A high school resume is a concise professional document that can help you enter the job market and jump-start your career. However, many young professionals face a common obstacle: they need experience to get a job, but they need a job to get experience.
A well-written application helps solve this conundrum by emphasizing your soft skills, academic accomplishments, and activities analogous to work history, allowing you to demonstrate your key strengths and qualifications.
In this article, we’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to write a high school resume and provide you with expert tips and complete examples.
Key Takeaways
A high school resume should emphasize your biggest strengths by showcasing your skills, academic accomplishments, and informal work experience.
The most common resume format is chronological, which is favored by recruiters and compatible with ATS.
Your resume should sport a clean and elegant layout, and it should be one page long.
Show your motivation and willingness to go the extra mile by writing a concise but engaging cover letter that matches your resume.
Effective High School Resume Example
Let’s show you what a finished document should look like on the complete example of a high school resume:
Keep reading to learn how to create a professional resume like this quickly and effortlessly.
What Format to Use for a High School Resume
The best format to use for a high school resume is chronological. This is the most common resume format used by the majority of job seekers, as it neatly organizes your past experiences in a reverse-chronological order. This makes your resume compatible with applicant tracking systems (ATS) and easy to read by recruiters.
However, if you don’t have any prior experience and you want to focus on your skills, you can use the functional resume format. This format is preferred by entry-level professionals who don’t have an employment timeline and instead want to emphasize their abilities. The downside is that some ATS platforms can’t parse it.
There’s also the third option, which is the combination (hybrid) resume format. This one combines the features of the first two formats, focusing on your skills but backing up each one with a list of accomplishments. It’s a good format if you have some accomplishments to demonstrate, but not enough to write a chronological resume.
High School Resume Layout
Your high school resume layout should be clean and professional to make the document easy to scan and read. Here are some tips on how you can achieve that:
Resume Layout Guidelines
Length. Your resume should be one page long, as you likely don’t have enough experience to warrant a second page.
Font. Use one of the established fonts for your resume, like Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica. Avoid stylized and script typefaces that are difficult to read.
Text size. Size should be 10–12 pt for regular text and 14–16 pt for section headings.
Margins. Margins should be uniform and at least 1 inch on all sides.
Line spacing. Set line spacing to 1.0 or 1.15.
High School Resume Sections
There are five essential sections you should include in every high school resume, and they are:
Mandatory Sections
Contact information
Resume objective (or summary)
Work experience
Education
Skills
After these mandatory sections, you can include a few optional ones. As long as these sections are relevant to the role you’re applying for, they can help you validate your credentials. Some sections to consider include:
Optional Sections
Extracurricular/club activities
Personal projects
Languages
Hobbies and interests
Volunteer work
Awards and achievements
If all this looks overwhelming, you should try Resume.co’s builder. We created an AI-powered tool that you can use to craft a job-winning resume from scratch and in minutes, even if you’ve never written a resume before.
Simply pick a template, input your details, use artificial intelligence to polish your writing and include the right keywords, and let the tool design your resume. You can add or rearrange sections with the click of a button, as well as change font, colors, and layout.
Once you’re finished, you can send a link to your resume to the recruiter for free or opt for a premium membership and download a PDF document.
High School Resume Template
Here’s one of the many high school resume templates that you’ll find when you use our resume builder:
High School Resume Template
Name and Surname
Phone number: 000-000-0000 | Email: namesurname@gmail.com | Location: City, State
[Adjective] [your job title] with [years of experience, if applicable] in [your area of expertise, if applicable] looking for a [position] job at [company name]. Eager to apply [relevant skills] gained through [work/volunteer/other experience] to help [company name] [mention what you can do for the company].
Work Experience
Most Recent/Current Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Previous Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Oldest Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For older jobs, use 2-3 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Education
[Degree] in [Major] [University/college name] [Start date] - [Graduation date]
Skills
Soft Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Hard Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Additional Sections
Add any relevant additional sections (languages, licenses, publications, hobbies, etc.)
