Entry Level Roles With No Experience: 6 Routes That Work
By Mustafa Tarabya, founder of CVBooster · Published · Updated
9 min read
Entry level roles are not one category, they are six separate doors with six different keys, and on 12 September 2026 the live adverts show exactly which key each one takes. The constraint that decides where to apply is eligibility, not ambition: a new graduate posting, a paid internship and a registered apprenticeship all exclude most applicants on purpose, which is why they are easier to win than the open posting next to them. Every requirement line below is quoted from an advert live on an employer's own careers page that day, or from a federal program page. Each route carries the CV section that gets that particular interview. Written by Mustafa Tarabya, who hired for his own company, read every application himself and now writes CVBooster's guides.
The six doors and who each one is for
| Route | Where it is published | Who qualifies | Pay stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. New graduate posting | Samsara, New Grad ADR, Atlanta | Enrolled, or within one year of graduating | $54,621 to $73,440 on target |
| 2. Paid internship | Samsara, ADR Intern, Atlanta | Currently enrolled students | $21.70 an hour |
| 3. Registered apprenticeship | apprenticeship.gov, Department of Labor | Anyone the sponsor accepts, paid from day one | Paid while training |
| 4. Federal recent graduate | USAJOBS Help Center, early careers | Degree or certificate within the past two years | Per the announcement |
| 5. Production and operations floor | Redwood Materials, Production Associate, Ridgeville SC | High school diploma preferred, training given | Not published |
| 6. Hourly to salaried in place | sweetgreen, Assistant Restaurant Manager, Chicago | Two years in a supervisory restaurant role | Base salary plus bonus |
Route 1: the new graduate posting, a smaller pool by design
Samsara runs the same seat three ways, and the New Grad Account Development Representative posting for Atlanta is the gated one. Its eligibility line reads: "Must be currently enrolled in an accredited 4-year Bachelor's degree program or within 1 year of graduation". The evidence bar is deliberately soft, and it counts things students already have: "At least 6 months of sales experience and/or sales prospecting ability."
Apply to the gated version you qualify for, never the open one beside it.
New graduate CV, summary and evidence block, no internship on it (96 words)
SUMMARY
Marketing graduate (Georgia State, May 2026) applying to a new graduate development program. Two years of paid campus work behind me, and a habit of counting what I did.
EVIDENCE
- Student ambassador for 22 months: 24 prospective families a week on 90-minute tours, plus the call-backs nobody volunteered for. - Ran the 2026 alumni phone drive shift: 70 dials, 46 conversations, 19 pledges in one evening. - Placed fourth of 31 in the campus sales competition, March 2026, judged on discovery questions. - Excel to pivot tables, HubSpot free CRM, 240 contacts kept current.
Route 2: the paid internship, which is a nine-month interview
The ADR Intern posting for Atlanta pays $21.70 an hour and carries the same daily work as the permanent seat, including the line "Ability and willingness to make 50 cold calls a day." The advert says out loud what it is for: "If you put in the work, this role won't be your last at Samsara."
Internship CVs are read for reliability. Attendance, shifts covered and deadlines met beat adjectives.
Internship application CV, coursework and reliability block, second-year student (81 words)
EDUCATION AND COURSEWORK
BSc Business Administration, Georgia State, expected May 2027. Professional Selling (MKTG 3100), graded on a recorded cold call and a written call plan, A.
RELIABILITY
- Worked 18 hours a week through both semesters at a campus cafe, 74 shifts, none missed or swapped late. - Closed the register 74 times with two shortfalls, both under $3, both reported the same night. - Held the section lead role on Saturdays, the busiest shift, from my fourth month.
Route 3: the registered apprenticeship, earn while you qualify
Apprenticeships are the least searched and least crowded route in this list. Vacancies are published on the Department of Labor's own apprenticeship job finder, not on job boards, and sponsors set their own entry bar. O*NET records approved apprenticeship titles occupation by occupation, and says each title is "vetted by industry and approved by the U.S. Department of Labor for use in a Registered Apprenticeship Program".
Sponsors screen for attendance, numeracy and a driving license far more than for grades.
Apprenticeship application CV, school leaver with a part-time job (80 words)
PROFILE
Applying for a registered apprenticeship. Two years of paid work alongside school, no absences, and comfortable with numbers and shift work.
EVIDENCE
- Shift supervisor at a 14-person cafe from age 18: built the weekly schedule and ordered stock to a $2,300 weekly budget. - Math at grade B, and a Saturday covers forecast I built in Excel that held to within 8 covers over 20 weeks. - Clean driving license, own transport, and two years of 6am starts.
Route 4: the federal recent graduate program
The USAJOBS early careers page defines its own window: "The Recent Graduates Program supports individuals who completed a qualifying degree or certificate within the past two years (longer for veterans)." It also states how the rest of federal hiring works: "Many federal jobs assess applicants based on demonstrated skills, competencies and experience". A certificate counts, not only a degree.
Federal resumes are long on purpose. Every duty needs hours, volumes and dates, because the announcement is scored line by line.
Federal recent graduate resume section, written to be scored (104 words)
Administrative Assistant, Carver County Parks Department, Minnesota. June 2025 to present. 40 hours a week. Supervisor: J. Oyelaran, 952-555-0148, may contact.
