Writing a CV with no work experience or qualifications?

BetterThanThou

I'm 16 and have left school as of this year, making my final year 5th year so I have no leaving cert, while this might not have been the smartest decision, it's out of my hands now and I cannot make a return to school until next year.
Anyway, I've never been the studying type anyway, while I am very hard working at most stuff, I've never been able to just sit down and study, so I've decided to look for a job at a pet shop, as I've always been interested in animals and have an extensive knowledge of lizards and snakes, have lived with dogs all my life, have an interest in all other animals and have had numerous pets during my life time. I know a job at a pet shop will not be much about the animals, but I have wanted to open my own pet shop so the experience will be good, plus I'll obviously need to save up a lot of money in order to do that. But exactly what do I put on a CV if I don't have any qualifications or prior work experience?

Quiet Girl

TBH there is not a lot you can put on your cv with no work experience or qualifications so my advice would be to write up a personal profile on your cv, as in outline what your skills and strengths are and if it is a pet shop you want to work in then talk about your interest in animals etc. in your personal profile. I have one on my cv and it has worked for me, I have actually been told how good it looks.
Dont go into loads of detail though as the last thing employers want to be doing is reading pages of stuff, the fine details are for the interview stage.
Best of luck

Meathlass

How about volunteering with a local animal shelter? That shows you can come into work on time, be responsible, deal with animals etc.

Quiet Girl

Great advice Meathlass, would fill the blank gap in work experience

Jonny Blaze

Hi OP.

I don't mean for this to sound like a lecture, but for your own benefit I would really, strongly recommend re-thinking completing your leaving cert while you are the right age to do it.

I left school at around the same age as you as I couldn't find it in me to study and wanted to be earning money and such.

It was only after two or three years of working in the worst types of job, such as in factories and supermarkets for example, that I started examining my options and developing a desire to have something more. Unfortunately there are effectively no other options for people without a leaving cert. Other than these kinds of jobs, provided you are not going in for a trade, and even the traditional apprenticeship route has pretty much bit the dust in the current economy.

Anyway I eventually went back to do the leaving cert and achieved reasonable grades (365 points out of 6 subjects). This coming from someone who when they did it the first time only achieved 90 points out of 7 subjects! Once I found out what the alternatives were, I decided that I really needed that leaving cert and managed to focus in a bit.

This was made even more difficult by the fact that I was about 20 or 21 years old when I repeated the leaving cert and was repeating with people much younger than me who had just failed the previous year.

I eventually managed to get into college and recently graduated with a degree in computer science at age 29.

All of the lads I graduated with are only 22-23.

By the time they are my age they can expect to be earning 55-75 thousand euro a year or more (google it if you don't believe me!) while I can only apply for graduate level jobs that pay less than half of that.

At this age, you want to be able to buy a car and think about a house etc. Or even holiday's and such.

However I have essentially wasted ten years of my life just trying to get into the position I would have been had I just buckled down for a year or two when I was younger.

I hope you reconsider your decision anyway. If you want to work with animals there are still things you can try and do in college, like veterinary studies or biology/ zoology that will allow that, but will provide you with a much more comfortable and fulfilling career than working in a pet shop.

Not to mention the fact that you may not necessarily still be interested in that line of work as you grow older and figure out more of what you want from life.

I wanted to be a vet when I was younger, then a writer, and now i'm a computer programmer.. Go figure!

Anyway, not trying to tell you what to do, but I most certainly regret the decisions I made as a younger man!

All the best.