High School Student Resume Examples: 5 Best Samples and Why They Work

Are you looking to join the workforce as a high school student or a fresh high school graduate?

You’re not alone.

According to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in May 2022, 5.5 million U.S. teens ages 16-19 held jobs, and many more are looking to join the workforce this year.

It can be intimidating to curate a resume that will grab the attention of HR or recruiters, even as an experienced professional.

But don’t worry, it is not impossible.

We put together this list of high school student resume examples to help you land a job.

There are several templates of resumes and reasons why each example works for high school students.

High School Student Resume Examples

People hiring students don’t expect the most accomplished resumes, so you don’t have to worry that much about not being able to fill the whole sheet with work experience.

However, your high school resume can wow any recruiter and help you get the job if you fill it properly.

It should show that you can do the job by highlighting your relevant skills, achievements, and accreditations.

These resume templates and examples are helpful for high school students who are trying to land their first job or internship.

They offer tips on how to make a great first impression and get yourself an interview.

If you choose to use any of these resume templates, remember to add your name and contact information at the start.

First Job High School Student Resume Example

Don’t worry if you’re just stepping into the job market as a high school student and have no work experience.

We all start from somewhere and work our way up.

Even without any work experience, you can write a detailed and ATS-friendly resume.

Your focus should stay on volunteer or school club work.

Here is a great resume example template for an internship at a women’s empowerment NGO you can use:

Work Experience 1

2019 – Current: Volunteer, Pittsburgh Women’s Shelter

• Worked as a cleaner the first year, creating a clean environment for the women to feel safe and comfortable in.
• Worked as a data entry clerk for six months, detailing information to be sent to relevant authorities
• Helped in collecting food and clothing items from donation drives
• Planned and executed women’s marches every year in our area
• Planned donation drives at the start of every season to get clothing items and dry foodstuff

Work Experience 2

2018 – 2022: Volunteer Leader, Hartford Children’s Summer Camp

• Coached soccer for girls aged 4-5 and helped them increase their sporting skills
• Acted as bunk leader for dorms of girls aged 9-11
• Led camp games and sports for children aged 5-9 and arranged different games for each group
• Helped with food service at camps
• Aided in performing first aid, decreasing chances of serious issues and further injury

Project Experience

• Created a gender violence awareness campaign that included a school play and drives to collect donations for the women’s shelter
• Made a documentary on the effects of grooming on high school teens
• Wrote a script that was selected as the best for the theater play to be performed at Christmas

Skills

• Video editing
• Photography
• Creative Writing
• Verbal Communication
• Data entry
• Leadership

Education

2019 – Current

• Sun Valley High School
• GPA 3.1
• Relevant Coursework: Social Studies, Mathematics, A.P History
• Expected Graduation Date: 2023
• Membership: Law Club, Yearbook Committee

Licenses & Accreditations

• Microsoft Office Suite
• French Delf B1

Why This Resume Works

Lacking experience should not keep you from applying for a job you want.

You can still fill the experience portions of the resume with the right wording.

This resume focuses on volunteer experience and school projects of a particular student.

It highlights any experience that could be useful as an intern at a Women’s Empowerment NGO.

If you lack experience, you can use the same template to help you curate the perfect resume.

Don’t skip the work experience and skills section and only list education and projects.

Instead, highlight your volunteer work or any prominent school positions you’ve held.

Experience as a religious or political/social movement volunteer or leader also counts.

The point is to showcase your work ethic and relevant skills through projects, school work, and volunteering.

Experienced High School Student Resume Example

If you have worked as a paid professional before, it may be a little easier to craft a resume.

Whether you’re applying for a higher position or trying to change employers, your current work experience is more than enough as a high school student.

Focus on highlighting the relevant jobs you’ve held and what skills are transferable to the new position.

Here is an example of a resume for a sales associate job at a clothing store:

Work Experience 1

2021 – Current: Sales Associate, Dicks Sporting Goods

• Cleaning and organizing shelves to allow customers better access to products
• Setting up merchandising displays for sales and offers
• Completing customer transactions
• Successfully and calmly handling customer complaints and concerns
• Doing product inventory every Saturday

Work Experience 2

2020 – 2021 Cashier, Mcdonalds

• Greeted and welcomed customers with a cheery and open disposition
• Served hundreds of customers a day by taking orders
• Recommended products and promoted special deals and increased revenue by up to 11%
• Collected payments and kept track of payment records to ensure they remained accurate
• Ensured clean and sanitized premises

Project Experience

• Created a digital fashion magazine focusing on affordable and unique fashion for high schoolers
• Wrote and delivered a speech on sustainable but profitable fashion business models
• Wrote a letter that helped convince the principal of my high school to open after-school courses for students that needed assignment help.