High School Resume Contact Information
Contact information is a standard section that goes in the header of your resume. It should display the following details:
Header Details
Your name
Job title
Phone number
Email address
There are some optional details you can include (as long as they are relevant to the role you’re after), such as:
Optional Details
Location (but only city and state, for privacy reasons)
LinkedIn
Social media handles
Personal website or portfolio
Here’s an example of what this section should look like:
Resume Header Example
Julie Jordan
Graphic Designer
818-252-1658
North Hollywood, CA
linkedin.com/ln/juliejordan
julieportfolio.com
Details that you shouldn’t add to your contact information section include:
Your photo
Sensitive personal information (e.g., Social Security number, gender, religion, political affiliations)
Unprofessional email address
Resume Objective For a High Schooler
A resume objective is a brief introductory paragraph written to grab the reader’s attention and impress them with your strengths. You can think of it as your “elevator pitch,” which should be between two and four sentences long.
Since you don’t have a lot of experience, you can mention your skills and traits, and you can emphasize your career goals. For maximum impact, try to connect your abilities to the company’s needs.
Here’s an example of a resume objective written by someone applying for their first job:
Resume Objective Example for First-Time Job Seekers
“Motivated high school sophomore with a 3.8 GPA looking for an entry-level position at [Company Name]. Proficient in contemporary marketing trends with excellent organizational and collaboration skills. Eager to learn new techniques while supporting senior marketers in achieving their sales goals.”
Let’s take a look at another example of a career-focused intern:
Resume Objective Example for Career-Focused Interns
“Aspiring graphic designer and a high school senior adept at using Adobe Creative Cloud. Eager to leverage creative skills and familiarity with contemporary design styles to contribute to [Company Name] as an intern. Dedicated to assisting senior designers in high-quality projects on the road to becoming a creative director.”
What to Do With the Professional Experience Section?
You can write a strong and compelling professional experience section as a student, even if you’re creating a high school resume for your first job. The idea is to use activities other than professional employment, such as school projects, informal work, or volunteering.
Once you find an activity that fits, you can format it like a regular work experience section by including the following:
Work Experience Section Formatting
Job title or role name
The name of the project or organization
Work dates
Accomplishments
Accomplishments are the most important part of this section, as they demonstrate your potential and expertise. Here are some tips on how to make this part stand out:
How to Add Accomplishments
Use a list instead of a paragraph, as it is easier to read.
Include 3–5 bullet points with unique achievements.
If you’re adding multiple jobs or projects, do so in reverse-chronological order.
Focus on the results over ordinary tasks and assignments.
Add numbers to quantify your efforts and make your achievements concrete.
Leverage action verbs and power words to make your writing more memorable.
High School Resume With Experience
There are various activities you can use for your high school resume with no work experience as a substitute for professional history. Some examples include part-time jobs, participation in a family business, babysitting or tutoring, volunteer experience, leadership roles in clubs and sports, school projects, etc.
Here’s an example of a high school resume where a candidate used their work on a school project to write a strong experience section:
Example of Relevant Work Experience
Work Experience
Graphic Designer North Hollywood High School, North Hollywood, CA October 2025–December 2025
Redesigned graphical elements for a course to rebalance visual hierarchy and improve placement, boosting the engagement and readability by 27%.
Conceptualized title pages in Canva, receiving a 95% positive feedback rate from the teachers.
Collaborated with three teachers to adjust and reorganize PowerPoint slides and improve the flow of the course presentation.
High School Resume Education Section
The education section of your high school resume is there to validate your skills. At a minimum, it should include the following information:
Education Section
Your degree (if you’ve recently graduated)
The school’s name
Your years of attendance
If you have a modest work experience section and some notable academic accomplishments to mention (e.g., a national average GPA is ~3.11, so you can include yours if it’s 3.5 or higher), you can list them as bullet points.
Let’s see what that looks like in a sample of a high school resume:
High School Resume Education Example
Education
High School Degree North Hollywood High School, North Hollywood, CA 2022–2026 (expected graduation)
GPA: 3.8/4.0
Relevant Coursework: Color Theory, Typography, Layout, and Composition
You can add your degree even if you haven’t graduated yet, as long as the date is close and you’ve marked it as “expected.”
High School Resume Skills
When creating a skills section for your high school resume, you want to create a concise list of the abilities that are most relevant to the role.
It’s important to research the company that you want to join and to carefully read the job ad before writing this section. Each skill represents a keyword for your high school resume, helping your document pass ATS screening and showing recruiters what they want to see.
Finally, once you have a collection of skills for your high school resume, you want to split them into hard and soft skills and list the two separately. Include hard skills first, since they are typically more important, and then follow up with soft skills.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are job-specific and typically taught and learned by traditional means (school, courses, certifications).
