What replaces professional experience
Your first CV is not empty: it contains evidence from study, work and responsibility. Choose examples that show what you did, how you worked and what changed because of it.
| Evidence source | Use it when | How to make it credible |
|---|---|---|
| Internship | It involved the target function, team or tools. | Name the task, scope, tools and outcome; separate learning from responsibility. |
| University project | It demonstrates a method, tool or problem in the vacancy. | State the question, your contribution, deliverable and result or assessment. |
| Thesis or research | The role values analysis, evidence or subject knowledge. | Translate the method and practical implication into employer language. |
| Volunteering | You held responsibility, organised people or delivered a service. | Show the activity, audience, responsibility and observable outcome. |
| Student association | You led an event, budget, team or communication project. | Name the scope and result instead of calling yourself a board member only. |
| Part-time work | It shows reliability, customer contact, pace or teamwork. | Select transferable evidence and avoid pretending it was professional experience in another field. |
| Certification | It is recognised or directly relevant to the vacancy. | Include provider, completion date and what you can now demonstrate. |
| Portfolio or GitHub | The work can be viewed safely and supports the target role. | Explain your contribution, tools and outcome in one CV bullet first. |
Should education appear before experience?
Put education before experience when your degree, thesis or projects are the strongest evidence for the vacancy and your professional history is short. Put a relevant internship or graduate role first when it already proves the target work. A hybrid order can work: profile, selected evidence, education, then other experience.
Do not let the order hide useful part-time work. Reliability, customer service, teamwork and working under pressure can support a starter application when written as evidence rather than filler.
Three complete mini-examples
These fictional examples show how the same one-page structure can adapt to different evidence profiles.
1. Graduate with internship experience
- Profile: Business analytics graduate with a six-month reporting internship, strong Excel and Power BI practice, and availability for a junior analyst role.
- Evidence: Built a weekly Power BI dashboard from CRM exports, documented the data checks and reduced the coordinator's manual reporting steps from four files to one reviewable view.
- Education: BSc Business Analytics, thesis on customer retention; Internship: Reporting Intern, fictional logistics company; Skills: Power BI, Excel, SQL; Languages: English C1, Dutch A2.
- 2. Graduate with university projects but no internship: Computer science graduate who built a team scheduling API in Python, wrote tests, reviewed pull requests and presented the trade-offs to a four-person project team. Link to the repository only if it is safe to share.
- 3. Graduate with unrelated part-time work: Economics graduate and weekend retail associate who trained three new colleagues, balanced peak-hour queues and reconciled daily tills. Add a separate university pricing project to show analytical ability for an entry-level analyst vacancy.
Turn ordinary experience into evidence
The goal is not to inflate a project or part-time job. It is to describe the responsibility and outcome that are already there, then connect them honestly to the vacancy.
Before and after examples
- Coursework before: Studied data analysis and marketing.
- Coursework after: Analysed a customer dataset in Python, compared three segmentation approaches and presented the recommendation with limitations to a project team.
- University project before: Made a group app.
- University project after: Built the API endpoint for a four-person scheduling app, added validation tests and documented the handover for the next team.
- Retail before: Worked in a shop and helped customers.
- Retail after: Served customers during weekend peaks, trained three new colleagues on closing procedures and reconciled daily tills with no unexplained variance in the sample period.
- Volunteering before: Volunteer at a student association.
- Volunteering after: Coordinated monthly events for 80 students, confirmed speakers and managed the volunteer rota across six sessions.
Graduation date, languages, availability and work authorisation
Put your expected or completed graduation date near the education entry. State language levels with a recognised scale where possible and keep availability factual. If your right to work depends on a permit, give a short status line and check the current official conditions rather than guessing from a template.
For example: “Graduated July 2026 · Available from September 2026 · English C1 · Dutch A2 · Orientation-year residence permit, valid until June 2027.” Only use the final line when it is accurate for your situation; the IND explains the conditions and validity of the orientation-year permit.
- Use a one-page structure unless the vacancy or evidence genuinely requires more.
- Keep GPA or grade information when it is strong, relevant or explicitly requested; omit it when a project result is more useful.
- Use a portfolio or GitHub link when it is safe, accessible and explained by a contribution bullet.
- Do not list a work-authorisation route as a guarantee of employment or sponsorship.
Tailor projects to the vacancy
Copy the vacancy's core nouns into a project bullet only when the work genuinely used them. If a vacancy asks for stakeholder communication, explain who received your analysis or presentation. If it asks for SQL, name the query, dataset or reporting task you actually completed. Tailoring is selection and explanation, not keyword insertion without evidence.
How this guide differs from the international-student guide
The international-student guide is broader: it covers people still studying, internships, part-time work and the transition into the Dutch market. This page is narrower and is for recent graduates who need to replace a short employment history with a deliberate evidence portfolio. Use both when the distinction applies.
Most useful next steps
- International student CV guide — Use the broader study-and-work route when you are still studying or applying for internships.
- One-page CV guide — Use the length decision guide to keep a starter CV focused.
Quick checklist
- ✓The target role and graduation date are clear near the top.
- ✓Projects, thesis and internships name tools, contribution and outcome.
- ✓Part-time work and volunteering show real responsibility without inflated titles.
- ✓Language levels and availability are current and honest.
- ✓Work-authorisation wording is concise and checked against an official source where relevant.
- ✓The one-page CV is tailored to one vacancy rather than trying to include everything.
FAQ
How can a recent graduate make a strong CV without much experience?+
Use internships, university projects, thesis or research work, volunteering, student leadership, part-time jobs and relevant certifications as evidence. Explain your contribution, tools and outcome, then select the examples that match the vacancy.
Should education go before experience on a graduate CV?+
Put education first when the degree, thesis or projects are your strongest role evidence. Put a relevant internship or graduate job first when it already proves the target work.
Should I include my GPA or grades?+
Include grades when they are strong, relevant or requested. Otherwise, a concrete project, thesis or internship result may give the employer more useful evidence.
How should I mention a Dutch orientation year on my CV?+
Use a short factual line only when it applies to your current status, for example the permit type and validity. Check the latest IND conditions; do not present a residence route as a promise of sponsorship or employment.
Related Resources
International student CV
A broader route for current students, internships and part-time work.
One-page CV guide
Decide how much evidence belongs in a focused starter document.
Expat CV guide
Check Dutch-market structure, language and authorisation context.
English CV homepage
Start the English CV route when you are ready to build.
Graduate CV example
See a Dutch-language starter example for structure ideas.
Sources
Europass: What information should I include?
Supports including skills, qualifications, work, study, volunteering and projects while avoiding irrelevant sensitive personal information.
Europass CV instructions
Provides official guidance to keep a CV concise and to foreground education, volunteering and placements when work experience is limited.
IND: Residence permit for orientation year
Supports the factual explanation of the orientation-year route, requirements and one-year validity; it is not a substitute for checking your own status.
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