High School Student resume examples

Rory is 16, has never been paid by an employer and is applying to fast-casual restaurants and stores in Tucson. The first line of the summary names the exact days Rory can work, so a manager filling a weekend schedule can decide in seconds.

Those days leave out Friday nights and Wednesday afternoons, because Rory already has a food pantry shift and a babysitting job then. Listing open days around existing commitments tells the manager the schedule will hold.

The experience section treats two years of Friday pantry shifts like a job: a title, start date, the shift hours and an attendance count. The pantry bullets use words from crew and cashier ads, such as checking in customers, restocking and lifting cases, so the manager can picture Rory on the floor.

Each of these students has a different age or job setting, and that changes what the availability line has to say. Pick the one closest to your age and the job you want, then copy its structure.

Put your availability as the first sentence of your summary, directly under your name and contact details. Teen job ads ask about it before anything else: one restaurant ad asks for weekend availability and an evening shift, and a big-box store asks for nights, weekends and holidays.

Name days and start times, not a feeling. "Monday, Tuesday and Thursday after 4 p.m." tells a manager which shifts you can take. "Flexible" tells them nothing and gets you scheduled into a practice you cannot miss.

Add a weekly total if you have one, such as "up to 20 hours a week during the school year." Leave out the times you already have a standing commitment like a team practice, a volunteer shift or a babysitting job, so the schedule you are given is one you can keep.

Write school-year and summer hours as two separate statements if they differ. For a pool, camp or other summer job, give your first and last available dates, because those employers staff for an opening day and lose students when school starts in August. If you are applying in October or November for holiday hiring, add the holiday weeks you can work, such as "all of winter break, December 19 to January 4."

If you have never had a paid job, your experience section holds the commitments you have kept over months: a volunteer shift, a sports team, a club role, babysitting for the same family or a course you finished. A manager hiring 16-year-olds reads these for one thing, which is whether you show up when scheduled.

Give each one a title, an organization, a city and a start month, the same as a job. Write "Food Pantry Volunteer" and the pantry's name, not "Volunteering." For babysitting, pet sitting or yard work, put "Private family" or "Self-employed" where the employer goes.

In the first bullet, state how often and how long. "Works the Friday 5 to 8 p.m. distribution shift" is stronger than "helps at a food pantry." If you have an attendance record, such as 87 of 90 shifts, use the number. Ask your coordinator or coach for the sign-in record if you are unsure of it.

For babysitting or dog walking, give the number of children or clients, their ages or needs, the routine you handle and how long the same family has kept you. "Picks up two children, ages 6 and 9, from school every Wednesday" shows trust that a parent gave you week after week. A client count that grew through referrals, like 1 to 4 dog walking clients, shows the same thing.

For a sports team, give the season, the practices per week and any job you held, such as equipment manager or carpool organizer. Goals scored and personal records matter less to a store manager than five practices a week for a whole season.

Then match your bullets to the words in the job ad. Crew ads list stations like grill, cashier, prep and expo. Retail ads list checkout, handheld scanners and lifting up to 44 pounds. If your pantry shift includes checking people in at a table or carrying 25-pound cases off a truck, write it in those terms.

Keep the skills section concrete. A second language you speak, cash counting from a fundraiser table, Google Sheets or childcare for a named age range are skills a manager can use. Leave out "hard worker," "team player" and "leadership," because your bullets should already prove them.

You do not need to write your age or birth date on the resume. The job application asks for it, and many employers set their own minimum: quick-service crew ads often say 16, while one city pool hires lifeguards from 15. What your resume should do is list hours the employer can legally schedule for your age.

Federal rules limit work hours for 14 and 15 year olds and set no hour limits for 16 and 17 year olds, though everyone under 18 is barred from jobs the Labor Department lists as hazardous. States can set stricter rules on hours and on which jobs teens may do, and where the state rule is stricter, it applies. Before you write your availability, check your state labor department's page on youth employment.

Work permits, sometimes called working papers, are also a state matter. Some states require one, issued through your school or the state labor department, and others do not, so it belongs on the hiring paperwork, not the resume.

A job resume is not the same as the one you send with college or scholarship applications. A college or scholarship resume leads with GPA, honors courses, awards and leadership titles. A job resume leads with availability and the commitments that show you are reliable, so keep two files and send the right one.

On a job resume, education is one entry: your school, its city and your expected graduation month and year, such as "High School Diploma, Expected May 2028." Add a GPA only if it is 3.5 or higher, and leave off class rank and test scores.

List a course only when it matches the job. Spanish 3 helps for a role where you will serve Spanish-speaking customers. A culinary arts class helps for a kitchen crew job. AP Biology does not help at a grocery register.

Keep a club or student government role only if you can describe work a manager would recognize. "Ran the cash box at 6 home basketball games for the band fundraiser" belongs on a cashier resume. "Class treasurer" on its own does not tell the manager what you did.

If you are a senior, say how long you can stay. A note that you plan to attend college nearby and keep working tells a manager you are worth training for a lead role. If you are leaving in August, give that date on a summer job resume so the employer can plan around it.

Use the college version for internships, summer academic programs and scholarship applications, which ask for the grades and awards a job resume leaves out.