How to Make a High School Resume: The Art of Success

By Janette Bronx

As a teenager searching for a job, you may not have a lot of work experience or a high profile education and you might feel it will be difficult to land employment. The first aspect you need to realize is that you and everyone else your age is more or less in the same boat. You will most likely be competing with other teenagers who have a similar problem when deciding what to write on a resume. The other aspect you need to keep in mind is that employers looking to hire high school students expect to hire workers who will need training, whether it is provided before you get to the job or on-the-job training.

Writing high school resumes presents people with a common question when writing any type of CV: How to stand out from the crowd? The same issue is faced by countless experienced individuals applying for new positions. Here are a few ideas for how to make a high school resume.

 

Identify Yourself

The first item you need to address is self-identification. Provide complete data about yourself. Include your full name, address, contact number and email address. Stay away from weird and unusual email address ids. For instance, [email protected] is a horrible email address to put on a CV. Stick to a professional business-like email id such as using your full name or initials for either the first or last name. A couple of simple examples for Jane Doe would be [email protected] or [email protected].

 

Objective

This is a controversial topic as some people suggest an objective is not really required for simple jobs, like working at an amusement park or a fast-food chain. However, others feel it must be included.

Try a little creativity when it comes to writing your objective. You don’t necessarily have to tackle the job in question, but you may highlight qualities which will be useful in completing employment tasks. For instance, if you are planning to apply at a retail sports shoe store you can write the following statement:

Looking for a position where I can apply my social skills, developed while playing on my high-school soccer team, to enhance a company’s operations.

This statement fulfills multiple roles. First, it informs your potential employer that you are into sports, a great asset for an employee in this field. Second, you are highlighting your social skills which are critical for any sales job. Third, you are telling the HR person that you are a team player who can follow orders, another critical characteristic for the type of job you are applying for.

Be creative and find a way to send multiple messages in a simple and concise statement.

 

Future Plans

This is not a category you will see on an experienced individual’s resume, yet it is an excellent idea for high school resumes. Including future plans creates a perception of a highly motivated adolescent who has made serious plans about his future. Employers will view this person as someone who is responsible and they can rely upon. Your future plans can include your long-term education goals.

 

Other Sections

The other information you need to put will depend on your own skill set and the space available on your page. At your level, never make the resume more than a page long. It is unnecessary and will irk recruiters reading through hundreds or job applications, rather than encourage them to read a second page. Ideas for important content are honors and awards, language skills, work experience (if you have some) and volunteering activities.

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