For new graduates and experienced professionals alike, CV writing serves the same fundamental goal — winning the role you applied for — but the methods differ significantly. The new graduate "does not yet have content to fill the things they have not done"; the experienced professional has "to fit 10+ years of accumulated work into limited pages". The wrong approach: the new graduate writes like an experienced professional (looks weak), or the experienced professional writes like a new graduate (sounds modest). In this article we cover the right approach for each profile and which content sections to bring forward in which order.
TL;DR — Quick Comparison
| Criterion | New Graduate CV | Experienced CV |
|---|---|---|
| Highlighted first | Education and academic achievements | Work experience and quantified achievements |
| Page length | Strictly one page | 1-2 pages, depending on content |
| Internships and projects | Detailed, the main content | Short or absent |
| Quantified results | Limited (project scores, GPA) | Central (revenue, team, %) |
| Skills vs. results | Skills first, results as evidence | Results first, skills implied |
| References | Lecturer, internship supervisor, volunteer leader | Former manager, customer, business partner |
How and When to Write a New Graduate CV
"New graduates" are candidates with 0-2 years of experience. The core challenge for this profile: they do not yet have business achievements to fill the page. The wrong move: inflating limited experience to look bigger. The right move: presenting academic-context achievements — education, internships, projects, clubs/societies, volunteering — as professional outcomes.
- Move education to the top: On a new graduate CV, education comes before the work-experience section. University name, programme, graduation date (or expected), GPA (always include if above 3.0/4.0), key courses (those relevant to the target role). Note any minor, double major or Erasmus term.
- Write internships like work experience: Instead of a small "Internships" sub-list, place each internship under "Work Experience" with role title + company + dates + 3-4 bullet-point achievements. Not "managed social media" but "grew Instagram followers from 12,000 to 18,500 over 8 months".
- Present university projects as concrete products: Write items like the dissertation, term projects, hackathon participation and Capstone projects under "Academic / Personal Projects" with a product summary. Add technologies, GitHub link and a result metric.
- Club/society leadership = leadership evidence: University club presidency, event coordination, volunteer teaching, "Young Professionals" programmes — all are concrete evidence of leadership and organisation skill. Even without a corporate role, this provides "I managed" data.
- Bring certifications forward: Coursera, edX, Udemy, Microsoft and Google certifications are prominent on a new graduate CV. The "continuous learner" signal is very valuable — especially in technical roles.
Golden rule for the new graduate CV: Date of birth, marital status and high-school grades should not appear on the CV. One page is a hard limit; if there is empty space, expand the "Skills" section with deeper descriptions or add another project under "Personal Projects". Never artificially pad it.
How and When to Write an Experienced CV
For 5+ year professionals, the challenge is the inverse: fitting too many achievements into too little space. The wrong approach: writing every position from a 10+ year career in detail (the CV becomes 4 pages, no one reads it). The right approach: pulling forward the experience most relevant to the target role and shortening or removing the rest.
- Move work experience to the top: On an experienced CV, education usually does not sit immediately after contact details — work experience does. Education most often goes on the last page or in the lower half. (Exception: a recently completed advanced degree like a PhD or MBA that signals as strongly as or more than your work.)
- Show quantified results in every role: "Managed a team" → "managed an 8-person engineering team for 14 months". "Increased sales" → "increased regional sales by 23% in 18 months, generating an additional 4.2 million TL (Turkish Lira) in annual revenue". Numerical emphasis is the spine of an experienced CV.
- Shorten older roles: Today, the first role from a 12-year career (e.g. an internship from 2014) can be written in 2 lines: "Intern Engineer, Company X (2014-2015) — site project support". Don't preserve the detail; give the space to recent roles.
- Highlight leadership impact: Team size managed, number of people mentored, processes built, parts of the organisation transformed — at the experienced level these are achievement signals. Not just "what I did" but "who I influenced, how I changed the organisation".
- Use certifications and advanced education tactically: Professional certifications like PMP, AWS, ITIL and Six Sigma go forward when relevant to the target; otherwise minimise them. Old certifications from years ago (an ECDL from 2011, for example) come out.
- Make the "Professional Summary" strong: A 3-4 line summary at the top of the CV is the critical element that conveys the whole story to the experienced professional in 8 seconds. "10+ year B2B SaaS sales leader, hit a 47M TL revenue target at an average 118% over the last 3 years" — that level of specific summary opens doors.
Golden rule for the experienced CV: Cut generic adjectives. Phrases like "results-oriented, dynamic, team player" look weak under 10 years of accumulation. Replace them with specific projects, evidenced achievements and quantified results.
Decision Matrix: Which Approach Is Right for You?
- How many years of professional experience do you have? 0-2 → new graduate approach. 2-5 → hybrid (work experience first, but education still important). 5+ → experienced approach.
- Is the link between your degree and your current role strong? Yes → chronological is easy to write. No (sector switch) → functional or hybrid structure.
- Is your degree the main criterion for the target role? Yes (e.g. engineering degree + engineering role) → education forward. No → education at the back.
- Do you have experience that supports quantified achievements? No → new graduate approach. Yes → experienced approach.
- Should the page count be 1 or 2? New graduate → strictly 1 page. Experienced → 1-2 pages depending on content.
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm a new graduate with no experience to put on a CV — what do I write?
"No work experience" is rarely the full story for new graduates. You can almost certainly find 3-4 of the following: (1) University internships (mandatory or voluntary). (2) Academic projects (dissertation, term project, hackathon). (3) Club/society positions (club president, event organiser). (4) Volunteering (TEMA, AKUT, community volunteer programmes). (5) Part-time jobs (cafe or shop work during your studies — frame these as "customer-relations experience"). (6) Personal projects (code on GitHub, blog posts, YouTube content). Even a 6-month internship can yield 3 bullet points of achievement; avoid the sentence "no work experience".
How do I fit the last 10 years onto 1-2 pages as an experienced professional?
Three techniques work: (1) Combine roles — if you held two different roles at the same company, combine them as "Marketing Specialist → Marketing Manager, Company X (2018-2024)" under one heading and merge the shared achievements. (2) Summarise older roles — present the first roles from 5+ years ago under "Earlier Experience" as 2-line entries. (3) Cut experience irrelevant to the target — if you are now applying for a marketing leadership role, the technical-support position from 12 years ago is not important; remove it entirely.
Should a new graduate include their GPA?
3.0/4.0 (75/100) and above — always include it; the signal value is high. Between 2.5 and 3.0 — depends on the situation: if the target role is GPA-sensitive (banking, audit, consulting), include it; if technical skill is the priority (software, design), you can leave it out. Below 2.5 — leave it off the CV; bring forward other strong elements. More than 3 years past graduation, GPA no longer matters; work experience speaks.
Whom should an experienced professional choose as references?
For an experienced professional, references should be people known in the field with decision-making/management experience relevant to the target role. The ideal order: (1) your direct manager at your most recent company (if not your current employer), (2) a major client or business partner (especially in sales/consulting roles), (3) a senior figure recognised in your area of specialisation. A university lecturer reference looks weak on an experienced CV — it signals an entry-level profile.
New graduate or 15-year veteran — whichever profile you bring to an application, the right structure and content priorities determine the outcome. ProCvLab is a Turkey-based, KVKK-compliant CV creation platform (KVKK is Turkey's GDPR equivalent) that offers templates suited to both profiles; live preview gives you a fast way to adapt your structure to each role.