned, if there is no number). Write the tool as the ad does: it is what a recruiter types into the ATS search, and inside a line it beats a list of fifteen skills. Before and after:
An internship
Not “marketing internship at an agency”. Instead: “ran social media for three clients in Meta Business Suite, and one of the accounts grew from 2,000 to 5,000 followers in three months”.
A personal project
Not “Instagram recipe account”. Instead: “started it from scratch and grew it to 1,800 followers; learned to edit video in CapCut”.
A society
Not “member of the marketing society”. Instead: “organised a careers fair with 6 companies and 140 attendees, and secured 2 sponsors”.
One condition: the numbers have to be true. An invented one collapses at the first interview question, and an AI will add one if you let it.
Can't get them to read like this? BeSuix asks what you did and writes each line with its result, using only what is true. Free to try.
Create accountThe last step, and the most important: tailoring it to each job
With all this your CV is well made, but a template is the starting point, not the CV you send: each job asks for different things and the recruiter searches with the words of their own ad. Here is how Emma's CV, the example's, changes for three jobs:
Digital marketing
It asks for social media and campaigns, and measuring them. The template's profile is already written for it: the agency internship goes first, with Meta Business Suite and Google Analytics 4 named as the ad names them.
Social media
It asks for content, short video and growing accounts. The recipe account she started from scratch moves up, and the profile reads: “Marketing graduate who grows accounts: in my internship one went from 2,000 to 5,000 followers, and my recipe account reached 1,800, with a reel of 120,000 views. I edit video in CapCut.”
Campaign analyst
It asks for data, reports and Excel. The dissertation goes first, with the Looker Studio reports line, and Excel moves to the front of her tools. The profile: “Marketing graduate with a data grounding: I analysed a 312-person survey in SPSS for my dissertation and built three clients' monthly reports in Looker Studio.”
All three are true: what changes is what goes first and in which words, and nothing you have never touched goes in. By hand it takes about twenty minutes per job, so almost nobody does it.
Which is why BeSuix exists
Tailoring by hand pays most and is what nobody feels like doing, and ChatGPT has a basic problem: it does not know you, so it fills the gaps with stock phrases. BeSuix does the process for you:
It gets to know you once
You upload this template filled in (or your CV) and Iris, its AI, asks about what is missing. Once, for every job.
It tells you if the job is worth it
You paste a job ad and it tells you honestly how well you fit and what is missing.
It asks about that job
If something might be missing, it asks you, to make your application as strong as possible.
It writes the CV for it
A one-column PDF an ATS can read, tailored to that job and with nothing invented.
Fill in the template once and let BeSuix tailor it to every job. Try it free, no card needed.
Create accountGet the template in your inbox
Leave your email and it arrives in a minute. The photo is optional: if you do not want one, delete it.
Get the template for free
We'll email it to you in a minute. It's a Word file: page 1 to fill in, page 2 with an example and page 3 on how to tailor it.
Frequently asked questions
What do I put under experience on a CV if I have never had a job?
Internships, personal projects, societies or volunteering and summer jobs, plus your dissertation if it fits the role. Each with what you did and what came of it.
Will this template get through ATS filters?
It is built so an ATS reads it cleanly: one column, real text, no tables. Whether you show up depends on what you write and on using the job ad's words.
Does the dissertation go under education or experience?
Under education, below your degree. If it was a project with a real company or it is your strongest proof for that job, tell it under experience too.
Should I put a photo on my CV?
In the UK, Ireland and the US it is not expected; in parts of Europe it still is. If you do not want it, delete it.
Can I open the template in Google Docs?
Yes. It is an ordinary Word file with no tables or text boxes. To send it, export it to PDF and check the text can be selected.
Keep reading
The ATS resume format, and what happens when a machine reads yours
One column, real text, ordinary headings. What actually happens inside an ATS, why two columns break a resume, and what to check before you send it.
A CV written by AI, and how to find what it made up
The signals that give away an AI-written CV, what a generic tool invents and why, and how to audit yours line by line before you send it.