

Feel like it’s time to prove to your parents you’re not a baby any more? Manifest your independence with a resume for high school students that will help you land jobs!
Remember when your parents would pay you for cleaning up, washing dishes, or taking out the rubbish? Yeah, good times.
Want a more reliable job, but think your options are just babysitting for the neighbours and newspaper rounds? Yeah, nah, think again. A good resume can open up more opportunities for you.
Interested? We’ll give you tips so great that your resume for high school students will shine bright like a diamond, and also land you an actual job.
This guide will show you:
Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.
Sample resume made with our builder—See more templates and create your resume here.
Want more? Explore these:
Amy Jarman
Social Media Assistant (Internship)
a.jarman@email.com
Instagram: @aimez02
TikTok: @aimez02
Objective
A creative student passionate about social media, seeking employment as a part-time social media intern at iGlow. Willing to apply my user engagement skills to help the company amplify its Instagram & TikTok presence, and increase its number of followers. Grew my own social media accounts from 100 followers to 2.5K+ within a year, with my posts shared on major accounts in Australia and worldwide.
Education
Student
Aberfoyle Park High School, Adelaide
2010–2023
Experience
Social Media Manager (Instagram)
Aberfoyle Park High School, Adelaide
May 2020–present
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievement:
Skills
Languages
Interests
Now, this is how you write a ripper resume for high school students:
Okay, so hear me out: a report says that in 2016, around 32% of full-time school students were employed. That’s one-third of all 15–19-year-olds.
And that’s without all the online jobs that are around now! You can totally do this.
To land any decent job that doesn’t involve walking your neighbour's dog, you have to come up with a professional resume. It has to look great, read great and make a good impression. Begin with good formatting:
You can also choose from some simple resume templates just to be sure, but this is definitely not a requirement. Just keep it neat and simple, and don’t settle upon anything too creative. Recruiters use special software to filter out candidates, and a resume that’s too imaginative just shall not pass.
Pro Tip: There are different rules and employment restrictions in Australia regarding how long you can work in a day as a teen, but in most territories, there’s no minimum age you need to be to start doing casual or light part-time work! And when you’re around 15, those restrictions are lifted in most places.
Alright, we know all about the expected resume format for high school students, now what do we actually write?
Think of this for a sec: there’s a busy hiring manager who has a hundred resumes to look through, do you think they’ll read it? Nah, if you’re lucky, they’ll give it about 7 seconds of their time (and that’s because we made our resume look great). That means that whatever words they see first have to be to.the.point, otherwise it’s bye, Felicia.
Start with this:
If you’re not sure, use this formula:
“A [Adjective] high school student seeking employment as [Position Name] at [Company Name] to apply my [Your Relevant Skills] to help [What Do You Want To Help The Company Achieve]”
Combined into 3–4 sentences, this makes your resume objective. This first paragraph tells the recruiter:
And that’s the tea.
Need extra tips? Read more:15+ Great Resume Objective Samples
Usually, a resume objective would be followed by a description of your professional background. But you’re a student, so it’s okay if you don’t have any. You’ll just have to justify how great you are in other ways.
You can go in one of the two directions:
Both are totally fine. If you do have some work experience to describe, here are some tips:
For the second approach, carry on reading.
Read more: How To Describe Your Most Awesome Achievements On a Resume
So you don’t have any relevant experience yet. And really, don’t all employers expect you to have 3 years of experience for an entry-level job or something?
That would be low-key depressing. Thank Rihanna it’s not true.
If you’ve never worked before, there are ways to make up for it and still keep your resume for high school students in the game. #1 is to focus on your academic achievements:
How do you decide what exactly to put in those bullet points? Again, look at the job description and use your best judgement.
Moving on.
Pro Tip: Feel free to place this section right after your resume objective if you have no work experience at all or if your work history section is very short.
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
You might think that because you didn’t work much, you don’t have the skills to describe.
But if you spend some time analysing your life, you’d be surprised by how many things you can actually do!
For example, remember about all your informal work experience (lawn mowing, gardening, pet sitting/walking, babysitting your sister, social media, I can keep going). Or any situations in your life that made you develop your character, personality, or a good work ethic. You’ll find plenty!
The skill section of your resume for high school students can be composed this way:
And that’s not even all of it! We’ve saved the best for last.
Read more: Examples of Skills to Put On Our Resume
Parents complain you’re always on your phone? Tell them you’re working on your portfolio!
There’s one more way to impress the recruiters as you’re creating a resume for high school students, and it’s describing what you do outside school.
Your resume can have a variety of additional sections that can work as extra proof that you have the skills to get that job. Here are some examples:
It’s not about what you don’t have, it’s about how you can spin what you do have. Be creative, and your resume will be hot fire.
Whoa, mate, seriously, that’s not it? No worries, almost done.
Even though not all jobs require a cover letter, you might want to write it anyway, and there’s a good reason for that. It may be hard to paint a clear picture of who you are with your high school student resume alone, and a cover letter may be just the right space to do that.
Here’s how:
A well-written resume for high school students and a cover letter tailored for the position make a combo no recruiter can refuse.
Made up your mind and ready to draft that cover letter? Read more: How to Write a Cover Letter (With Examples)
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
And just like that, you’re the CEO of resume writing.
You know everything there is to know about creating a resume for high school students.
Any thoughts? Tips, maybe? Share your ideas on our resume guide for high school students in Australia below!
Solve one more problem, but this time let it be yours. Read how to write a customer service cover letter and stop scratching your head over it.
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