For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you may list some of the following hard skills:
Graphic Designer Skills Example
Adobe Creative Cloud
Affinity
Typography
Canva
Procreate
On the other hand, a retail associate may include some of these skills:
Retail Associate Skills Example
Customer service
Product knowledge
Inventory management
POS system operation
Sales
Soft Skills
Soft skills are transferable between professions and represent a combination of traits and interpersonal abilities.
Some of the most sought-after soft skills include:
Problem-solving
Organization
Collaboration
What Other Sections to Add to Your Resume
After adding all the mandatory sections to your resume, you can include a couple of optional ones to strengthen your case and further demonstrate your competence.
Extracurriculars / Clubs
Being a member of a club or participating in extracurricular activities shows leadership, commitment, and social involvement. You can add this section by mentioning the name of the club or the extracurricular activity and highlighting your role in it or the accomplished result.
Personal Projects
Personal projects are perfect for emphasizing initiative and demonstrating expertise. These can include anything from designing and developing a website to writing a blog, running a small online shop, or producing a YouTube tutorial.
Languages
Language skills can offer you a significant advantage, especially in people-centric roles, like customer service and retail. When adding them to your resume, make sure to highlight your proficiency level using a standardized framework (e.g., the ILR scale).
Hobbies & Interests
Hobbies and interests can add a personal touch to your resume and make it more memorable. They also make for great icebreakers during job interviews. However, you should only add them if they are somewhat relevant to the role you’re after or help you demonstrate some soft skills.
Volunteer Work
As we’ve already mentioned, volunteer work is a great substitute for professional experience, and you can add it to that part of your resume. However, you can also add it as a standalone section, in addition to work history, using the same formatting for both sections.
Awards & Achievements
Showcasing awards and achievements demonstrates that you’ve excelled in a particular area. Whether you won a sports championship or received a “Student of the Month” accolade, you can put it on your high school resume as proof that you’re a high achiever.
Do I Need a Cover Letter as a High Schooler?
Yes, you need a cover letter as a high schooler to emphasize your drive, motivation, and reason for applying. Moreover, a mere act of writing a cover letter demonstrates commitment and willingness to go the extra mile.
Plus, you get another document where you can talk about your abilities and experiences relevant to the job. Make sure to keep the letter brief (250–400 words) and not just repeat the same information from your resume.
3 Tips for Creating a Professional High School Resume
Before we wrap up, here are several expert tips that will help you polish your high school resume to perfection:
High School Resume Tips
Proofread meticulously. Even a single typo in an otherwise stellar resume can raise red flags and show a lack of attention to detail. Make sure to carefully read your resume to fix all mistakes. Use a spell-checker and ask someone else to give your document another look.
Tailor your resume. Every bit of information on your high school resume needs to be relevant to the job you’re applying for. Depending on the position you’re after, you should modify your list of skills or rewrite accomplishments to fit the narrative. This helps you present yourself as the best possible candidate.
Match it with your cover letter. Make sure that your resume and cover letter match in design and content. Instead of repeating the information between them, you should make the documents complement one another, creating a cohesive package.
Ready to jump-start your career as a high schooler?
Create my resumeClosing Thoughts
Writing a high school resume can be daunting since you likely never created one before, and you don’t have a work history like more experienced professionals. Regardless, you can still grab the recruiter’s attention with a well-written and properly structured document that emphasizes your key strengths.
Whether you’re writing a high school resume for college or your first job, remember to include all the mandatory sections and to leverage academic accomplishments and informal work. Keep a clean layout and proofread your writing, and you’re bound to leave a strong first impression.
Lastly, if you need help, don’t forget to check out our resume examples and an AI-powered software builder.
High School Resume FAQ
#1. How long should a high school resume be?
A high school resume should be one page long. Since your academic and professional history is still short, you won’t have sufficient accomplishments relevant to the job to include more than one page.
#2. Can I include volunteer work instead of jobs?
Yes, you can include volunteer work instead of a job. This is a great method for high schoolers with no professional history to show initiative, responsibility, and experience. You should treat this section as if it were real work experience, and you should list your role, organization, and achievements.
#3. Should I include references on my high school resume?
No, you shouldn’t include references on your high school resume. Adding a section about references or including a line “References available upon request” is considered obsolete and a waste of resume space. Instead, you can create a separate document with references and provide it if the recruiter asks for them.
