An Introduction to Resume Building for Students Entering High School

An Introduction to Resume Building for Students Entering High School

Resume writing for students entering high school can be daunting. How do I write my first high school resume? What should I put on my resume as a high school student? Where should I start?

These are the questions that can run through your mind when writing your first high school resume.

Thankfully, in this article, you’ll learn how to write your high school resume even when you don’t have experience.

Read on to learn more.

The reality is that resume building isn’t easy for anyone, but it can be tricky for students without much work experience.

Often, students are asked to write a resume for a job, college, or internship application or even when seeking a scholarship opportunity.

Regardless of the purpose for which you are writing a resume, you want to ensure it demonstrates who you are and why you should be considered.

According to Johnson Dereck, the author of paper writing services review, even if you don’t have much work experience, you can create a powerful high school resume emphasizing your education, volunteer work, etc.

Continue reading to learn how to create an outstanding high school resume.

Resume Building: The Format/Layout of a High School Resume

As a student entering high school, your resume will most likely be one, concise page with the following sections:

High School Resume Section One: Header

For a high school student resume, this is where you include your name, email address, contact number, and physical address.

This is how to include your details:

  • First; Last Name;
  • Email Address;
  • Phone Number;
  • Location- Your current physical address.

For your email address, ensure it’s a professional one.

Something like yourname@gmail.com will do better.

High School Resume Section Two: Objective Statement 

How to write an objective statement for a high school resume is as simple as answering the question “What is the purpose or main aim of this resume?” 

Remember that you’re either wanting to be accepted to a specific high school, get a scholarship opportunity or land your dream job. So you want to do some research to craft an impressive objective statement.

In a nutshell, your objective statement should answer the following questions concisely and satisfactorily.

  • Why should you be considered for the opportunity?
  • What makes you the best out of the others wanting the same opportunity?
  • How can this school help you reach your career goals?

You need to answer these three questions in one or two sentences.

A simple trick to make the person reading your resume is to start your objective statement with your qualifications, experiences, and goals.

You can also explore more high school student resume objective examples on the internet to know how to craft a punchy objective statement on your resume.

Once you have piqued their interest with your objective statement, keep impressing them with the other high school resume sections below.

High School Resume Section Three: Education 

In this resume section, you list your most recent educational institution attended. Keep this section brief as well. Include the name and address of the previous school you attended, class rank, or GPA. Only list your GPA if it’s good here.

Here is how to write this section:

  • Name of the school/institution you attended;
  • Years attended;
  • GPA- should be beyond 3.5;

High School Resume Section Four: Work Experience

Remember that some of the resume sections are optional.

For instance, if you have little to no experience, you can skip this section.

However, to make a stand-out high school resume, you may focus on other areas of work like volunteer experience.

You can also include informal experiences like pet sitting, lawn mowing, or any kind of work you have done to make money.

When it comes to listing work experience in your high school resume, it’d be good to include informal work than to skip this section.

This will help to demonstrate the skills you’re bringing.

You can include class projects or even other odd jobs.

This is how to include work experience in your high school resume:

  • Position held;
  • Company name( if any- you can get creative here);
  • Date of employment;
  • Responsibilities;
  • Achievements.

It’s good to mention your achievements as it helps to demonstrate your positive contributions.

Assuming you didn’t have a paid job or you were not employed by you have some volunteer experience, you can say what you achieved.

This is where you’ll need to use verbs like improved, upgraded, etc. to show accomplishments made.

Additional High School Resume Sections

As you will see in most high school student resume examples on the internet, some of these sections aren’t included but it’s good we mention them.

In fact, if your resume still has some space, this is a great opportunity to impress the one reading your resume by including these additional resume sections:

Additional Section One: Your Skills

Include a list of your skills.

For instance, you may say you’re a computer literate student with MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, or you can use Gmail effectively.

You may also state whether you’re bilingual or can speak another language apart from your native one.

This will help to demonstrate your language proficiencies as well.

Additional Resume Section Two: Extracurricular Activities 

This section provides a great opportunity to sell yourself particularly if you have a below-average GPA. Listing your extracurricular activities can turn around your high school resume.

The good news is that you can list in or out-of-school activities.

For instance, if you participate in school clubs, student societies, sports, Christian unions, etc.

Involvement in extracurricular activities shows that you’re an active student.

Additional Resume Section Three: Leadership Roles and Experience

It’s good to include the leadership skills and experience you possess when learning how to write a high resume.

Don’t fret though if you have never headed anything worth mentioning.

You could have been the leader of a club or school team. Ensure you list all these.

Include a bulleted list of your responsibilities and accomplishment for each item you include in this section.

