Work experience

[red_hypergiant]

Two questions. Firstly, is it possible (or let's just say what are the chances) to get into universities such as LSE or Imperial College without any work experience? Secondly, what is a CV and how do you construct one? I'm in Year 12 and I was trying to apply for work experience online and it asked for my CV yet I don't have one.

Many thanks for the help. 

[Nomenclature]

To answer your first question, I am not familiar with the exact details but I assume that it doesn't matter much. If the universities want extracurriculars, then you'll want to have some but they most certainly do not have to be work. I don't know though, and from experience English universities generally seem to care less about this than U.S. schools, but I'm sure that you can find out for both schools by reading the admissions sections on their websites.

Secondly, a CV is an abbreviation for curriculum vitae (more commonly known as a resume in American English). You should create a document that lists contact info, any work experience (in your case volunteer if you have it), references and their contact information, and other things that could potentially help you. Some people like to put adjectives that describe them or hobbies (but this may or may not be appropriate. I put a brief statement of intent toward the top on mine to personalize the CV to whatever I'm doing; it's just a sentence or two (again optional). Whatever you do though, you'll want to create a neat and sharp template that can updated, modified, and used and that will precede you whenever you solicit employment.