- Process 120 to 160 facility permit applications a month in the county's Accela system, with a two-day turnaround standard met in 96 of the last 100 months' samples. - Maintain the department's records retention schedule for 14 record series, and completed the 2026 destruction log without an audit finding. - Draft correspondence for the director's signature, roughly 25 letters a month, using plain language standards. - Reconcile the $38,000 petty cash and fee-receipt account monthly, with no unresolved variance in 15 months.
Route 5: the production and operations floor, trained on the job
Redwood Materials' Production Associate advert for Ridgeville, South Carolina, updated 12 September 2026, sets the education bar at "High School Diploma or equivalent (GED) is preferred" and asks for a willingness rather than a record: "Willingness to learn new processes, equipment, and technologies through on-the-job training". It also wants "Basic computer skills and comfort using systems such as HMIs, tablets, or inventory and production tracking software".
Everything else on that advert is about safety and attendance, so that is what the CV should answer.
Production associate CV, no industrial experience, written for a safety screen (94 words)
PROFILE
Looking for a production associate seat on a 12-hour shift pattern. Reliable, comfortable in full protective equipment, and able to follow a written procedure exactly.
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
- Kitchen porter at a 180-cover restaurant for 19 months: hot and wet environment, chemical handling under COSHH sheets, zero reportable incidents. - Worked to written cleaning procedures signed off nightly, and passed two unannounced health inspections. - Used a tablet-based stock system daily for 19 months, counting 140 lines a week. - Available for nights and weekends, and hold a forklift ticket from May 2026.
Route 6: hourly to salaried without changing employer
The cheapest promotion in the economy is the one inside the building you already work in. The sweetgreen Assistant Restaurant Manager advert for Chicago asks for "2+ years in a restaurant management/supervisory role", "Experience managing and developing 6+ team members per shift" and a "Food Handler or ServSafe certification". Two of those three are things a crew member acquires by volunteering.
Ask for the shift lead role, get the certificate yourself, and log the headcount you ran.
Crew member to assistant manager, internal application CV section (91 words)
Shift Leader, sweetgreen Wicker Park, Chicago IL. Crew member from March 2024, shift leader from January 2025
- Run the closing shift for 7 to 9 team members, four nights a week, including the cash-out and the next-day prep list. - Trained 11 new crew members on the line, 9 of whom passed their 30-day check first time. - Hold ServSafe Food Handler certification, earned at my own cost in February 2025, plus the Illinois food handler card. - Cut closing labor by 40 minutes a night by resequencing the clean-down.
What to put on the CV when you have none
- Count something. Shifts, covers, calls, permits, lines counted, families toured. Every advert above screens for volume, and a number nobody else can invent is the strongest line you own.
- Name the system. Accela, HubSpot, a tablet stock system, an HMI. Redwood asks for tablets and tracking software by name and so do most floor adverts.
- Turn attendance into evidence. "74 shifts, none missed" answers the reliability requirement that three of these six adverts state outright.
- Buy the cheap certificate yourself. ServSafe, a forklift ticket, HAZWOPER, a food handler card. Each one removes a stated requirement for under $200.
- Apply to the gated posting. If you are a student, an apprentice candidate or two years out from a degree, the gated version of the job has a fraction of the applicants.
Build the document with the first job resume guide and how to make a resume, then tighten the top third using resume objective examples. If you want the highest paying of these doors, entry level sales publishes the ranges.
Frequently asked questions
What is a entry level position?
An entry level position is one the employer expects to train rather than inherit, so the advert states eligibility or willingness instead of a track record. The six adverts above ask for enrolment status, a high school diploma, two years of supervising, or simply the willingness to learn on the job.
What entry level jobs pay the most?
Of the six doors here, the new graduate sales posting pays most: Samsara publishes on-target earnings of $54,621 to $73,440. O*NET puts the median for sales representatives of services at $69,990 a year. The paid internship pays $21.70 an hour, and apprenticeship pay rises on a schedule the sponsor publishes.
How to find entry level jobs?
Read adverts on employer careers pages instead of aggregators, because eligibility lines get stripped in summaries. Then add the two federal sources: the Department of Labor apprenticeship finder and the USAJOBS early careers page. Neither appears in an ordinary job board search, and both carry roles with training attached.
How do i find an entry level job?
Decide which of the six categories you are eligible for before you search, then use that category's own channel. A student searches internships, a recent graduate searches new graduate and recent graduate programs, and someone already working searches the internal vacancy board of their own employer first.
How to find entry level positions?
Search by the job family word, not the seniority word. Employers rarely put "entry level" in a title: they write associate, coordinator, representative, intern, apprentice, assistant or trainee. Searching those seven words across five employer careers pages returns more real openings than any filter.
How to look for entry level jobs?
Work in the order of odds. Internal vacancies first, then gated postings you qualify for, then apprenticeships and government programs, then the open market last. The open posting has the most applicants and the least training attached, which is why it is the worst place to start.
More in this series: Getting in without experience
- Entry Level Project Manager: 5 Routes In With No Degree
- Entry Level Sales Jobs With No Experience: 5 Routes
- How to Get Into the Police in the UK: 6 Entry Routes
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