CV examples for students: a student CV for your first job, part-time work or an internship

Example CV

Example

Ethan Walsh

Business Management student seeking a summer internship

ethan.walsh@example.com · 07700 900147 · Leeds

Summary

Second-year Business Management student at the University of Leeds, with a first-year average of 68%. A year of part-time retail experience, handling up to 150 customers on a Saturday and cashing up the tills at close. Treasurer of a 90-member student society with a £4,000 annual budget. Looking for a ten-week summer internship in marketing or operations from June 2027, and available for 12 hours a week in term time.

Experience

Sales Assistant (part-time)

Oct 2025 - Present

Northgate Outdoor · Leeds · Part-time, 12 hours a week

• Serve up to 150 customers on a Saturday, with card and cash payments and returns.
• Cash up two tills at close, with no unexplained difference in the last six months.
• Suggested a new layout for the walking boots wall, now used in the store's weekend displays.

Treasurer, Hiking Society

May 2026 - Present

University of Leeds student union · Leeds · Elected role

• Manage a £4,000 annual budget, membership fees and coach bookings for 12 trips a year.
• Moved the society's sign-ups to an online form, cutting cash handling at events to zero.

Volunteer

Sep 2023 - Jun 2025

Kirkstall Community Pantry · Leeds · Volunteer, Sunday mornings

• Sorted donations and served around 60 families a week with a team of eight volunteers.

Education

BA (Hons) Business Management, Year 2 (first-year average 68%)

Sep 2025 - Jun 2028

University of Leeds · Leeds

A-levels: Business (A), Economics (B), English Literature (B)

Sep 2023 - Jun 2025

Kirkstall Sixth Form College · Leeds

8 GCSEs at grades 9 to 6, including English and maths

Sep 2018 - Jun 2023

Kirkstall Park Academy · Leeds

Skills

• Excel: pivot tables and charts
• Customer service
• Cash handling and cashing up
• Budgeting
• Social media scheduling
• Presentations

Languages

• English native speaker
• French B1 · intermediate

Interests

Fell walking: 20 Yorkshire Dales routes logged · Five-a-side football

Ethan is in his second year at university and wants a summer internship, while keeping his Saturday job. His student CV fits on one page and each section answers a recruiter's question: what he studies, what he has already done, what he can do, and when he can start.

What this student CV example does well, and you can copy:

• the job title under his name says what he is looking for, not just “student”;
• the personal statement gives his year, a grade, a result with a number and his availability;
• the part-time job, the society role and the volunteering sit under experience, each with a figure;
• the skills are the ones internship adverts in business ask for, written the way the adverts write them.

Start from the same template or any of our CV templates, then replace the content with your own.

A student CV changes with your stage. Here are three shorter CV examples for students, from a first Saturday job at 16 to a university placement. Names and places are made up.

Note the voice: the first profile uses “my” once, the other two drop the “I” entirely. Both are accepted in the UK; just keep one voice. Our guide to the CV personal statement has more opening paragraphs for students.

Put the most recent things first in each section, and lead with what is strongest in your case: usually your education. The National Careers Service suggests placing education straight after your introduction when you are early in your career. A student CV has these sections:

1. Contact details: name, town or city, mobile number, email.
2. Job title and personal statement: the role you want, and three or four sentences about you.
3. Education: what you are studying now, then earlier qualifications.
4. Work experience: paid jobs, work experience, placements and internships.
5. Volunteering and activities: societies, sport, Duke of Edinburgh, projects.
6. Skills: the ones the advert asks for, technical and personal.
7. Languages, with a level.
8. Interests, if they say something useful about you.

It is the same structure as any CV. The difference is the weight: on a student CV, education and activities do the work that years of experience do on an older candidate's CV.

• Your name, large, at the top: no need for the heading “Curriculum Vitae”.
• Town or city: a full address isn't needed.
• Mobile number and a sensible email address, ideally with your name in it.
• LinkedIn, if your profile is up to date.

Leave off a photo, your age and your date of birth. They aren't expected on a UK CV, and the National Careers Service says not to include your age, date of birth, marital status or nationality.

Three or four sentences under your name: what you study and in which year, one thing you have done well, the job you want and when you are available. Write it for the advert in front of you, not for every job at once.

