Resume for Teens: Examples & Writing Tips (2024)

Many jobs for teens still require you to submit a resume. If you need some help knowing what your resume should look like and what to include (even when you have no experience), then we’ve got you covered.

Our examples and guide below will show you exactly how to write a resume and what to include on a teenager resume with no work experience to impress hiring managers.

Resume examples for teens

Writing your first resume is easier when you have something to take inspiration from. Check out the following examples to see what a successful resume for a teenager looks like.

Resume for teens example #1 (volunteer experience)

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What’s great about this teen resume

• The candidate includes a career objective, highlighting their strongest transferable skills.
• The education section contains relevant coursework to show relevant academic experience.
• The experience section includes valuable volunteer experience, demonstrating the candidate’s desirable qualities and achievements.
• The resume includes the candidate’s extracurriculars and awards, showing hiring managers that they are driven and capable of excellence.

Resume for teens example #2 (babysitting experience)

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What’s great about this teen resume

• A well-written resume objective speaks to the candidate’s experience and competence in providing child care services.
• The education section also lists relevant certification that make the candidate more hirable.
• The candidate’s key skills section includes skills that are highly relevant to their area of work experience.
• The candidate effectively describes their work experience in bulleted lists, demonstrating a variety of skills.

How to make a resume for teens

Ready to make your resume? In the following video, our career expert Chloe breaks down how to make a teen resume without work experience:

Whether you’re writing a resume for your first job or a part-time gig, a great resume helps you stand out to employers.

But for teenagers just entering the workforce, writing a strong resume with no work experience can seem difficult.

To make it easy, we’ll show you exactly what to put on your resume to ensure you have the best chances of getting called in for an interview.

1. Add your contact information

Add your contact information to your resume header so employers know how to reach you. In the contact section of your resume, always include your:

• Name
• Phone number
• Professional email address

If you don’t already have a professional email address, now is the best time to set one up. You’ll need it when sending out resumes in the future, as well as for college applications. The best way to make a professional email is simply to use your full name, for example:

robert.jones@gmail.com

Additionally, including social media on your teen resume can help you highlight specific skills relevant to the job. In this case, social media profiles could serve the same purpose as a portfolio.

For instance, if you’re writing a graphic design resume, including an Instagram page that features your design work gives employers a better sense of what you can do. However, avoid including any social media handles that don’t include professional work, such as your Snapchat or TikTok accounts.

2. Write a compelling teen resume objective

Your resume objective serves as a brief introduction, and summarizes any skills and qualifications that you’d like to highlight. Ultimately, a compelling resume objective is the best opportunity for an entry-level candidate to explain why they’re a good fit for the job.

Here’s how to write a compelling teen resume objective:

• Leave out first-person pronouns
• State your career goals
• Keep it short and concise
• Include relevant skills

Still not sure what this looks like in action? Here are three successful teenage resume objective examples:

An effective teen resume objective leverages the work-related skills you’ve picked up throughout your life. That’s because if you don’t have work experience, employers must look for other things (like your skills) to see if you can handle the job.

3. Fill out your experience section

If you have any work experience, be sure to include it in this section. If you don’t, you can fill this section with any other experiences that show employers you possess the right skills for the role.

On a resume for teenagers with no experience, you can fill your work experience with:

• Extracurricular activities
• Job shadowing
• Volunteer work
• Coursework
• Babysitting
• Hobbies on a resume

If you’re writing a college freshman resume or a resume for a college application, you can also include details about your academic achievements, such as involvement in clubs and the relevant coursework you completed. For instance, if you’re applying for a hotel front desk position, you can mention the skills you developed while studying hospitality in school.

When writing your experience bullet points, make sure to start your sentences with strong action verbs that describe what you accomplished.

Too often, resumes contain boring phrases like “responsible for taking customer orders” or “tasked with tracking inventory”. However these phrases don’t tell an employer anything about how you completed those tasks. To show employers what you’re capable of and grab their attention, opt for action verbs that highlight your performance.

Here are a few action verb examples to use in your teen resume:

• Improve
• Increase
• Streamline
• Support
• Raise
• Discuss
• Assist
• Collaborate
• Facilitate
• Commit
• Volunteer
• Organize

4. Showcase your skills

If you’re like most teenagers, you probably don’t have much work experience to list on your resume. That’s where a strong resume skills section comes into play.

It’s still possible to write a great high school resumefor your first part-time gig or teen summer job as long as you can highlight hard and soft skills.

Here’s a list of transferable skills for a teenage resume:

• Leadership skills
• Time management
• Organizational skills
• Teamwork skills
• Attention to detail
• Communication skills (written and oral)

A great way to emphasize your skills is by providing examples of how you’ve used or honed them. For instance, stating that you always stick to deadlines shows employers that you have strong time management skills.

Or, to demonstrate teamwork skills, you can write about how you’ve collaborated with your classmates on a group assignment, or your extracurricular participation in group sports.

5. Try to fill the page

With barely any job experience, filling up the entire page may seem challenging at first. However, you can add in your academic achievements, certifications, extracurricular activities, involvement in clubs, or even your hobbies and interests.

For example, you can include any honors or awards received in the education section of your resume. Academic achievements can be a good reflection of your work ethic.

6. Proofread

Finally, always double check (or even triple check) your resume for mistakes. You might be tempted to send in your resume as soon as you complete it, but read it over a couple times. Scan through it very thoroughly to make sure there aren’t any typos or grammatical errors.

Additionally, consider getting a second opinion from your friends, family, or even a teacher about your resume. Have them read it to see if there’s anything that can be improved, or if there were any mistakes you missed.

Whether you’re writing your first resume for a job or you’re a resume writing professional, it’s always a good idea to have an experienced set of eyes review your application. Regardless of how minor a mistake is, sending in a resume and cover letter with typos will hurt your chances of getting an interview.

High schooler resume template

To make it easier to start writing your resume, we’ve created a template for you to use. Simply fill in each section below with your own information and you’re well on your way to having a completed resume.