Applying for your first job

The hardest application is the first one, because most adverts ask for experience and you are trying to get your first. The way through it is to stop thinking of experience as “paid employment” and start thinking of it as evidence that you can do the work.

You have more evidence than you think

Before you write anything, list everything you have done in the last three years that involved responsibility, deadlines or other people. Most people can fill a page.

• Study. Final year projects, research, laboratory work, group assignments you led or coordinated.
• Service and internships. NYSC placements, industrial training, attachments and holiday jobs.
• Volunteering. Church, mosque, student union, community groups, campaigns, event organising.
• Informal work. Helping run a family business, tutoring, repairs, selling online, photography, managing a page for someone.
• Self-taught work. Courses you finished, code you wrote, designs you made, a spreadsheet you built for someone else to use.

Each of these can be written as a role. What was the task, what did you do, and what came of it. That is the same structure a hiring manager reads in any CV.

Build a CV around what you can show

With little paid history, change the order. Put education near the top, then a section called Projects and Experience that holds the evidence above, then skills. Give each item a title, a date and two or three lines describing what you did and what resulted.

For example, instead of “final year project”, write: “Final year project, Department of Microbiology, 2025. Designed and ran a twelve-week study on water quality in three local sources, analysed the samples, and presented the findings to a panel of four lecturers.” That is a piece of work with a scope, a method and an outcome.

Our guide on writing a CV that makes your experience clear covers the structure in more detail.

Apply where you have a real chance

Twenty careful applications beat two hundred copied ones. Look for adverts that say graduate, trainee, entry level, assistant or junior, and read the requirements properly before you spend an hour on the application.

• If you meet most of the essential requirements, apply. Very few candidates meet all of them.
• If the advert asks for five years of experience in a field you have never worked in, your time is better spent elsewhere.
• Set a target you can sustain, such as five good applications a week, rather than a burst of fifty followed by nothing.

Write a cover note that answers the obvious question

The employer is asking themselves why they should interview someone with no track record. Answer it directly in four short paragraphs.

• The role you are applying for and where you saw it.
• The closest thing you have done to the work, described concretely.
• Why this organisation and this role, in one honest sentence. Something specific about what they do, not flattery.
• A plain closing line offering to discuss it.

Do not apologise for being new. State what you have done and let the employer weigh it.

Treat the search as work

Keep a record of every application: the role, the employer, the date and the outcome. It stops you applying twice, it tells you which kinds of roles get responses, and it gives you something to review when nothing seems to be moving. If you apply through Brix Job, your applications and their statuses are kept in your dashboard.

Expect silence more often than rejection. It is not a judgement on you, and it is normal for a role to attract far more applicants than anyone can reply to. Keep the quality high, keep the volume steady, and improve one thing in each application.

One more thing worth knowing early: a legitimate employer never asks you to pay for a job. Read how to recognise a suspicious job advert before you start sending out documents.