15 Skills to Put on a Resume When You Have No Work Experience

Start with the job ad, not with the list. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor), undated, advises reading how the employer describes the skills, experience and qualities they want, then using that same language in your summary and other sections — and aiming to use each keyword twice, since more is not helpful.

Go through the 15 below and mark only the ones the ad asks for and you can back up with something you did: a class project, a team, a volunteer shift, a family business, caring for a relative.

Then split them. Hard skills — software, equipment, cash systems, languages — go in a dedicated skills section near the top. Indeed, undated, suggests listing technical or role-specific hard skills first, with supportive soft skills after. Soft skills work best inside your bullets, where they arrive with evidence attached, rather than as a bare list of adjectives.

1. Customer service

Employers mean handling a stranger's request calmly, start to finish, including when the answer is no.

Resume bullet

Greeted and served 40-60 visitors per shift at a community food pantry, answering eligibility questions and directing each person to the right station.

2. Written communication

They mean short, clear, error-free writing that another person can act on without a follow-up email.

Resume bullet

Wrote a weekly email update for 120 student club members, cutting day-of questions to the organizers from roughly 20 per event to fewer than 5.

3. Phone and verbal communication

They mean picking up the phone, getting the information right the first time, and logging it where others can see it.

Resume bullet

Fielded 20-30 calls per shift on a campus information line, logging each request in a shared Google Sheet and routing 6-8 per day to the correct office.

4. Teamwork and collaboration

They mean doing your part of a shared task on time without being chased, and covering for someone who is behind.

Resume bullet

Coordinated with 4 other volunteers to set up and strike a 200-seat event space in under 45 minutes, twice monthly for a full school year.

5. Time management

They mean handling competing deadlines and showing up for shifts — the thing entry-level managers worry about most.

Resume bullet

Balanced 15 credit hours with 20 hours a week of family caregiving, submitting all 24 course assignments on or before the due date.

6. Problem solving

They mean noticing something is broken, trying a fix, and telling someone what you changed.

Resume bullet

Rebuilt a duplicated stock spreadsheet for a school store, cutting the weekly count from 90 minutes to 35 and removing 46 repeated entries.

7. Adaptability and fast learning

They mean picking up unfamiliar software or a new process without a week of hand-holding.

Resume bullet

Learned the Square point-of-sale system across 2 shifts, then trained 3 new volunteers on refunds, discounts and end-of-day close.

8. Leadership

They mean setting direction for other people, even informally, and being accountable for whether the work got done.

Resume bullet

Led a 6-person robotics team through a 10-week build, assigning weekly tasks and running 30-minute Monday check-ins to track parts and deadlines.

9. Excel and Google Sheets

They mean real functions — sorting, filtering, VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP, pivot tables — not just typing into cells. Name the version you know, and name the certification if you hold one, such as Microsoft Office Specialist.

Resume bullet

Built a 400-row Google Sheets donation tracker using VLOOKUP and conditional formatting, producing a 1-page weekly summary for 3 committee leads.

10. Data entry and record accuracy

They mean speed with a low error rate, and the habit of checking your own work against a source document.

Resume bullet

Entered 1,200 membership records into a shared Access database over 6 weeks, flagging 18 duplicates and 9 incomplete addresses for correction.

11. Point-of-sale and cash handling

They mean operating a register, taking card and cash payments, and balancing the drawer at close. Name the system: Square, Toast, Clover, Shopify POS.

Resume bullet

Operated a Square register across 12 weekend farmers market days, balancing the till to the cent at close and processing both card and cash sales.

12. Research and source checking

They mean finding reliable information, comparing options and summarizing the answer for someone who has no time to read the detail.

Resume bullet

Compared 15 local housing assistance programs for a semester project, citing 24 sources and condensing findings into a 2-page briefing.

13. Social media and content tools

They mean planning and scheduling posts, basic design, and reading the numbers afterward. Name tools such as Canva, Meta Business Suite, Buffer or Hootsuite.

Resume bullet

Scheduled 4 posts per week for a club Instagram account in Meta Business Suite, designing graphics in Canva and growing followers from 180 to 640 in 5 months.

14. A second language

They mean usable fluency, so state the level plainly — conversational, fluent, or professional working proficiency — and where you use it.

Resume bullet

Interpreted Spanish-English for 10-15 families per clinic day at a volunteer health fair, walking each family through a 3-page intake form.

15. Inventory and stock handling

They mean counting accurately, rotating stock, and spotting shortages before a customer does. If a role needs a forklift certification or a state or county food handler card, list it separately under certifications.

Resume bullet

Counted and restocked roughly 250 items weekly in a thrift shop stockroom, rotating seasonal stock and reporting shortages in 5 top-selling categories.

1. Mine the ad for the employer's own words. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor), undated, advises paying attention to how the posting describes the skills, experience and values wanted, then using that language in your summary and other sections, and aiming to use each keyword twice. The same source suggests checking an Occupation Profile for the knowledge, skills and abilities listed there if you need more keywords. It also notes an applicant tracking system can be set to filter out resumes missing essential criteria such as a named software skill, an education credential or years of management experience — so if you genuinely have the thing, spell it out in the same words the ad uses.
2. Build the skills section. Monster, undated, advises aiming for eight to 12 highly relevant skills in a dedicated section that directly support the role's duties. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor), undated, takes a tighter line for people with frequent job changes or gaps: start with a Skills section listing the 3-4 major skills for your target job title. With no work history, do both — lead with 3-4 headline skills, then group the rest. Indeed, undated, suggests technical skills first, supportive soft skills after.
3. Weave soft skills into the bullets, not the list. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor), undated, says skills and abilities should run throughout the resume — the summary, a special skills section, accomplishments and continuing education. "Communication" sitting alone proves nothing; "wrote a weekly email update for 120 club members" proves it. Use your coursework, volunteering, clubs, sports, caregiving and side projects as the sections those bullets live in, with dates.
4. Rewrite the summary for each target job. Keep it to 2-3 lines and put your strongest matching skills in it. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor), undated, says a person typically scans a resume for 15-20 seconds, and its resume walkthrough puts the figure at under 10 seconds — either way, the top third of page 1 is where your qualifications have to be visible.
5. Format it so both a person and a machine can read it. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor), undated, recommends simple fonts such as Times New Roman, Cambria or Arial at 10-12 point, margins of about one inch all round, and a length of 1-2 pages, using 2 pages only if the amount of experience requires it — with no experience, 1 page. The same source warns against graphics, logos, charts, tables and columns, because they can disrupt an applicant tracking system's ability to read the text. Save as PDF unless the ad asks for .docx.
6. Tailor every application and keep a master file. Hold one long document with every skill, bullet and date, then cut it down for each ad. Also check what the employer and the state expect: a food handler card, a forklift certification, a driver's license or a background check can be required for the same job title in one state and not another, and resume conventions differ outside the United States — several countries still expect a longer CV with personal details that US employers do not ask for.