Skills To Highlight On Your Resume
For fresh graduates with absolutely no work experience, its absence does not automatically make you an incompetent applicant. You can highlight the following skills on your student résumé to impress your employer and prove youre a worthy applicant:
Just make sure that these skills genuinely describe your capacity, and you should have real-life experiences and skills to prove your worth.
When To Include This Section
If you are a go-getter who participates in multiple activities outside of school and work, perhaps associated with accomplishments, consider adding a separate resume section for extracurricular activities.
These show your talents, determination, and time-management skills. This is another way to inject a little personality into your resume.
Add this section to pad out a skimpy-looking resume. Instead, try to enhance the other sections.
Jobs Or Work Experiences To Consider Listing
Any volunteer work or projects for social or community groups are a great addition to your high school student resume, whether in the past or continuing now. List each item in your experience section as any other job applicant would in the conventional employment history format in reverse chronological order.That means you start with the current or most recent listing and work backward to the earliest, by date.
Ask friends who already have a job where you’re interested in working for a referral. Some companies have referral programs that reward current employees when their referral is hired. Employers like referrals, because they eliminate some of the unknowns of hiring. Few people would recommend a person they did not think could do the job.
Here is an example of an experience listing suitable for a high school student resume.
Sales Associate, PetSmart Jackson
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How To Write A High School Resume
You know that amazing feeling when the school year ends knowing that you are lying in bed doing nothing for two months?
Of course, you do! However, this is not the vibe you want to radiate!
After all, you are just a student with almost no life experience! Why do you think employers can trust you?
If you play your cards well, you have the right to be confident in yourself!
The approach when building your high school resume is crucial:
The first thing to do is to tailor it to the job description.
Such action is what separates successful from unsuccessful candidates.
You should use keywords and skills that express confidence and eagerness to achieve goals and learn.
You are a teenager, not a chief manager. You are not expected to have deep expertise but to gain knowledge.
Remember that recruiters want to know how you could contribute to their business.
You should prove to them that you could apply all youve learned from schools/training/courses.
Emphasize skills and strengths like communication, self-motivation and time management.
References from your tutors will be a bonus!
Do you know any foreign languages-they are the golden ticket to landing a job as a youngster!
Do not hesitate to add extraordinary talents or achievements that make you different from your peers.
Continue reading the high school resume guide and make their jaw drop when they understand you are just a high school student!
Recent College Graduate Job Application Tips
Now that you know what to include on your resume, its time to learn how to write it effectively.
Here are three expert tips for assembling the perfect job application as a recent college graduate:
1. Highlight your experience as a student
As a new graduate, your college education is your biggest asset in entering the job market.
Employers understand that earning a degree requires a variety of marketable skills. However, its your responsibility to demonstrate what those skills are and why theyre valuable.
To do this, include a detailed education section. Mention your GPA on your resume , honors or awards, and your major/s and minor/s. Also, include any study abroad programs you completed as a separate entry in your education section
Additionally, you should highlight extracurriculars or relevant coursework on your resume as entries in your experience section. These experiences help fill in the gaps on your resume if you lack formal work experience, and demonstrate the valuable professional skills youve picked up through your academic career.
2. Emphasize your soft skills
Soft skills, such as communication, team management, analytical skills, and interpersonal skills, are always in high demand from employers. For many entry-level positions, hiring managers consider them to be even more valuable than hard skills, because soft skills are notoriously difficult to teach.
3. Write a convincing cover letter
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Showcase Your Educational Achievements
Education provides transferable experience for high school graduates when applying for entry-level positions. Consider any leadership positions youve held, any honors received and any clubs or activities that demonstrated your ability to perform the duties of the position you are applying for. For example, for a landscaping or groundskeeping job that requires someone with knowledge in gardening and the ability to operate landscaping tools, be sure to mention any agricultural classes or involvement in the Future Farmers of America club and any other experience you have working in an outside environment.
Example #1
Tallahassee High School, Tallahassee, FL, August 2015 May 2019
What Additional Sections To Include On A High School Resume
After youve completed the above sections, you might find you still have some space on your high school resumeand thats good! It gives you an opportunity to further impress potential employers and colleges. Lets explore the different types of sections you can add to round out your resume.
