Build your first resume with confidence. See how other high school students turn classes, activities, and volunteering into a resume that lands the first job.
Seeing how other professionals present their experience is one of the fastest ways to improve your own resume. Our curated library of resume examples spans dozens of industries - from software engineering and product management to finance, healthcare, and creative fields - so you can find samples that closely match your background and career goals.
Each example showcases proven formatting, impactful bullet points, and the kind of keyword-rich language that resonates with both hiring managers and applicant tracking systems. Use them as inspiration, then jump straight into our builder to create a polished resume of your own.
Filter examples by category - Software Engineer, Product Manager, Consultant, Designer, and more - or narrow results by years of experience and layout preference. Whether you are writing your first resume as a student or refreshing your executive profile after a decade in leadership, you will find relevant, up-to-date samples to guide you.
A high school resume has one job: to prove you are worth an interview before you have ever held one. With little or no formal work history, the resume has to make the case on everything else you have done, coursework, clubs, sports, volunteering, and any informal jobs like babysitting or tutoring. Employers hiring students know you are new to work; what they are actually screening for is reliability, initiative, and whether you can show up and follow through.
The examples below show how strong student resumes are built: a short objective that states what you are looking for, an education section placed first because it is your biggest asset, and an activities and experience section that frames school and community involvement as real responsibility. Use them as a structure, then run your draft through the free ATS check so a formatting mistake never costs you a callback for your first job.
As a high school student your school record is your strongest evidence, so it goes first. Include your school name, expected graduation year, GPA if it is 3.0 or above, and any honors, AP or honors courses, or relevant electives that connect to the job.
Clubs, sports, student government, and band all demonstrate commitment and teamwork. Frame them the way you would a job: "Team captain, varsity soccer, coordinated practice schedules for 22 players" reads as leadership, not a hobby.
Babysitting, lawn care, tutoring, and community service are real experience for a first resume. State what you did and any numbers ("tutored 4 younger students weekly in math") so a manager sees dependability and initiative.
List concrete, checkable skills, customer service, cash handling, Microsoft Office, a second language, social media, and mirror the words in the job posting. These are what an applicant tracking system and a hiring manager scan for first.
Lead with education, then build an experience section from everything that is not a formal job: volunteering, clubs, sports, babysitting, tutoring, and school projects. Frame each with an action verb and a number where you can. Employers hiring students expect no work history and are looking for reliability and initiative, which these activities demonstrate.
A short objective, an education section first (school, expected graduation year, GPA if strong, relevant coursework and honors), an experience and activities section covering jobs, volunteering, and clubs, and a skills section that mirrors the job posting. Keep it to a single page.
Include it if it is roughly 3.0 or higher, since it signals reliability to a first employer. If your GPA is lower, leave it off and let your activities, coursework, and volunteering carry the page instead.
One page, always. A first-job resume with more than a page reads as padding. Focus on the strongest few activities and skills rather than listing everything you have ever done.
Yes. Every example uses a clean, single-column, standard-section layout that applicant tracking systems parse reliably, which matters even for entry-level roles at larger retailers and chains. Run your own version through the free Pika ATS check to confirm the formatting and keywords pass before you apply.
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