A resume organizes your achievements and experiences into a professional document that can open doors to part-time jobs, internships, and volunteer positions. For students thinking ahead, a resume can also be an asset for college and scholarship applications. It serves as a formal introduction to potential employers and admissions committees, showcasing your skills and potential.
Gathering Your Information
Before you begin writing, the first step is to inventory your experiences. This is a brainstorming phase, so create a master document where you list everything you have done. You are not formatting at this stage, simply collecting the facts about your academic and personal history.
Start by listing your complete contact information, including a professional-sounding email address. Add your high school’s name, its location, and your expected graduation date. If your Grade Point Average (GPA) is strong, typically a 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale, include that as well. Also include any volunteer positions, extracurricular activities, academic honors, and any specific technical or language skills you possess.
Choosing the Right Resume Sections
Once you have gathered your information, the next step is to structure it into a professional format. The sections you choose will guide a reader through your qualifications in a logical order. Each section should be clearly labeled to ensure your resume is easy to navigate.
Your resume should begin with your Contact Information at the top, including your full name, phone number, and a professional email address. Following this, a Resume Summary is recommended over a traditional objective. A summary, typically two to three sentences long, highlights your key skills and ambitions, providing a brief overview of what you can offer.
The Education section is where you will list your high school, its city and state, and your anticipated graduation date. This is also the appropriate place to include your GPA if you have decided it is a strong point. The Experience section is the core of your resume and should include internships, volunteer roles, and informal jobs where you demonstrated responsibility.
Create a dedicated section for Extracurricular Activities/Leadership to list your involvement in school clubs, sports teams, or community organizations. This is an excellent space to demonstrate teamwork, dedication, and any leadership roles you may have held. A Skills section allows you to list specific abilities, categorized into hard skills, like proficiency in Microsoft Office, and soft skills, like communication and time management.
How to Describe Your Experience
The most challenging part of writing a resume is often describing your experiences in a way that sounds impressive and professional. Your goal is to transform simple duties into accomplishments that demonstrate your value. The key is to focus on the impact you made and the skills you developed, rather than just listing what you did.
Begin every descriptive bullet point with an action verb. Words like “Managed,” “Coordinated,” or “Led” are more powerful than passive phrases like “Was responsible for.” For instance, instead of saying you were a cashier, you could write, “Processed customer transactions accurately in a fast-paced environment.” This reframes a common job as a demonstration of precision and composure under pressure.
Whenever possible, quantify your accomplishments with numbers and data. This provides concrete evidence of your impact. For example, instead of stating you “Helped with a bake sale,” you could specify, “Contributed to a fundraising event that raised over $500 for school activities.” Numbers make your contributions tangible and give employers a clear sense of the scope of your responsibilities.
It is also important to translate your experiences into transferable skills that employers seek. Think about what your activities taught you. Managing the schedule for a busy family while babysitting demonstrates time management and reliability. Serving as treasurer for a school club shows financial literacy and trustworthiness. Being a member of a sports team highlights your ability to collaborate and work towards a common goal.
Formatting and Proofreading Your Resume
The final steps of creating your resume involve polishing its presentation and ensuring it is free of errors. The visual layout and accuracy of your document are as important as the content. A clean, professional appearance makes a positive first impression and suggests that you are a detail-oriented candidate.
Your resume must be kept to a single page. This is a firm rule for high school students, as it forces you to be concise and present only the most relevant information. Use a clean, simple template and a standard font such as Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman in a readable size, typically between 10 and 12 points. Avoid overly creative designs or distracting graphics.
After finalizing the content and format, always save and send your resume as a PDF file. This format preserves the layout and fonts, ensuring that your document looks exactly as you intended on any device. A Word document can appear differently on different computers, potentially creating a messy or unprofessional look.
Proofreading is a final step. Start by using a spell checker, but do not rely on it exclusively. Read your resume aloud to yourself to catch awkward phrasing or grammatical mistakes. Ask at least two other people, such as a parent, a teacher, or a school counselor, to review it. A fresh pair of eyes can spot errors you have overlooked.