Honors and Awards. Many students will include this section in their high school resume because its the perfect way to showcase their academic, sport, and extracurricular achievements. You might include being on the Honor Roll, having perfect attendance, winning a sports championship, placing first in a robotics competition, or receiving a scholarship, to name a few examples.
Relevant certifications. If youve had the opportunity to complete training and earn certifications relating to the position youre applying tofor instance, a CPR certification for a lifeguard or preschool assistant jobyou might want to devote an additional section to those.
Portfolio or published works. If youre an artist, writer, or other type of creative, you can add a section to your high school resume that specifically highlights your best creative achievements. For example, you can share the artwork youve publicly displayed, the poems youve had published, or the musical pieces youve performed.
Remember, your high school resume is all about you. So tailor the focus of your additional sections to showcase your uniqueness and bring you closer to the job, internship, scholarship, or college youre pursuing.
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High School Student No Experience Resume
Use this template
Why this resume works
- It’s hard to convince employers to hire you without formal work experience. Luckily, employers know everyone starts somewhere, so you can still make a positive impression on your high school student resume.
- If you don’t have work experience, include projects and volunteer work instead. Treat them like a job and write bullet points according to your responsibilities.
Resume Skills For High School Students With Examples
When you are applying for jobs, employers want to see what skills you have even if you dont have paid work experience. What kinds of skills can you include on your resume if youre a high school student?
Here are examples of the different types of skills students can use on their resumes, as well as in cover letters and job interviews. Youll also find tips on how to include these skills in your job materials.
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What Youll Learn Here
- How to describe your education and specific knowledge by providing vital skills, achievements and responsibilities
- How to include your previous experience no matter what it is
- The difference between summary and objective and the steps to write them
- What other resume sections will fit the high school resume and pro tips for building them
Stand Out With Your Skills
There are two types of skills you can include on your no-experience resume:
Soft skills and hard skills.
Whats the difference?
Soft skills are attributes or habits that describe how you work. They are not specific to a job, but indirectly help you adapt to the work environment.
Here are some of the most popular ones: teamwork, responsibility, leadership, creativity, etc.
Hard skills, on the other hand, refer to specific tools, technical knowledge and training and other work-specific skills. They apply directly to the job.
Technical writing, C++, financial accounting, etc. are all examples of hard skills.
So, which of these skills should you include?
That depends on a lot of factors, but as someone with no work experience, you should opt more for hard skills.
See, you could write all the cool buzzwords like Critical Thinking and Leadership, but the recruiter wont believe you.
Fun fact – thats what 90% of students do.
Instead, you should focus on skills that make you stand out, and in most cases, those are hard skills.
So, how do you decide which hard skills to mention? Easy! Just check the job ad youre applying for.
Lets say youre applying for an entry-level creative internship, and you find these requirements in the job description:
- Video editing experience
- UI design experience
Not sure which skills to mention? Check out our article on 150+ must-have skills for all sorts of professions!
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When Writing A Resume
Writing a resume for a high school graduate would seem intimidating, but as long as you have all the details and documents you need, writing one would be a breeze. Here are some tips to guide you in writing your resume.
- The purpose of your resume. The objective is the part we mostly leave for last, depending on what you plan to use your resume for, you may need to tailor it accordingly. Having found an objective, you are able to tailor your resume to showcase the part that highlights your credentials for it.
- Chronological order. Details on your past working experience and educational background bulleted in ascending order, having the most recent at the top of the list, allows the receiver of your resume have an easier time assessing your working history and educational history. Since most high school graduates may not have any working history, no need to fret, you may just indicate your educational background and make your sales speech about yourself through your objective.
- Skills and achievements. It is important that you indicate your skills and achievements in your resume. It allows the potential employer to see a glimpse of who you are as a person. It is also a way to prove to them that you have something that you can contribute to their company. You can check out Sample Graduate School Resumes to see more samples that can help you in writing your resume.
Other Sections You Could Include In A No
A resume without experience does have one advantage: extra space.
