TL;DR
A university student's CV is one page led by fact, not aspiration: education in progress with your GPA if it's strong, then coursework and class projects relevant to the opportunity, then student activities and volunteering written in the language of achievement rather than membership. Nobody expects work experience from a summer-training applicant - they expect proof of seriousness and the ability to learn, and both show in the small details: a professional email, a clean PDF, and one honest line about your goal.
What does a second-year student even write?
The question students send Taqdeem more than any other: "I have nothing to write." The truth is the problem is the angle, not the empty page - whoever evaluates a summer-training or part-time application isn't looking for job experience they know doesn't exist, but for signals: is this student serious? Do they finish what they start? Do they learn fast? And those signals already exist in your university life itself: a course you excelled in, a term project you built, a student club where you organized an event, a volunteer campaign you stuck with for a full semester. A student's CV doesn't claim experience - it organizes the evidence.
Activities and volunteering: write them in the language of achievement
The difference between a dead line and a living one here is the same as on an experienced professional's CV: "member of the science club" says nothing, while "organized the science club's student-projects exhibition with around 300 visitors, coordinating with 12 participating teams" says everything: initiative, organization, communication, a result. Put every activity through two questions: what did I specifically do? And what changed because of me? No answer means the activity is decoration - cut it.
Tip
Documented volunteering through official platforms carries extra weight in Saudi Arabia: hours registered on the national volunteering platform are verifiable, so state the count when it's respectable: "60 documented volunteer hours organizing cultural events".
The one-page model, section by section
This structure fills one convincing page for a mid-degree student, in this order:
A second-year student's CV: the full skeleton
Sara AlHarbi · Riyadh · sara.alharbi@ professional email · 05xxxxxxxx
Summary: second-year information-systems student seeking a summer data-analysis internship; built two term projects in Excel and Power BI
Education: BSc Information Systems, King Saud University, expected 2028 (GPA 4.5/5)
Class projects: a Power BI dashboard analyzing a mock store's sales (data-analysis course, grade A+)
Activities: comms-team coordinator at the tech club; organized two workshops with 80 attendees
Skills: advanced Excel, Power BI basics, beginner SQL · Languages: native Arabic, B2 English
The four student mistakes
Do
- A strong GPA stated with its scale: "4.5 of 5" - a modest one simply left out
- One focused page of real content aimed at the target opportunity
- Skills at their honest level: "SQL: beginner - one course and a project"
- A professional email in your name and a PDF named clearly: Sara-AlHarbi-CV.pdf
Don't
- Padding a weak GPA or inventing grades your transcript can't back
- Stretching to two pages with attendance certificates and one-day courses in everything
- "Proficiency" in everything the internship posting mentions, hoping to slip past screening
- The teenage email and Untitled(3).pdf, both arriving before your first word
Start from Taqdeem's graduate template: it leads with education and projects automatically - the right order for a current student too, in Arabic and English.
Build your student CVFrequently asked questions
Do I say I'm still studying, or does that look like a weakness?
State it clearly, always: "expected graduation 2028" is core information the evaluator builds on, and hiding it reads as deception once discovered. Summer training and part-time roles are designed for people who haven't graduated - your student status is a qualification here, not a gap.
I worked the register at our family shop. Does informal work count?
Yes, strongly - when written right: real customer service, cash handling, and showing up on schedule are all transferable skills. "Worked two summers at the family shop: served around 40 customers daily and managed weekly inventory" is a line any reader respects - honesty in describing it is the only condition.
Do I send the same CV to every training opportunity?
Same skeleton, moving details: swap the summary line to name the opportunity, lead with the course and project nearest its field, and order the skills as its posting orders them. Ten minutes per employer is enough - and it's the difference between an application that gets read and one that gets folded away.
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