From the Resume Guide learning library

How to write a high school resume with no work experience

What to put on your first resume when you are still in school, how to turn clubs, chores and volunteering into real lines, and how to keep it to one clean page. A checklist waits at the end.

Updated October 2026. About 6 minutes to read.

What goes on a high school resume?

Six short parts, in an order that puts your strongest proof near the top.

A resume is a one-page summary of what you can do, written so a busy manager can decide quickly whether to talk to you. For a first part-time job, a summer job or a volunteer role, nobody expects a long work history. They want to see that you are reliable, that you can learn, and that you can work the hours they need.

Most high school resumes work well with these parts:

  1. Contact details: your name, city and state, phone number and an email address you check every day.
  2. A short summary: one or two sentences on who you are and what kind of work you want.
  3. Education: your school, your expected graduation year, and anything you have earned there.
  4. Experience: paid jobs, informal jobs and volunteering, each with a line or two about what you did.
  5. Activities: clubs, sports, music, faith groups or anything else you show up for regularly.
  6. Skills and availability: the abilities the job asks for, and the days and hours you can work.

Leave these off

  • Your date of birth, age or a photo, unless the posting asks for them.
  • Your full street address. City and state are enough.
  • An email address that sounds like a joke. Make a plain one with your name if you need to.
  • The line "References available on request." Employers will ask if they want them.

What counts as experience?

Anything where someone counted on you to show up and do a task well.

Most students worry their experience section will be empty. It rarely is. Managers hiring for a first job are looking for habits: turning up on time, following instructions, being polite to people, and handling responsibility. You have probably shown all of these already, just not for a paycheck from a company.

Informal jobs are real jobs.

Babysitting, pet sitting, mowing lawns, shoveling snow, tutoring a younger student or helping in a family business all count. If someone paid you or relied on you, list it with a plain title and the dates.

Weak: Babysitter. Watched kids.

Strong: Babysitter for three families, weekends since 2025. Prepared meals, kept to bedtime routines and handled pickups from school.

Write what you did, not only what you were. One concrete detail makes you easy to picture at work.

Volunteering and school roles show the same habits.

Helping at a food drive, running a bake sale, coaching a youth team, working the concession stand at games or serving as a club officer all prove you can work with people and finish what you start.

Weak: Member of student council.

Strong: Student council treasurer. Tracked money for four fundraisers and presented the totals at monthly meetings.

If you know a real number, such as how many people you served or how much a fundraiser raised, add it. Never guess or round up to sound bigger.

How to list school, grades and courses

While you are in school, education can sit near the top and do a lot of the work.

Write your school's name, the city, and the year you expect to graduate, such as "Expected graduation: June 2028." That one line tells an employer your age range and when you might be free for more hours, without you having to say anything else.

  • Grade point average (GPA): include it if it helps you, usually 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale. If it does not, leave it off; nobody will mark you down for skipping it.
  • Courses: name one or two classes that match the job, such as accounting for a bookkeeping role or a language class for a job with Spanish speaking customers.
  • Honors and certificates: honor roll, a food handler card, a CPR course or a lifeguard certificate are all worth a line.

"You need a job before you can have a resume."

Not quite. A resume is how many people get their first job. School, activities and informal work fill a single page easily, and having one ready makes you look prepared even when an application form is all that is required.

Which skills should a student list?

Pick the five or six the posting asks for that you can back up with an example.

Skills come in two kinds. Hard skills are things you can be taught and tested on, like using a cash register, typing quickly or speaking a second language. Soft skills are how you work with people, like patience, teamwork or staying calm when it gets busy. Our guide to hard skills and soft skills explains how to balance them.

Read the job posting and copy its own words where they are true for you. If it asks for "customer service" and "cash handling," use those exact phrases rather than a near match. Some employers sort applications with an applicant tracking system, or ATS: software that stores applications and lets recruiters search them by keyword. Matching the posting's wording helps a search find you.

Weak: Hard worker, people person, fast learner.

Strong: Customer service, cash handling, Spanish (conversational), Google Docs and Sheets, food handler card.

Finish this part with a line about when you can work. "Available weekdays after 3:30 pm and all day Saturday" answers a question every manager of student workers has.

Keep it to one clean page

A simple, one-column page reads faster for people and for software.

One page is plenty at this stage. Use clear headings such as Education, Experience and Skills, one readable font, and the same date format everywhere. Avoid text boxes, tables and columns that split your details across the page, since some screening software reads them in the wrong order. Save the final file as a PDF unless the employer asks for something else, and name it with your name, such as "Jordan_Lee_Resume.pdf."

Build it free

The free resume builder lets you type straight onto the page with no account, then download a PDF, a Word file or plain text. Twenty of its designs are free, and you can browse every design on the resume templates page. The other designs cost $0.99 each and show sample text until you buy one.

Check it before you send it

The free resume checker gives two scores: one for how screening software reads your file and one for how quickly a person finds your key details. It needs no account, and the check runs in your browser, so your resume is not uploaded.

Questions people ask

Short answers to the ones that come up most.

  • Should a high school resume have an objective? A short summary works better than an old-style objective. Say what you offer and what you want in one or two sentences, such as "Reliable sophomore looking for weekend retail work, with two years of cash handling at school events."
  • How long should a high school resume be? One page. If it runs over, cut the oldest or least related lines first.
  • Do I need references? Not on the resume. Have the names and phone numbers of two adults who know your work, like a coach or a teacher, ready on a separate sheet, and ask them first.
  • Do I need a cover letter for a part-time job? Often not, but a few short sentences in an email or an online form, naming the job and when you can work, help you stand out.

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Employers differ. Treat this guide as the default that works for most applications, and follow a specific posting's instructions whenever the two disagree.