When Should You List Your High School
In order to answer this question, we should get to the answers to a few other questions.
The first thing you should ask yourself is:
- Is my resume too short?
Depending on the job description and your work experience , your resume should be one or two pages long.
If your resume is too short the hiring manager wont get an overview of your suitability for the position.
Most of the time, your resume is going to be one-page. It makes sense since you probably dont have that much work experience. Though, you might still tell yourself to push for a two-page resume.
However, its not as effective as you think. In fact, a one-page resume is more powerful. It just depends on the approach you take and how you do it.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, its smarter to see what works.
So you can check out our Resume Examples page on Enhancv and search for an entry-level position resume, or you can stick around and see the awesome example we have for you.
- Is your education your strongest qualification?
Hiring managers are generally more interested in your work experience and your skills, rather than your education.
So, if you have some work experience, you should include it.
But if you are a high school student, college student, or fresh graduate, you will probably need to put yourself in the best possible light, using only your education.
- Is education a primary requirement?
Education is a crucial section that many headhunters expect to see in your resume, even if not asked for.
What Information Do I Need To Include About My Past Jobs What Can I Leave Out
The experience section is really the meat and potatoes of the résumé, so its important to cover your past jobs to some extent. The key is to make it as easy as possible for a potential employer to see the relevance of your experience to the new company. So, read job postings carefully and see if you can tailor your résumé more closely to the job of interest. That may mean developing new versions of your résumé every time more work, but well worth the effort.
College students sometimes worry that theyve had so many short-term job experiences that they cant fit them on a one-page document. Its important to realize that every job has value in molding your abilities to deal with people, solve problems, manage and organize work, and develop other transferable skills. However, if many of your past jobs are repeat jobs for example, waiting tables at four different but similar-style restaurants you may want to save space and consolidate them by listing only the company names and locations, with one set of bullets describing your accomplishments and skills developed at those four jobs.
Questions often arise also about whether to include very short-term jobs . If you have very little other experience, anything will help. However, if you have other job experiences that provide a potential employer a complete picture of your qualifications, you may be able to leave a short-term job out. When in doubt, its always a good idea to consult with a career counselor.
Resume Examples & Samples
Education is tough. You spend four years in college, stressing about exams and living off of gummy bears and ramen, often curled up on the library floor. Thats the best case scenario. Reward your efforts by expertly putting your education on a resume.
Its crucial to know how to list your education on a resume at every stage. Applicants get confused by all the possible scenarios. What if you never finished high school? What if you only completed high school? What if you dropped out of college? Don’t worry.
We will teach you how to:
- List your high school experience even if you never graduated
- Include your education if youre still in college
- Present your education on a resume if you never graduated college
- Mention your college education once its completed
- Leverage skills and extracurriculars to complement your education
VelvetJobs Expert Tip
Need help? Check out our resume builder.
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How Can You Be Sure Your Resume Looks Good
It’s not easy figuring out all the formalities of resume writing. Could you use some advice on how to make yours stand out? Get a free resume evaluation today from the experts at Monster’s Resume Writing Service. You’ll get detailed feedback in two business days, including a review of your resume’s appearance and content, and a prediction of a recruiter’s first impression. Let the experts at Monster help you determine the skills and experience to highlight, as well as what you can leave off.
These Tips Will Let You Know When Its Time To Let Go Of The Glory Days And Let Your Professional Work Experience Own The Spotlight
Know whether your high school belongs on a resume.
In the early stages of your career, youre likely going to struggle to decide what relevant information to include on your resume. Its a common conundrum. Among your considerations: Should your resume education section include your high school?
Short answer: Sometimes.
There are definitely circumstances that warrant listing your high school achievements on your resume. But there will also come a time when your work history will become the main point of interest to hiring managers. These pointers will help you determine when to cut your school ties.
Read Also: Sample Resume With Masters Degree In Progress
Consider Sharing Your Grade Point Average
Your GPA is a way for hiring managers to understand how well you did in school. As a numerical average of your grades, the higher to a 4.0 GPA you are, the better you performed in your classes. A hiring manager may prefer to hire a candidate who has a higher GPA because it shows that they worked hard, took their education seriously and were interested in building their knowledge base, all traits that are useful in any work environment.
