How to Write a Resume as a High School Student (With No Experience)

You Have More to Put on a Resume Than You Think

The biggest worry for a high school student writing a first resume is "I have no experience, so what do I even put on it?" The good news: a resume is not just a list of past jobs. It is a summary of what you can do and what you've shown you're capable of, and you have more of that than you realize. Coursework, grades, clubs, sports, volunteering, projects, and any informal work all count.

This guide walks through exactly what to include when you don't have a traditional job history yet, how to structure it, and how to make a first resume that actually gets you the part-time job, internship, or program you're applying for.

What to Include When You Have No Job Experience

Build your resume from what you do have. For most high school students, that means these sections:

• Contact information: Your name, phone number, email, and city. Use a professional-sounding email address, not a nickname from middle school.
• Education: Your high school, expected graduation year, and GPA if it's strong (generally 3.5 or above). Add relevant honors, AP or advanced courses, and academic awards.
• Activities and leadership: Clubs, sports teams, student government, band, debate. Any role where you showed commitment or led something.
• Volunteer work: Community service, helping at events, tutoring, religious or community organizations. Employers value this highly in young applicants.
• Skills: Languages, software, technical abilities, certifications (like CPR or a food handler's card).
• Projects: Science fair projects, a coding project, a fundraiser you organized, anything you built or ran.
• Informal work: Babysitting, lawn mowing, pet sitting, tutoring, helping in a family business. This is real experience. List it.

How to Structure It

Keep it to one page, in a simple single-column layout. Put your strongest section first. If your grades are your highlight, lead with Education. If you've done impressive volunteer or leadership work, lead with that.

A clean, standard format matters even for a first resume, because many employers (even for part-time roles) screen applications with software. A simple layout with standard headings parses correctly and reads easily. The ATS-Friendly Resume Template shows the structure to follow.

Write About Activities Like They're Jobs

This is the trick that makes a no-experience resume strong. Don't just name your activities. Describe what you did and what came of it, the same way you'd describe a job.

Weak: "Member of the school robotics club."

Strong: "Built and programmed a competition robot as part of a 5-person team that placed 3rd at the regional FIRST Robotics tournament."

Weak: "Volunteered at the animal shelter."

Strong: "Volunteered 60+ hours over one summer caring for animals, walking dogs, and helping at two adoption events that found homes for 15 pets."

Each strong version starts with an action, adds a number, and ends with a result. That is the same formula that powers any good resume bullet, and you can apply it to clubs, sports, and volunteering. The full method, with more examples, is in the Resume Bullet Rewriting Guide.

Use Numbers Wherever You Can

Numbers make a young resume credible. You have more of them than you think:

• Hours: "Volunteered 60+ hours"
• People: "Tutored 8 younger students in math"
• Money: "Raised $1,200 for the school trip through a bake sale"
• Results: "Grew the club from 12 to 30 members"
• Rankings: "Placed 2nd of 24 teams"

Even rough numbers beat none. "Babysat regularly for three families" is stronger than "babysat."

Add a Short Summary or Objective

Because you're early on, a brief objective statement can help frame who you are and what you're after. Keep it specific:

"Motivated high school junior with strong communication skills and 100+ hours of volunteer experience, seeking a part-time retail position to build customer service experience."

One or two lines is enough. If you can't make it specific, leave it out rather than filling it with generic phrases.

Common First-Resume Mistakes to Avoid

• Listing hobbies with no relevance. "Watching movies" and "hanging out with friends" don't help. Activities that show skill or commitment do.
• Using a flashy template. Stick to a clean, simple layout. Graphics and colors can break screening software and don't impress employers.
• Inflating or inventing experience. Be honest. Babysitting is fine to list as it is.
• Typos. Proofread carefully and have a parent, teacher, or counselor read it. A clean resume signals you care.
• Including a photo or personal details like your full address or birthdate. They aren't needed and can cause problems.

The Bottom Line

A first resume isn't about a long job history. It's about showing you're responsible, capable, and worth a chance. Pull together your school record, activities, volunteering, and any informal work, describe them with action and numbers, keep the format clean, and proofread it. That's a resume that can land your first real opportunity. When you're ready to go deeper, How to Write an Effective Resume covers the fundamentals that apply at every stage.