How to get a graduate job with no experience

You can get a graduate job without having done a graduate job before. Employers count much more than formal work experience: part-time jobs, societies, course projects, volunteering and short placements can all show the skills they want, as long as you turn them into specific examples. Then widen where you look, beyond the big graduate schemes to smaller employers, entry-level roles, graduate internships and apprenticeships, and use your university careers service, which many universities keep open to graduates for two years or more.

What counts as experience for a graduate job?#

When a graduate job advert asks for experience, it usually means evidence that you can do what the job needs, not years in the same role. Prospects lists academic projects, extra-curricular activities, internships, hobbies and volunteering as places where graduates build transferable skills such as communication, digital skills, problem-solving, organisation and teamwork. The Civil Service’s guidance on behaviours says your examples can come from work “or somewhere else”, such as work experience, volunteering or a hobby.

Most graduates have more of this than they think:

• Part-time and holiday jobs. Retail, hospitality, tutoring and call-centre work show reliability, customer service, working under pressure and handling complaints.
• Societies, sport and student roles. Organising events, managing a budget, recruiting members or representing other students.
• Your degree. A dissertation shows research and managing a long project to a deadline. Group projects show teamwork, and presentations show you can explain ideas clearly.
• Volunteering. Regular volunteering shows commitment and often gives you responsibility early.
• Personal projects. A blog, a small online shop, a website or a data project shows initiative and practical skills.
• Short placements. Insight days, job shadowing and short internships all count, however brief.

How do you turn it into evidence employers believe?#

1. Start from the job advert. List the essential skills it asks for.
2. Match an example to each one. Use the STAR structure: the situation, your task, the action you took and the result. Add numbers where you can, such as customers served each shift, money raised or people who came to an event.
3. Say what you learned. In the Institute of Student Employers’ (ISE) 2025 surveys, 54% of employers said new graduates did not meet expectations in self-awareness, up from 43% in 2024. A sentence on what you would do differently next time shows exactly that.
4. Write it yourself. The same research found that 48% of employers were concerned that graduates’ use of AI was misrepresenting their abilities, and 79% were redesigning or reviewing how they recruit in response. Use AI to check your spelling if you like, but your examples need to be real and in your own words, because you will be asked about them at interview.

If a job advert is hard to read, the free Job Ad Decoder can help you pick out the skills it is really asking for.

Should you apply for graduate schemes or graduate jobs?#

Graduate schemes get most of the attention, but they are only one way in, and a crowded one. Employers surveyed by the ISE received an average of 140 applications per graduate vacancy in 2025, the highest since it began collecting the data in 1991. In retail, consumer goods and tourism it was 290.

Many jobs are elsewhere. Small and medium-sized businesses, with fewer than 250 staff, make up 99.85% of UK businesses and about 60% of private-sector employment, according to the government’s Business population estimates 2025. The most recent breakdown for graduates we could find is older: Prospects Luminate found that 34% of 2015/16 graduates in work were employed by organisations with fewer than 250 staff, and one in six by businesses with fewer than 50. It also notes that smaller firms often prefer to recruit through personal contacts, so many of their jobs are never widely advertised.

Drawing on Prospects’ comparison and the points above, the two routes usually differ like this:

A sensible approach is to apply for a handful of schemes that genuinely fit, and make graduate jobs the bulk of your search. Many do not have “graduate” in the title, so also search for junior, assistant, trainee, associate, coordinator, executive, officer and analyst roles.

Where are graduate jobs advertised in the UK?#

• Employers’ own careers pages. Make a list of 20 to 30 organisations you would like to work for, including local ones, and check them regularly. Some employers only advertise there.
• Your university’s job board. Universities usually keep these open to recent graduates. The University of Manchester, for example, gives graduates access to its CareerConnect jobs board for two years after they finish. Check your own university’s rules.
• Prospects, for graduate jobs, schemes, internships and work experience.
• Civil Service Jobs, for roles across government departments and agencies.
• Find a job, the government’s job site for England, Scotland and Wales.
• LinkedIn and Indeed. Filter by entry-level roles, set daily alerts and follow the employers on your list.

Can graduates do apprenticeships?#

Yes. GOV.UK says you can have a previous qualification, such as a degree, and still start an apprenticeship in England, as long as you are 16 or over and no longer in education. You earn a wage while you train towards a qualification. Apprenticeships are also a growing part of entry-level hiring: among employers surveyed by the ISE, apprentice vacancies rose by 8% in 2025, while graduate vacancies fell by 8%.

Two rules from the government’s apprenticeship funding rules for 2026 to 2027 are worth knowing:

• An apprenticeship at the same level as your degree, or a lower one, can be funded if it gives you significant new skills and the training is materially different from what you have already studied.
• Level 7 (master’s-level) apprenticeships are only funded for people who are aged 16 to 21 when they start, with narrow exceptions for some people aged 22 to 24.

Search Find an apprenticeship by job title as well as by level, and check the salary on each advert, because apprentice pay varies widely. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own ways to apply.

How can you get experience after university?#

A graduate internship is the most direct route, and you can do one after you graduate. Some universities run paid internship schemes for their recent graduates. Manchester Graduate Talent, for example, offers paid, graduate-level roles in Greater Manchester for the university’s 2025 and 2026 graduates. Some employers also open summer internships to recent graduates, so check the eligibility section of each advert.

An internship is worth having if you can get one. In the ISE’s 2025 research, 77% of employers agreed that former interns are more work-ready. They are competitive too, with 101 applications per internship vacancy in 2025, up 16% on the year before.

A graduate internship where you do real work should normally be paid. GOV.UK explains when interns are entitled to the minimum wage.

If you cannot get an internship, you can still build experience through regular volunteering, temporary or part-time work in a related area, or a short project of your own that uses the skills in the adverts you are targeting.

How do speculative applications and networking work?#

A speculative application is one you send to an organisation that is not currently advertising. Prospects suggests sending them to companies you are genuinely interested in, and using your network, including alumni, lecturers, local business owners and professionals on LinkedIn.

To make a speculative approach:

1. Choose 10 organisations where your skills fit, especially smaller ones near you or in the sector you want.
2. Find a named person, such as the team manager, founder or recruitment contact, from the website or LinkedIn.
3. Send a short email: who you are, why this organisation, two or three things you could help with, and your CV.
4. Follow up once, politely, after a week or two.

For networking, look for alumni from your course who work in jobs you would like. Ask for 15 minutes of advice about how they got in and what the work is really like, not for a job. Keep it short, and thank them afterwards.

What should you do in your first month?#

Week 1: take stock

• Book an appointment with your university careers service.
• List everything you have done since school: jobs, societies, projects, volunteering and placements.
• Pick two or three types of job to focus on.
• Set up job alerts on your university job board, Prospects, Find a job and LinkedIn.

Week 2: build your evidence

• Write six to eight STAR examples covering teamwork, communication, problem-solving, organisation, leadership and working under pressure.
• Update your CV using our graduate CV guide, and bring your LinkedIn profile in line with it.
• Draft a speculative email you can adapt for each organisation.

Week 3: apply and reach out

• Send five to ten tailored applications for roles that genuinely fit.
• Make five speculative approaches to smaller organisations.
• Contact five alumni or other contacts for advice.
• If you want a graduate scheme, check which 2027 schemes are open and when they close.

Week 4: review and fill a gap

• Look at what happened: which applications got replies, and which did not.
• Fill one gap in your evidence, for example with regular volunteering, a short project or a part-time role closer to the work you want.
• Practise interviews, ideally with your careers service.

If you have already graduated and your search has stalled, read what to do if you have no job after graduation.