You can use this space to create other sections that highlight how awesome you are!
Here are some sections you could include:
- Hobbies and Interests. Add flair to your resume by showing your genuine passion and interest in the industry.
- Languages. Do you know a second language? Or even a third? Awesome! Most companies these days are pretty international and appreciate an extra language skill or two. Be mindful not to over-exaggerate your proficiency, though. Only knowing how to ask ¿Donde está la biblioteca? doesnt warrant a Spanish entry on your resume.
- Awards & Certifications. Do you have any fancy pieces of paper that show youre smart? Maybe its an award for a terrific essay in a competition, or a certificate from an online course. Whichever the case may be, awards and certifications show that youre a winner, so definitely include them in their own respective section.
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High School Resume Example With Summary
Are you a high school student who needs to write a resume? As a student, you might not have much work experience. But, no worries! A high school students resume can include informal work experience, coursework, volunteer and community service, and extracurricular activities.
How To Write The Work Experience Section Of A High School Resume
As we arrive at the biggest, most stressful section of a high school resume, we have to address a question we commonly get from students:
How do you write a resume with no experience?
Many students think because they havent worked an official job, they lack experience. But it isnt true. Unless youve been sitting in a box for your entire life, youve earned experience worth putting on a high school resumewe just need to dig a little deeper to find it.
So what types of experiences can you include on your high school resume? Of course, if you have work experienceeven if its for your family business and you werent an official employeeyou should showcase it. But if not, dont worry. Instead, you can share information about your high school internships, volunteer work, community service, club involvement, participation in sports, leadership positions, and even the challenging academic summer programs youve attended.
These types of activities are impressive to potential employers and colleges, so dont be nervous if youre writing a high school resume with no work experience. Be proud of the unique experiences youve had. You can even change the title of the section from Work Experience to Relevant Activities or Major Achievements.
How to write descriptions for your experiences on a high school resume
And what should each bullet point description contain? Here are a few guidelines to ensure your experience descriptions have the greatest impact:
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Write A Catching Resume Objective For High School Student Resume
The basics are done. Nows the time to hook the recruiters.
Whats the best way to make your high school student resume stand out?
A pitch-perfect high school resume objective.
Its a short paragraph at the top of your resume that explains what skills will make you a good fit and what youre hoping to achieve for the company.
Take a look at which resume objectives for high school students work and which ones do not:
How To Write A Graduate Resume With No Experience:
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High School Student Resume Examples Designed For 2022
Some say high school is one of the best times of your life, but it doesn’t always feel that way when you’re looking for your first or second job. Writing a resume with no experience can feel impossible, not to mention overwhelming.
We’ve all been there, but there hasn’t been a good resource for high schoolers to turn to and craft their own compelling resumes. That is, until now.
We’ve analyzed countless high school resumes to learn exactly what got students job interviews in 2022. While you may want to start with a simple resume outline, keep reading to find seven high school resume samples that are jam-packed with essential techniques and tricks.
Resume Examples
Why this resume works
- Writing a high school student resume can feel impossible if you don’t know where to start. Luckily, there are plenty of resume templates you can use to help you decide what to include and how to format your experience and skills.
- If you choose to use a template, make sure you adjust the formatting so that your text is big enough to read with one-inch margins on the side.
Write Your Resume Objective
A resume objective is a short heading statement in your resume, where you describe your professional goals and aspirations.
Fun fact – hiring managers look at your resume for 5-6 seconds max.
Yep, thats right. In most cases, the hiring manager is literally drowning in resumes. So, they have a couple of seconds to skim each one.
Well, this section is your chance to catch their attention .
A resume objective is usually 3-4 sentences max and includes information on:
- What your field of study is
- What your skills and experiences are
- Why youre applying for this position and/or this company.
As with contact information, you dont need to label your resume objective with a title. Just write it underneath your contact information section.
Heres an example of what a resume objective looks like:
Recent Communications graduate looking to apply for the role of Secretary at XYZ inc. Extremely organized with good writing and multitasking skills. Practical experience in management gained through several university projects, which involved coordinating tasks between different team members and ensuring that everyone was in sync with the latest information.
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