Skills

• Photography
• Written Communication
• Outgoing
• Record keeping
• Problem-solving
• Sales

Education

2020 – Current

• Greenwood High School
• GPA 3.71
• Relevant Coursework: Business studies, A.P English, Mathematics
• Expected Graduation Date: 2024
• Membership: Yearbook Committee, Fashion Club, Debate Club

Licenses & Accreditations

• German A2
• Basic Spanish

Why This Resume Works

This high school student resume works because it focuses on highlighting transferable job skills.

The work experience, projects, and skills listed are all useful as a sales associate at a clothing store.

Instead of randomly listing everything they did at previous jobs, this student focused on highlighting the work that showcased their relevant skills.

They also added metrics where they could which recruiters love to see.

Work experience makes it easy to fill a resume page and highlight relevant skills.

However, it can become detrimental when you begin listing every position you’ve held and skill you have.

Use the job description or type of company as a guide on what to include and what to leave out.

Corporate Internship High School Student Resume Example

If you are looking to get a corporate internship as a high school student, you need to highlight the relevant job skills properly.

Corporate internships are very competitive and you are usually competing with college students or recent college graduates for the job.

Before you craft your resume, read through the job description thoroughly.

Find a way to showcase the relevant job skills while staying true to the work you’ve actually done.

Initiative, self-management, and effective communication skills are very attractive on internship resumes.

Here is an example of an internship at a consulting firm:

Work Experience 1

May 2022 – September 2022: Receptionist, Willford Building

• Filed and faxed paperwork to the relevant office within the building.
• Created a digitized and accessible filing system for registering walk-ins.
• Managed the front desk and acted as the first point of contact for clients.
• Created bulletin boards displaying important information in an organized manner.
• Responsible for overseeing a clean and sanitized reception area

Work Experience 2

June 2021 – May 2022: Server, Blakely’s

• Ensured timely delivery of customer’s food
• Helped customers place their food and beverage orders
• Maintained a clean, sanitized, and safe environment for diners
• Handled payments
• Received and handled customer complaints and critics

Project Experience

• Wrote a business plan for an online thrift shop
• Made a board game to help my group understand investing and wealth creation
• Helped to create and schedule activities at my grandmother’s asylum

Skills

• Friendly
• Punctual
• Organized
• Verbal and written communication
• Data entry
• Reliable

Education

2020 – Current

• Bradford High School
• GPA 3.9
• Relevant Coursework: Business Studies, Mathematics, A.P French
• Expected Graduation Date: 2023
• Membership: Student Leadership, French Club

Licenses & Accreditations

• French Delf C2

Why This Resume Works

With minimal to no work experience as a high school student, your resume should focus on highlighting job-relevant skills.

This resume does this by using action verbs to showcase the data entry, filing, leadership, and reliability the student has.

The resume is concise but manages to highlight all the relevant skills and experience.

Also notice that there is no focus on religious or political beliefs.

While you can use experience in religious or political institutions, highlight job-relevant transferable skills and not personal belief systems.

Working for Corporate usually means leaving politics and religion at the door and focusing on common company goals.

If you highlight beliefs as skills such as “Prayed and fasted for sick children at a hospital”, it doesn’t do you any favors.

Customer Service High School Student Resume Example

Customer service is a great industry for a high school student to try out.

It helps you understand people, the sales and aftersales process, and how to handle negative situations.

All these skills enable you to work better in other career fields.

Finding a job in customer service as a high school student is not as tricky as you’d imagine.