However, if your GPA is below 3.5, consider leaving it off your resume and instead focusing on the unique attributes you have that make you an ideal fit for the role. If a hiring manager wants to know what your GPA was, you can provide the details when they ask.
Include Your Recent Or Anticipated Graduation Date
Whether you’ve graduated with your diploma, are a current high school student or chose not to finish high school and earned your GED instead, include your graduation date or anticipated graduation date. A hiring manager can choose if they are comfortable hiring a candidate who still has some schooling left, depending on the requirements of the position.
If you’ve completed some high school and then left a traditional high school environment to pursue specialty education, like at a trade school, you can still include your high school name, and then also include the specialty or trade school you attended with the completion date as well. Similar to how you would list college education on your resume, you should only include the date if you graduated within the last three years. After that time, keep only the name of your high school listed if it is the highest level of education you have completed.
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Can You Exclude Some Of Your Education From A Resume
ZipJob Team
5 min read
Education is one of the standard sections of a resume, but that doesn’t mean it’s something you should include mindlessly. The education section can still be an opportunity to optimize your resume. A tailored resume is more likely to pass an ATS scan and impress a hiring manager, so this article is all about the strategies behind tailoring your education section.
We talked to our career experts, and the consensus is that it can be appropriate to leave some education from your resume. Just like work experience, some education is not relevant to your career goals. In some cases, it can even get you thrown out of the running for a job.
Confused? Don’t worry. In this article, we’ll walk you through the pros and cons of five common reasons why you should exclude some education from your resume.
Im Worried About Privacy How Open Should I Be With My Contact And Employment Information When I Post My Rsum On Job Boards
It is important to protect your résumé and personal information from those who want to use it for profit or to prevent your current employer from seeing that youre in the market. Some strategies:
Print and read privacy policies of any online job site which asks you to provide information via the internet. If the site doesnt have a privacy policy, you have no legal assurance that your personal information is secure.
Post résumés with a disposable email address that you can cancel if you start getting a lot of junk mail.
Dont provide your phone number, street address, or complete name, or information about your references. Do not list any personal information such as social security number, race, gender, account numbers, mothers maiden name, etc.
Many job sites and résumé databases let you mask your contact information when you post a résumé. This feature allows you to control who can contact you.
Look for sites that keep your résumé for a limited time only. Find out if you can delete the résumé after youve posted it, because you dont want your document languishing online forever.
Consider replacing personal details with your dedicated job-search email address.
You may wish to conceal your current employers name by describing the organization in general terms.
Many sites have blocking features that you can use to prevent your current employer from stumbling onto your résumé.
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If The Job Was In The Same Industry
Listing high school and college jobs can be helpful if they demonstrate youre familiar with the industry, says Dr. Wanda Gravett, academic program coordinator for Walden Universitys MS in Human Resource Management program.Listing that early experience could advocate for your foundational knowledge and learning from the bottom up, she says. Coupled with your education, this might be a good sell and get you in the door for a low- to mid-level position.
Candace Nicolls, senior vice president of people and workplace at Snagajob, an hourly job marketplace, agrees. If youre applying for a role thats related to an hourly job you once had, list it, she says. If you want to get into merchandising, list your retail experience. Mention your restaurant experience if you want to work at their corporate headquarters. Nothing teaches hustle like hourly jobs.
Clean Contact Information Section On Your College Resume
Refer to our high school resume example: Sams name is in bold, centered at the top of the page his e-mail address is directly underneath. Thats it!
Your name and e-mail address are the only contact information needed. If you have a website, particularly one that showcases your personality, include that too.
Again, the ideal high school resume is clean and simple. There is no need for a brick and mortar address or phone number.
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Customizing The High School Resume Profile Title
Step 4
Next in line is the profile title of the high school student resume.
A profile title helps the recruiters to understand the level of your proficiency. Also, it is your duty to make the recruiter’s job easier, and he shouldn’t have to go through the whole of your high school resume to figure out what your profile title is.
So, that is why it is very important to include a profile title in your resume for high school student.