• Current course first: the exact name (BA, BSc, BTEC, T Level, A-levels), the school, college or university, your year and the expected end date.
• Grades: your results so far, or predicted grades if you are still studying. A first-year average or a predicted A is worth a line.
• Relevant modules or a project, in one line, when they match the job.
• Earlier qualifications: your A-levels, then a summary of your GCSEs (“8 GCSEs at grades 9 to 6, including English and maths”) rather than every subject.
• Awards and extras: a scholarship, a prize, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, an exchange term abroad.

Employers don't expect a student to have a long career. They look for proof that you turn up and get things done: a job you have held for months, a full summer, a good reference. Each entry has the same shape:

• the role and the employer;
• the town, the dates and the type of job (part-time, Saturday, summer, work experience);
• two or three lines on what you achieved, with a number where you can. The National Careers Service suggests the STAR method: situation, task, action, result.

Retail, hospitality, tutoring, babysitting, coaching a junior team, a paper round: all of it counts. If you are at university, a placement is part of your degree and usually lasts up to a year, while an internship is typically done over the summer; Prospects explains the difference. Both go under experience, with the employer and what you delivered.

No job yet? You still have plenty to put on a student CV. Turn these into experience entries, with dates and a result:

• School work experience: a week in an office, a shop, a nursery or a hospital.
• Volunteering: a charity shop, a food bank, a parkrun, a church or community event.
• Positions of responsibility: prefect, form rep, society treasurer, team captain.
• Projects: a website, a YouTube channel, a coding project, an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).
• Informal work: babysitting, dog walking, helping in a family business, tutoring a younger pupil.

Reread the advert and keep the skills you genuinely have, in its words. Mix practical skills with personal ones, and have an example ready for each at interview. Our guide to skills for a CV has the full list.

At 15, 16 or 17, your CV is shorter still: your school or college, one or two activities, and your availability. Before you apply, it helps to know the rules employers must follow. According to gov.uk:

• You can work part-time from 14 (13 in some council areas), and full-time only once you reach the minimum school leaving age.
• In term time, children of school age can work up to 12 hours a week, with no more than 2 hours on school days and Sundays, and 5 hours on Saturdays at 14 or 8 hours at 15 and 16 (restrictions on child employment).
• In the school holidays, the limit is 25 hours a week at 14 and 35 hours at 15 and 16.
• In England, you must stay in education or training until 18; that can be part-time alongside work.

So write your real availability in your personal statement: “Available Saturdays and up to 2 hours after school” is exactly what a manager wants to read. As for pay, the National Minimum Wage for under-18s has been £8 an hour since April 2026 (£10.85 at 18 to 20, £12.71 from 21), and gov.uk lists £8.31, £11.27 and £13.21 from April 2027.

• One page for most student CVs; two at most if you are at university with a placement and several jobs.
• A clear font in size 11 or above, such as Arial or Calibri, headings and bullet points (National Careers Service).
• Reverse chronological order in each section.
• A PDF named after you: “Ethan-Walsh-CV.pdf”.
• One column if you apply online: big employers often screen CVs with software that reads one column more reliably.

Before you send it, run your student CV through our AI CV checker: it shows whether the text can be read cleanly and which words from the advert are missing.

• A vague title (“Student looking for work”) instead of the job you want.
• No availability, when it is the first thing a shop or café manager looks for.
• Every GCSE listed one by one, taking the space your experience needs.
• Qualities with no proof (“hardworking, motivated”) instead of a fact.
• The same CV for every advert, without the words of the job.
• Spelling mistakes: ask someone to read it before you send it.

Once you are in your final year and applying for graduate jobs, or once you have your degree, switch to a graduate CV: your degree classification (or predicted one), your dissertation, your placement and graduate schemes take over from Saturday jobs and GCSEs. Our graduate CV example shows how.

• Your school, college or university careers service: student job boards, placements and local employers who recruit students.
• Indeed, Reed and LinkedIn: filter by “part-time”, “weekend” or “internship”.
• Employers' own careers pages: supermarkets, cafés and retail chains recruit online.
• In person, in shops and cafés near you, outside their busiest hours.

If the advert asks for a cover letter, our cover letter generator starts from the advert and your CV. Before the interview, rehearse your answers with the mock interview.