Here is a resume example you can use:

Work Experience 1

2021 – Current: Retail Sales Associate, Macy’s

• Exceeded annual sales targets by 12%, earning the sales associate of the year award in 2022
• Helped costumes find their ideal clothing items by providing practical, personalized, and informed fashion advice
• Promoted the Macy’s loyalty program and increased subscriptions by 17%
• Fielded customer inquiries on inventory and seasonal fashion advice
• Collaborated with manager to coordinate items for seasonal campaigns

Work Experience 2

2020 – 2021: Barista, Cup of Joe

• Curated 3 new coffee orders that increased sales by 13%
• Memorized 100+ drink orders daily to fulfill unique customer requests
• Collaborated with 4 team members to coordinate opening and closing procedures as well as the crafting of drinks and pastry baking
• Communicated with Spanish-speaking customers to increase customer base by 17%
• Upsold seasonal drinks to meet sales targets and exceeded them by 4%

Project Experience

• Built a website that helped a person find their perfect coffee order based on fun, randomized trivia questions
• Planned, marketed, and participated in a fashion show at school that highlighted how and where to seek mental health help

Skills

• Listening
• Web design
• Communication
• Sales
• Multilingual

Education

2019  – Current

• Oak Trails High School
• Relevant Coursework: English, Mathematics
• Expected Graduation Date: 2023
• Membership: Cheerleading, Photography, Spanish Club

Licenses & Accreditations

• Spanish DELE C2
• Web Design
• St. John’s First Aid

Why This Resume Works

When looking to get hired into a customer service role, you need to highlight people skills.

This resume does a good job of showcasing these plus other skills like data entry and order tracking.

Whether or not you have had a customer service job, you can tailor your resume to fit a customer service job description.

Focus on any experience you’ve had in a people-facing role including school clubs, volunteer work, and political events.

Office Worker High School Student Resume Example

Getting an office job is a significant step up for many high school students.

Office jobs are not as fast-paced and client-facing as sales or customer service jobs.

You’ll most likely work in an air-conditioned office which is great, especially for those hot summer months.

Office jobs also equip you with lots of corporate skills you can use to land your next internship or job and prepare you for office politics.

Here is how you can craft a resume to land an office job as a high school student:

Work Experience 1

June 2022 – Current: Clerk, Playton Group

• Advanced 15+ data books by digitizing the system, decreasing project completion time by 15%
• Ensured accurate entry and editing of data for customer records
• Developed an online request form system that enabled clients to schedule and follow up on appointments faster
• Entered data on 150+ documents and files
• Utilized DM software like Google Drive

Work Experience 2

2020 – 2022:English and History Tutor, Hartford High School

• Coached 4 students annually through their 7th History class presentation project
• Conducted 5 virtual and 3 in-home weekly tutoring sessions for 3rd to 5th-grade English
• Conducted 4 virtual tutoring sessions weekly for 6th-grade History
• Administered biweekly quizzes to check knowledge and comprehension for both history and English
• Curated quick-reading flashcards for both English and History to enable exam readiness

Project Experience

• Created a progressive History trivia project that captured knowledge from grades 4 to 8 that won second place at the District fair
• Played in the junior varsity soccer team that won 2nd place in the state competition in 2021
• Wrote a fiction short story that won third place in the Novelty Fantasy Reads Competition
• Wrote and self-published a children’s book that currently has 70 sales on Amazon

Skills

• Writing
• Listening
• Reliable
• Data entry
• Punctual

Education

2021 – Current

• Phillips Andover Academy
• GPA 4.0
• Relevant Coursework: Mathematics, A.P English, A.P History
• Expected Graduation Date: 2024
• Membership: Student Leadership, Film Club, History Club

Licenses & Accreditations

• C#
• Microsoft Office Suite
• Red Cross First Aid

Why This Resume Works

As an office worker, you will spend a lot of time filing and filling out paperwork, doing data entry, and handling other mundane and monotonous tasks.

Your resume should reflect that you can handle the average day-to-day and manage yourself while keeping accurate records.

A Microsoft Office Suite certification is a big advantage.

This resume highlights such experience and qualifications.

It also focuses more on hard skills than a sales associate or customer service resume would.

If you’ve done any clerical work, even as a secretary for a school club, you can comfortably apply for an office worker role.

Common Skills & Action Verbs to Include On a High School Student Resume

Skills and action verbs are the key to resume optimization.

ATS systems scan for specific words when you submit your application.

This is what determines whether or not your resume gets to the hiring team or recruiter or gets tossed aside.

To ensure your high school student resume gets considered, you need to optimize it for ATS systems that scan for the skills and action verb keywords.

