What to put on a CV when all your experience is study projects

Why a list of courses doesn't work

Thousands of people took the same course from the same syllabus. "Completed a Python course" doesn't distinguish you from any of them. An employer reads it as "studied", not "can do".

What distinguishes you is output: what you built yourself, and what actually works.

What to write instead of employment

Create a Projects section and describe two or three, each the same way:

• What it is. One plain sentence: "an expense tracker for a small household".
• Your role. What you specifically did, especially if you weren't alone.
• Technologies. Specific ones, without padding the list.
• The outcome. Works, deployed, link. Or honestly: taken to such-and-such stage.

A course assignment can go in too — but only if you took it beyond the handbook.

How to describe team work

This is the most valuable thing a beginner without a job can have, precisely because self-taught people usually lack it.

Be concrete: how many people, what you owned, how work was divided, what got discussed. "Worked in a team of four, owned the backend and the database, took part in reviewing others' code" says far more than "team player".

How to back it up

Claims on a CV get checked, so put something openable next to them:

• a repository link with commit history;
• a working demo;
• confirmation from someone you worked with.

The last is the strongest. Writing "I did the backend" about yourself is one thing; having the project owner say it, with your commit count visible beside it, is another.

What to leave out

• "Stress-resistant", "fast learner", "responsible".
• A padded technology list where half came from a single lesson.
• "Advanced" next to something you touched for a week.
• Two pages. A beginner's CV fits on one.