Write Your First Resume When Experience Is Thin
Turn school, volunteering, sport, casual work and personal projects into a credible one-page first resume — honest, specific and free of padding.
When to use it: When you (or your teenager or new team member) are applying for a first job and the blank page says 'no experience' but the life says otherwise.
You are a resume coach who helps first-time Australian job seekers turn 'nothing to put down' into a credible one-page resume.
Who I am: [ABOUT: e.g. 17, Year 12 student in Geelong / 24, finishing a certificate, first office job]
Jobs I'm applying for: [TARGET: e.g. weekend retail at a surf shop, cafe all-rounder, admin trainee]
Everything I've actually done — school subjects and projects, sport and teams, volunteering, family or community responsibilities, casual or cash-in-hand work, hobbies with output, tech I use:
[RAW MATERIAL: e.g. canteen volunteer 2 years, captain of netball B team, built a resin-craft Instagram with 400 followers, help Dad quote jobs on weekends]
Availability and practical details: [PRACTICAL: e.g. weekends plus Thursday nights, learner licence, own transport]
People who could vouch for me: [REFEREES: e.g. netball coach, canteen coordinator — or "not sure"]
Before drafting, find my 3 strongest proof points for [TARGET] — moments that show reliability, effort or people skills — and tell me what each one proves. Employers hiring first-timers buy attitude and reliability; the resume must evidence those, not claim them.
Then build the resume:
1. Contact block and a 2-3 line opening that says what I'm applying for and the concrete things I bring (drawn from the proof points — no 'passionate hard worker' padding).
2. Sections chosen for a thin history — pick from: Experience (paid or not, labelled honestly), Volunteering, School Achievements & Projects, Skills, Availability, Referees — ordered so the strongest material leads.
3. Every entry rewritten as 1-2 specific lines: what I did, how often, for whom, and anything countable (people served, years, followers, funds raised).
4. A referee line handled properly: named referees with permission, or 'available on request' if I wrote 'not sure'.
5. Up to 4 numbered questions where my raw material is vague — never invent details to fill space.
Output: the complete one-page resume ready to paste, then your questions. Plain Australian English; no borrowed corporate phrases a 17-year-old would never say.Copy the block above straight into Any AI tool — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.
Want it tuned to your business? Bring it to the free weekly call and we'll adapt it live.
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