Common Skills for High School Student Resumes

Here are some of the most common soft and hard skills you can highlight in your high school student resume:

• Customer service
• Verbal and written communication
• Friendly
• Fundraising
• Microsoft Excel
• Event planning
• Guest Services
• Presentation
• Event promotion
• Data entry
• Record keeping
• Email scheduling and organizing
• Making appointments
• Listening
• Flexibility
• Multilingual
• Reliable
• Persistent
• Punctual
• Takes Initiative
• Attention to details

Common Action Verbs for High School Student Resumes

To stand out and prove your skills, use some of these action verbs in your resume:

• Negotiated
• Achieved
• Accomplished
• Elevated
• Conceptualized
• Aided
• Served
• Collaborated
• Wrote
• Built
• Created
• Innovated
• Initiated
• Advanced
• Classified
• Recorded
• Supervised
• Enhanced

Tips for Writing a Better High School Student Resume

Writing a resume for the first time is intimidating.

There is a lot you don’t know and too much information that can quickly become overwhelming.

Do not stress over the minute details and try to apply the thousands of tips online.

Here are the four best tips to keep in mind when writing your high school student resume:

Use Action Verbs

Action verbs bring your resume to life.

Instead of simply listing what you did, explain what you did.

Use action verbs to showcase your skills and make the recruiter see that you can perform at the job.

The job description can work as a guide when looking for the right action verbs to use.

Anything listed in responsibilities and requirements can be rewritten using an action verb to highlight relevant experience in your resume.

Add In Metrics Where Possible

Performance metrics and data show how good you are at a specific job.

They elevate action verbs and skills by showing that you did what you say you did.

Numbers never lie and they boost resumes exponentially.

If you don’t have access to metrics, don’t sweat it.

However, if you can provide numbers showing the impact of your work, always do so.

This can be an increase in subscribers, followers, sales, contracts, or revenue.

You can also highlight the number of people you managed or helped on the hours you put in.

Keep It Simple and Professional

Your resume should be as simple and concise as possible.

Avoid using too many words, colors, font types, and font sizes.

Keep everything minimal and uniform.

Don’t try out eclectic resume templates from design websites or apps.

You want the recruiter to focus on your skills and experience and not get distracted by the look of your resume.

Avoid adding any unprofessional titles or words.

This means you cannot use slang, vulgar language, or your childhood email address.

Keep it clean and use professional language when writing your achievements.

Ensure you create a new, professional email address before you apply for the job.

Don’t Exaggerate

It is tempting to try and make yourself look perfect and exaggerate what you’ve done, especially for corporate internships.

Don’t give in to this temptation.

If you get an interview based on a fake resume, you will struggle to pass the interview.

It will be hard to expound on something you never did.

If you somehow pass the interview and get the job, you will most likely fail at it.

However much you want to gaslight and girl boss very close to the sun, don’t do it.

Instead, focus on highlighting your best skills and qualifications.

You’re in high school, don’t be harsh on yourself.

Recruiters are not expecting a perfectly filled resume from a high school student.

They want authentic, hard-working, and positive people to do the job.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions frequently asked by high school students regarding their resumes as listed on Google:

Similar Resume Types to Reference

You may have just completed high school and are looking to apply to college with the perfect resume.

Or maybe you’re trying to enter the job market as a college student looking for a course-relevant internship.

Whatever the case, check out these resume templates to help you get started:

• Entry-Level Resume: If you’re looking to break into the job market, use these entry-level resume template examples to help you land the job. Whether you are new to the job market, switching career fields, or rejoining the workforce after a career break, these examples will help you curate the ideal resume for your dream entry level job.
• Internship Resume: If you want to land an internship this summer, try these internship resume examples to help you get started. Learn what recruiters are looking for when hiring interns and what action verbs get your resume to sail past the ATS. Whether you are a college student looking to build relevant work experience or a recent graduate trying to find your way in the job market, these examples are sure to help.
• College Application Resume: For all high school students looking to get into college, try these college application resume examples. Learn how to tailor a resume for the college admissions board to help you get into your dream school.

Wrapping Up

You can write a great resume that will pass through any ATS as a high school student.

By highlighting relevant skills and using action verbs, your resume will surely work.

Use your school clubs, volunteer, or other work experience to showcase your skills.

Don’t be afraid to highlight your accreditations and awards.

Remember, you’re in high school and no one is expecting you to have an extremely polished and accomplished professional life.

If you lack any professional work experience, volunteer work, clubs, and other side hustles like babysitting are the best way to showcase your skills.

Comment your thoughts and suggestions on high school student resumes below and share the article if you enjoyed it.