How to write a high school resume with no experience

You have more experience than you think

Writing a high school resume with no experience feels impossible until you realize "experience" doesn't only mean paid jobs. Class projects, clubs, sports, caring for siblings, helping at a family event, a website you built for fun: these all show skills an employer or program cares about. Your job is to name them clearly.

Start by listing everything you've done in the last two or three years, without judging it. Then pick the items that show responsibility, effort or a skill, and turn them into resume lines.

Sections to include

A simple, standard structure works best. Readers expect it, and it lets your content do the work.

1. Header. Your name, city and state, email and phone. Use a professional email address. Skip your full street address, photo and birthday.
2. Education. Your school, expected graduation year, and GPA if it helps you. Add relevant courses or honors if you have them.
3. Experience or activities. Clubs, sports, jobs, internships and leadership roles, with your role, dates and two to three bullet points each.
4. Volunteering. Its own section if you have enough, or folded into activities if you don't. See how to put volunteer work on a resume for detail.
5. Projects. Anything you built, researched, organized or made, inside or outside school.
6. Skills. Software, languages, tools and specific abilities, like "video editing" or "Spanish (conversational)."

You can rename or reorder sections to put your strongest material first. If your projects are more impressive than your activities, lead with projects.

What to include in each section

School

Include honors, awards, or a course where you did significant work, like a research paper or a group engineering project. One line per item is enough.

Activities

Clubs, teams, music, theater, student government, and part-time or informal work like babysitting or tutoring. Focus on what you did, not just that you belonged.

Volunteering

List the organization, your role, the dates, and what you accomplished. Regular service over months is worth highlighting.

Projects

Personal projects are one of the best tools for students with little experience. A coding project, a fundraiser you organized, a short film, or a STEM build like a solar study light all show initiative.

Skills

Be specific and honest. "Canva, Google Sheets, basic Python" is better than "computer skills." Only list what you could actually use if asked.

Example bullet lines: before and after

Strong bullets start with an action verb, describe what you did, and end with a result. Use real numbers when you have them.

• Before: Was in the robotics club. After: Wired and programmed drive system for team robot; documented build steps for new members.
• Before: Babysat for neighbors. After: Cared for 3 children ages 4 to 9 two evenings a week; planned activities and managed bedtime routines.
• Before: Did a history project. After: Researched and wrote a 12-page paper on local labor history using city archive records.
• Before: Helped with a bake sale. After: Coordinated a club bake sale with 8 volunteers; handled pricing, signs and cash count.
• Before: Good at social media. After: Ran Instagram account for school drama club; planned weekly posts and created show promo videos.

Sample resume for a student with no work experience

Here's a full sample written out in text for a fictional sophomore. Steal the structure, swap in your own details.

Maya Torres, Portland, OR · maya.torres.email@example.com · (555) 010-0199

Education

• Lincoln High School, Portland, OR. Expected graduation: June 2028. GPA: 3.7.
• Relevant courses: AP Computer Science Principles, Honors English 10.

Activities

• Yearbook staff, photographer and layout editor, Sept 2025 to present. Photograph sports and events; designed 14 pages in the 2026 edition; trained 2 new photographers.
• Junior varsity soccer, player, 2024 to present. Attend practice four days a week during season; helped organize team fundraising car wash.

Volunteering

• Public library teen volunteer, summer 2025. Ran weekly craft table for children's reading program; helped shelve and check in returns.
• Online transcription volunteer, 2025 to present. Transcribed historical letters for a museum archive project.

Projects

• Neighborhood cleanup website. Built a simple site with a sign-up form for a monthly park cleanup; 30 neighbors signed up in the first two months.

Skills

• Adobe Lightroom, Canva, Google Sheets, HTML and CSS basics. Spanish (conversational).

Notice what this sample does: every line names an action and most name a result, there's no paid job listed, and it still shows responsibility, skills and follow-through.

Formatting tips

• One page. No exceptions in high school.
• Clean and simple. One readable font, consistent spacing, clear section headings. Skip graphics, photos and skill bars.
• Reverse chronological order within each section, newest first.
• Consistent dates and punctuation. Pick a format and stick with it.
• Save as a PDF named with your name, like "Maya-Torres-Resume.pdf."
• Proofread out loud, then ask a teacher or parent to read it too.

How to get your first real experience

A resume grows fastest when you add one real commitment. You don't need to wait for a perfect opportunity. Some good first steps:

1. Volunteer somewhere steady, like a library, food bank or a remote project. Our guide to online volunteer opportunities for students lists options.
2. Start a small project with a clear finish line, and document it.
3. Take a bigger role in something you already do, like running a club's social media or organizing an event.
4. Apply for an internship that takes beginners. See how to get an internship with no experience.

Add real projects by joining a student-run nonprofit

A remote role at a student-run nonprofit gives your resume exactly what it's missing: real projects with real results. At Flash Forward Foundation, interns join a track in marketing, partnerships and operations, or fundraising, take a short course, and then complete at least two real projects, like running a social campaign or drafting a grant proposal, with weekly manager reviews. Those become the strongest bullets on your next resume. Strong work can be published as a portfolio piece with your permission.

The application is a short Google Form that asks for a resume, so the one you just wrote is enough to start. Apply to the Flash Forward internship.

FAQ

Questions

More student guides

• How to get an internship in high school, step by step
• How to put volunteer work on a resume (and internships too)
• How to start a nonprofit as a student
• All student guides