Additional Resume Section Four: Honors and Awards

This section is also worthy of including in your high school resume as it showcases your academic and other achievements.

For instance, you could mention that you won a sports championship, you were crowned for having perfect school attendance, etc.

Additional Resume Section Five: Relevant Certifications 

Did you undertake any training that earned you some certifications?

You might have participated in community training on matters health and environmental conservation and got a certificate for that.

Include it here as well!

Additional Resume Section Six: Hobbies and Interests

Hobbies and interests might seem like filling up your resume space but adding this section to your high school resume help someone reading it to know you better.

This section is especially helpful if you have little or no extracurricular activities or work experience.

Listing hobbies and interests tells the reader who you are as a person and student.

Avoid listing any hobbies and interests to fill this section though.

A good strategy would be to look at the school you want to join then see what hobbies and interests can be relatable.

You can include your hobbies in a fun and interesting way as well.

For instance, you can share your love for ice cream.

List just a few hobbies and interests- and focus only on those that add to your profile as a student.

Additional Resume Section Seven: References 

This is the last part of your high school resume where you provide names and phone numbers of your previous teachers, coaches, etc.

In case your high will want to find out more about your character, they can call your referees.

We’re hopeful that, up to this far, we have answered your question of “what should I put on my resume as a high school student?”

In a nutshell, what to include in your high school resume should be aimed at demonstrating that you’re the right person for the opportunity at hand.

Demonstrate your competency, passion, and responsibilities, coupled with the skills you possess.

Essential Tips for Writing a High School Resume

As stated earlier, resume building isn’t only for adults applying for jobs. From time to time, students are taught how to write resumes whether when applying to college, internship, or for scholarship purposes.

In all of those situations, students are required to create outstanding resumes.

This is where you’ll find most students asking questions like:

  • How do I write my first high school resume?
  • How do you write a resume for a high school job with no experience?
  • How do I make my high school resume stand out?

If you’re wondering how to create a high school resume that stands out from others, here are practical tips to guide you.

Brainstorm before you start writing

As seen above, there are many items to include in each resume section.

While some items are optional, some are a must-have if you want to create an impressive resume.

For that reason start by thinking about your skills, special talents, abilities, and other key resume components.

Put together all the vital information and use it to craft a good high school resume.

You could also seek help from dissertation help services that offer resume writing help or someone with high school resume writing experience.

What’s important at this point is to make sure you get the resume-building process right from the onset.

Explore high school resume templates and examples

Head over to Google and search for high school resume examples or high school resume templates and you’ll be surprised by the results you’ll see.

Truthfully, the answer to how to create a high school resume without experience can be answered by just looking at the templates and examples on the internet.

When you read through multiple templates and samples, you get ideas about what to include in your high school resume.

Resume templates help to format or organize your resume content appropriately.

When using a template, ensure to modify it based on the purpose of your resume.

Make your resume functional 

As stated earlier, your high school resume needs to show who you are and what you’d bring to the table if considered for the opportunity.

For that reason, it should include the following information about you:

  • Basic information including your name, physical and email address, and phone number;
  • Schools attended including the name of the school, location, your class rank, and your completion date;
  • GPA (if above 3.5);
  • Leadership skills and roles;
  • Work experience if any (you can include informal work experience if you don’t have formal work experience);
  • Honors and awards- both academic and non-academic.

Remember to tailor your resume for the purpose it’s intended to achieve.

Follow the right resume format

A high school resume need not be wordy or difficult to understand.

Since it’s supposed to demonstrate the kind of a student you are and your abilities, you need to keep it at least one to two pages long especially if you have a lot of activities to include or work experience.

Lengthy or wordy resumes are boring to read and you don’t want to make this mistake whatsoever.

As a rule, you should focus on building a concise high school resume that’s straightforward.

This involves grabbing the readers’ attention from the first page.

Use easy-to-read and professional font- Times New Romans is the best font type for resumes.

Use action verbs 

This is especially important when writing your objective statement. 

The objective statement section allows you to shine your personality.

This is where you include useful information about yourself and the unique skills you’d bring to the table.

It gives the reader a first impression of you.

Use dynamic language and action verbs to show your experiences such as designed, created, influenced, led, taught, trained, organized, etc.

Action verbs demonstrate that you’re a doer and this is an attribute that teachers, employers, and scholarship committees consider in a resume.

Tell a story

Don’t get this point wrong though let you end up telling a story that doesn’t make any sense.

When it comes to incorporating story-telling in your resume, you’re required to connect the qualifications, skills, and abilities with the criteria for the qualifications required for a potential candidate for the opportunity.