Use the font size between 14-16 points to write your profile title. The profile title is supposed to be the biggest text in the whole of your high school resume.
When writing your profile title make sure you write ‘High School Graduate’ as your profile title and nothing as.
Do not write any other professional titles which might be related to your dream job or profile as it will just give out wrong information to the recruiter because you’re just a high school graduate and nowhere near to being a professional right now.
Look at the sample given below to get more clarity around how to customize your high school resume profile title:
In addition to this, you can go for Hiration’s Free Resume Reviewing Service, where high school student resume experts will do a free review of your high school resume to check your high school student resumes length.
When To Include A Gpa On Your Resume
Do you need to include your high school or college grade point average on your resume? When can you leave it off, and when should you leave it off?
In high school and college, job seekers tend to include their GPAs on their resumes, particularly if those GPAs are strong . However, after graduating from college, it can be difficult to know when to remove that decimal number from your resume. If you have a good GPA, it’s an asset on your resume.
If not, it could hurt your candidacy. That’s especially the case when employers are seeking competitive candidates who have excelled in school.
A GPA listed in the education section of your resume can either help or hurt your chance of getting an interview. Make sure you know when to include this information, and when to leave it out.
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Is Your Resume Too Long
Ideally, your resume should be limited to one page. If you find that your resume content is spilling onto a second page, and you have trimmed all the information you can, consider removing the education section.
Education is almost always addressed in the official job application, and this is where hiring managers look for the base requirements during the background check.
When Should You Include Your High School On Your Resume
So you are wondering whether to include your high school on your resume.
Or maybe wondering how to include it?
Dont worry.
In any case, we got you covered.
Keep reading and you will find out:
- When should you list your high school and when its better to leave it out
- Should you include high school if you didnt attend college
- How do you list high school on your resume
And, as a bonus, you will see an awesome high school resume sample.
If you are wondering how to build your resume, you should check out our Resume Builder. It will get you going in no time and youll be ready to apply for your dream job.
Lets dive in.
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Should I Put High School Activities On Resume
You may include high school activities on your resume until the end of your freshman year or beginning of your sophomore year of college. However, limit the high school activities to the ones that are the most impressive and best showcase your qualifications for the job/internship you are applying for.
When Should You Submit A Resume To Colleges
Some colleges and scholarship committees request or recommend that you include a high school resume with your application materials. Bring your resume to college interviews and give copies to your college counselor and teachers so that they can write you the strongest possible recommendation letter.
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Is Education A Primary Requirement
For medical jobs, or other specialties such as law or science, a certain education level can be an absolute requirement. Dont leave your education off your resume if you have the educational background that is required for the position, obviously.
For example, a research assistant may be expected to have a related degree, or be actively pursuing one. If education is a key requirement for the job youre interested in, it should absolutely be listed in your resume.
Should You Put High School On Resume If No College
If you only have a high school diploma, you can likely get by without having an education section. If you attended college but didnt graduate, you can still list your education on your resume. List the name of your institution, along with a line clarifying X years completed or X credit hours completed.
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What Can I Do To Make The Content Of My Rsum Really Catch The Interest Of The Hiring Company
Tailor the résumé to the job. Review the job posting carefully and build as many of the postings terms as you can into the résumé. Review the order of the material youve put in your résumé. Can the bullets be reordered to bring more relevant experience to the top of the list? Can computer skills be reordered to list the most requested software first? Does your objective fit with the job and organization? Is the document consistently and clearly organized? Is it easy to read?
When Is Your High School Best Left Off
A few years after you finish high school, potential employers will care more about your accomplishments after graduation, so its fine to delete your high school from your resume.
A good sign that you can leave your high school information off your resume: Space is an issue and you can’t fit all your information on one page.
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High School Gpa On A Resume
If youre currently a high school student or just graduated, you should consider including your GPA on your resume.
But not always.
You can include it with no regrets if your GPA is higher than 3.5.
You should think about leaving your GPA off your resume if:
- Your GPA is lower than 3.5
- You are a college or university student long enough to list that GPA instead
- You have a couple of years of relevant work experience