High school student resume: free template, example and how to write one

You want a weekend job at a shop, a summer job at a café or a camp, or a volunteer role, and the application asks for a resume. You have never had a job, so the page feels empty before you start. Almost everyone applying for a first job is in the same position, and the managers who hire for these roles know that. They don’t expect a work history from a 16-year-old.

What they want to know is whether you will turn up on time, be polite to customers and pick things up quickly. You can show that on one page with your school, what you do outside school and any small jobs you have already done. In some countries a resume is called a CV; for a first job the advice is the same.

What a manager looks for on a teen resume

When a store manager, a café owner or a camp director reads a first-time applicant’s resume, they usually check:

• Can I reach this person? A phone number and an email that work.
• When can they work? After school, weekends, the summer holidays.
• Are they reliable? Anything that shows you stuck with something: a team, a club, a regular babysitting job.
• Can they deal with people? Customers, children, older people, teammates.
• Will they learn quickly? School results, responsibilities, things you taught yourself.

None of these needs a paid job to prove. The sections below show where each one goes.

The best order for a high school resume

1. Header: name, phone, email, town.
2. Summary: two or three sentences.
3. Education: your school.
4. Experience: paid, informal and volunteer work.
5. Activities and achievements: sports, clubs, awards.
6. Skills and languages.
7. Availability.
8. References, or a line saying you can provide them.

All of this fits on one page. If yours runs onto a second page, cut words before you shrink the font.

The header: make it easy to call you back

• Your full name, larger than everything else.
• A phone number you answer, with a voicemail greeting that says your name. Managers often call back from a number you don’t know, so pick up or check your voicemail during the days after you apply.
• An email address that looks grown-up. Make a new one with your name in it if you need to.
• Your town or city. A full street address isn’t needed.

Weak: xx.gamerqueen.xx@email.com

Strong: amara.chen@example.com

Leave out your ID number, height, weight and anything about your health or religion. Whether to add a photo depends on the country: in some places it’s expected, in others employers prefer you leave it off. Our guide to resume photos by country explains where.

Write a short summary

Two or three sentences at the top tell the manager who you are before they read the details. Say what year of school you are in, what you have done and what you are looking for.

Weak: I am a hard-working teenager looking for any job to gain experience.

Strong: Final-year high school student, available weekends and the full summer holiday. Two years of regular babysitting for three families and a volunteer role at a local food bank. Looking for a part-time job in a café or shop.

“Any job” tells the manager you haven’t thought about theirs. Change the last sentence for each place you apply to, so it names the kind of job they are hiring for:

Looking for a summer job as a camp assistant, working with children aged 6 to 12.

Looking for a weekend job on the shop floor of a sports store.

Education: your main section for now

At this stage your school is the biggest thing on the page, so it goes near the top.

• School name, town and years. If you are still studying, write the year you expect to finish: “2023 to June 2027 (expected)”.
• Your grade average, only if it’s strong. Use the scale your school uses. If it’s average or low, leave it out; most part-time employers won’t ask for it.
• One or two subjects that fit the job. Maths for a till job, a foreign language for a tourist area, biology or sport for a summer camp.
• Awards and honours: a school prize, a top result, a place on an honours list, a competition.

High School Diploma (expected) · Riverside High School, Hamilton · 2023 to June 2027

• Grade average: 89%
• School prize for most improved student in mathematics, 2025

Experience: you have more than you think

Experience includes paid work, unpaid work, regular favours you have done for neighbours and helping in a family business. If you did it more than once and someone relied on you, it can go on your resume.

What you did	How to write it on your resume
Looked after neighbours’ children	Babysitter (self-employed)
Walked dogs or fed pets for neighbours	Pet sitter and dog walker (self-employed)
Helped in your family’s shop or restaurant	Shop assistant, family business
Helped younger students with homework	Peer tutor
Helped at a food bank, shelter or community event	Volunteer, with the organisation’s name
Coached a younger team	Assistant coach
Sold things you made online or at a market	Small online shop (self-run)

Write each one like a real job: a title, the place, the dates and one to three bullet points. Start each bullet with a verb and add a number when it’s true.

Weak: Babysitting. Looked after kids sometimes.

Strong:
Babysitter · Self-employed, Hamilton · 2024 to present

• Look after two children, ages 4 and 7, every Friday evening and during school holidays.
• Prepare dinner, help with reading practice and handle bedtime on my own.
• Families have recommended me to two other households.

A café or shop manager reads that as: trusted to work alone, comes back every week, and people recommend her.

Verbs that suit first jobs: served, prepared, helped, looked after, organised, sold, taught, cleaned, stocked, counted, welcomed, packed. Use the one that says what you did; “helped” is fine when helping was the job.

If you really have nothing in this section yet, skip it and give more room to activities. Our guide to a resume with no experience has more ideas for filling a thin page.

Activities, sports and clubs

Teams and clubs show commitment over time, and a role with responsibility shows you can be trusted. Write the role, the group, the dates and what you did.

Captain, under-17 basketball team · Riverside High School · 2025 to 2026

• Ran warm-ups before every game and kept the practice schedule for 12 players.