For instance, you’d want to emphasize your leadership skills to show that you can lead a team or take leadership responsibilities when they arise.

Include extracurricular activities and community service

How you collaborate or work with others is valuable.

Extracurricular activities like school projects, participation in educational clubs, and much more are a great indicator of your personality and abilities.

They also demonstrate your passion.

Keep your high school resume brief 

Everyone is busy these days. No one has the time to read through long descriptive paragraphs.

You should focus on attracting the attention of someone who sets their eyes on your resume right away.

Apart from having a crispy resume structure, you also need to keep it as brief as possible.

Use a lot of bulleted lists to improve the readability of your resume.

Keep it simple

You must understand that, when writing your high school resume, you’re not in an English competition.

The focus is on making your resume stand out from the rest- It’s not the time to use fancy fonts, unnecessary colors, and other unprofessional elements.

Don’t clutter it, use easy-to-read fonts, and keep your resume informative.

Show consistency and commitment 

Your high school resume should demonstrate consistency and commitment.

A long list of extracurricular activities or volunteer work won’t help if all doesn’t contribute to your professional profile.

Be yourself 

Your high school resume is an extension of yourself and the cover letter.

You need the two documents to portray you as one person and not two different people.

Pretending to be someone else that you aren’t will do more harm than good to your resume.

Be honest and only include activities that represent you. It’s better to skip the activities part than to include something that doesn’t demonstrate your abilities.

Your resume is your marketing tool

Treat your resume as your marketing tool. It’s supposed to sell you, impress scholarship committees or help you land an internship during high school or college.

For that reason, you’d want to put your effort into writing an impressive resume that sells you effectively.

Proofread and edit 

The last mistake you want to make is to present your resume full of grammatical errors, spelling and punctuation mistakes, or incorrect structure. 

Once done writing it, review it comprehensively to see whether all sections are written as required.

You could also ask someone else to read it for you.

Before you present your resume, ensure it’s 99.9% correct to avoid getting a rejection.

Resume Building for Students Entering High School FAQs

Do you still have some questions or concerns about how to write a high school resume?

If so then we’re going to address that in our FAQs section below:

What should a high school student put on a resume?

A high school resume is an extension of yourself. 

For that reason, you should include your education information in the first sections as discussed earlier in this article.

Include your GPA as well and list any academic awards or other achievements.

Including extracurricular activities and volunteer experience could help to strengthen your resume.

How can I write a high school resume with no work experience?

Not having work experience for a high school student is a normal thing. Nevertheless, there are many ways of demonstrating work experience in your resume than you can imagine.

For instance, you can add activities you undertook in place of your work experience.

In the work experience section, you can include any informal work experience you have.

As long as it’s something that demonstrates your capabilities of doing something, your resume will serve its purpose even if you don’t have formal work experience.

What skills can a high school student put on a resume?

Some of the skills to include in a high school resume include reading, computer proficiency, effective communication, etc.

How long should a résumé for a high school student be?

Studies suggest that people spend about 7 seconds skimming a resume before deciding whether to continue reading or throw it away.

That means that your resume shouldn’t be too long nor too short to leave out the necessary information.

Generally, an outstanding high school resume should be one to two pages long.

The longer the resume is the more boring it is to read.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it. We hope this introduction to resume building guide for high school students entering high school answers the disturbing questions you had in mind.

The reality is that you don’t need formal work experience to create an outstanding high school resume.

You can create a compelling resume by including extracurricular activities, education qualifications, and any awards and honors you have.

Truthfully, creating a compelling high school resume can be intimidating. However, with good guidance, you can find it interesting and much more fun.

If others have made it, why not you?

It’s just a matter of knowing what to (or what not to) do and you’re good to start writing a mind-blowing resume.

To recap everything, here are some important things to keep in mind when writing your high school resume without experience:

  • You don’t have formal work experience to show? Don’t worry, substitute it with informal work experience and talk about personal or school projects you undertook, school extracurricular activities such as clubs, volunteer experience, etc.
  • Include resume sections like education, objective statement, work experience, skills, extracurricular activities, leadership roles, hobbies and interests, and any relevant certifications.
  • Keep your resume concise and to the point. Make the objective statement section count by grabbing the readers’ attention right away. Use action verbs here as well to demonstrate that you’re a doer and not a commentator.

And finally, don’t forget to leave a question, comment, or concern in the comment section.

Remember to share this post with your friends, family, and colleagues to help them as well.

Guest Author Details

Rosa Hemming is a blogger and professional content writing expert from the United States. She's keen on movies and serials. Her blog consists of lists of the best films divided by genre and for different moods.

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