Other good examples: student council, a school newspaper, a band or choir, a drama production, a coding club, a charity fundraiser you helped run. A long list of hobbies adds little; pick the few where you did something.

Skills: list what you can actually do

Pick skills that match the job and that you could show on your first day.

• Shops and cafés: handling cash (if you have done it), serving customers, food hygiene training if you have a certificate.
• Tutoring and childcare: subjects you are strong in, a first aid course, experience with a specific age group.
• Office or admin roles: Google Docs and Sheets, Word and Excel, typing, email.
• Anything with the public: the languages you speak, with a level (“Spanish: conversational”).

Skip vague words like “hard-working” or “team player”. Show those in your experience and activities instead. For more on choosing skills, see our resume skills section guide.

Say when you can work

Shift-based jobs are planned around who is free when, so your availability is useful information. Put it on one line near the bottom:

Availability: weekdays after 4 pm, Saturdays and Sundays all day, full-time from 1 July to 31 August.

Be honest. If you have exams in June, say you are free from the date they end. If you promise hours you can’t work, the schedule falls apart in your first month and the manager remembers it.

If you are under 18, some places limit the hours you can work or ask for a work permit or a parent’s consent before you start. You don’t need to put this on your resume, but look up the rules where you live so you have an answer if the manager asks.

References

For a first job, a reference can be a teacher, a coach, a volunteer coordinator or a family you babysit for. Avoid relatives. Always ask the person before you use their name, and tell them what job you are applying for so they are ready for a call.

You can list one or two names with contact details, or write “References available on request”. Our guide to references on a resume covers what to write and how to ask.

Full example: high school student resume

Here is a complete one-page resume for a fictional student. Replace every detail with your own. It is the same resume as the template near the top of this page, so you can also open it in the editor and change it there.

Amara Chen
Café and retail assistant
Hamilton, ON · (905) 555-0142 · amara.chen@example.com

Summary
Final-year high school student, available weekends and the full summer holiday. Two years of regular babysitting and a year volunteering at a food bank, where I serve visitors and stock shelves. Looking for a part-time job as a café or retail assistant.

Education
High School Diploma (expected) · Riverside High School, Hamilton · 2023 to June 2027

• Grade average: 89%
• School prize for most improved student in mathematics, 2025

Experience
Babysitter · Self-employed, Hamilton · 2024 to present

• Look after two children, ages 4 and 7, every Friday evening and during school holidays.
• Families have recommended me to two other households.

Volunteer · Hamilton Community Food Bank · 2025 to present

• Greet visitors, pack food parcels and restock shelves on Saturday mornings.
• Helped organise a school food drive that filled 40 boxes.

Activities
Captain, under-17 basketball team · 2025 to 2026
Member, school environment club · 2024 to present

Skills
Customer service, stock and shelf organisation, Google Docs and Sheets, first aid course (2025)

Languages
English (native), Mandarin (conversational)

Availability
Weekdays after 4 pm, weekends all day, full-time 1 July to 31 August

References
References available upon request.

Want more layouts to compare? Browse the resume examples.

Sending it: a short message helps

Many first jobs are applied for by email or by dropping off a printed copy. A few lines with your resume make you look prepared:

Hello, I’m applying for the weekend team member job at Corner Café. I’m in my final year at Riverside High School and I’m free every weekend and full-time over the summer. I’ve attached my resume. I’d be glad to come in for a chat or a trial shift whenever it suits you. Thank you, Amara Chen

For an email, put the job and your name in the subject line (“Weekend team member: Amara Chen”) and attach the resume as a PDF.

If you are dropping it off in person, go at a quiet time (mid-morning or mid-afternoon on a weekday, not the lunch rush), ask for the manager and bring a clean printed copy. For longer applications, our guide on how to write a cover letter walks through a full letter.

If you hear nothing after a week, one polite follow-up is fine: a short email or a visit asking whether they are still hiring.

Common mistakes on a first resume

• Making things up. A manager may call your reference or ask about it in the interview, and a small job written honestly beats a big one you can’t talk about.
• Spelling mistakes. Ask a parent, teacher or friend to read it before you send it.
• Two pages. One page is plenty; cut the hobbies list and the second skills line first.
• A hard-to-read design. Pick a clean layout with normal fonts and one accent colour.
• The same summary for every job. A camp and a clothes shop want different things, so change the last sentence each time.
• An email address or voicemail you would be embarrassed by. Fix both before you send the first application.

Checklist before you send it

• Name, phone, sensible email and town at the top
• Two or three sentence summary that names the kind of job you want
• School with dates, plus a grade or award only if it's strong
• Babysitting, volunteering, family business or tutoring written like real jobs
• Activities with your role and dates
• Skills you can prove and languages with a level
• Clear availability line
• References asked first, or "available on request"
• One page, checked for spelling, saved as FirstName-LastName-Resume.pdf

Make your first resume

You can start your first resume in AlderCV without creating an account: pick one of the templates, fill in your details and download a watermark-free PDF when you’re ready. Downloading needs a free account, and the free plan includes every template. If a manager asks for a Word file instead, you can download that too.