4 Resume Examples for Teens & Best Templates

Teen resumes are tailored for young job seekers with limited work experience. To succeed, they should highlight education, volunteer work, extracurricular activities, and any part-time jobs or internships. Emphasizing enthusiasm and willingness to learn is crucial in teenager resumes.

I’ll show you how to write a resume for teens that lets you secure a job.

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Teen Resume Example

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Teenager Resume Example With No Work Experience

Teen resumes with no work experience should highlight education, extracurricular activities, and relevant skills. To work, they must emphasize achievements or relevant projects.

I wrote a sample resume with no experience to help you visualize:

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Teenager Resume Example With Internship and Volunteering Experience

Volunteering and internships are crucial in teenager resumes as they demonstrate initiative, responsibility, and a willingness to gain experience. They provide practical skills, show commitment, and help build a well-rounded profile, making the resume more attractive to potential employers despite the lack of formal work experience.

See the teen resume example I made:

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Teen Resume Example With Work Experience

Formal work experience and freelancing are highly valuable on teenager resumes. They show real-world application of skills, reliability, and the ability to manage responsibilities. Including these experiences demonstrates a proactive attitude, time management, and practical expertise, making the resume stand out to potential employers.

 Here’s a sample resume for an experienced teenager:

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Popular Resume Templates for Teens

After analyzing 11 million resumes made in the Zety Resume Builder, we discovered that these are the top 3 resume templates chosen by teenagers.

Cascade

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Cascade is a visually appealing resume template, perfect for a teenager's resume. Its reliable formatting ensures it navigates Applicant Tracking Systems smoothly, landing directly on the recruiter's desk. Cascade stands out for its readability and style, making it easy to showcase your achievements and experiences clearly and effectively.

Concept

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How about trying this visual resume template? It combines the best of infographic resumes with a traditional resume layout, making it perfect for my reverse-chronological format. I love how the thin sidebar on the left is used for dates, creating an easy-to-follow timeline of your experiences.

Diamond

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Diamond is ATS-friendly, making it the perfect student resume template to impress both recruiters and automated systems. I love how the diamond-shaped icons create an intuitive flow throughout the page. The skill-level bars are particularly eye-catching and ensure your abilities stand out exactly as intended.

How to Write a Resume for Teenagers:

1. Create a Teen Resume Format

Let me share some savage news: according to our HR statistics report, hiring managers spend all seven seconds glancing at resumes. Seven seconds!!?? That's hardly enough time to read your contact info! But if you know how to make a resume for teens, you slay.

First, you must understand one thing about making a resume with no experience: hiring managers look for specific things in a resume for teens. So, choose the best resume format that fits your profile and divide your teen resume into the right resume sections

First, the format:

• Use popular resume fonts such as Arial, Verdana, or Helvetica.
• Change the font size to 11–12 for the contents and 13–14 for the resume headings.
• Apply 1–1.15 line spacing for better readability.
• Set the resume margins to 1 inch on all sides.
• Utilize white space or lines to separate the sections.
• Save the resume as a PDF.

Don’t write a two-page resume when you are a teenager. One page is more than enough to fit all of your achievements.

Make sure you include these resume parts:

• Contact Information
• Resume Objective
• Education
• Work Experience
• Skills
• Other Sections, like: Awards, Compliments, Honors, etc.

Pro Tip: Check the news. You’ll find a story about someone who said the wrong thing on social media and lost their job. Supercharge and protect your online presence with our guides: How to Check Your Online Presence Before Recruiters Look You Up and How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Summary & Profile to Get Jobs

2. Make an Education Section That Gets Jobs

What’s your best asset as a teen with no experience? Nope—it’s not a collection of animated GIFs you store on your phone. It’s your high school education. Even if you’re not an overachiever who can add a degree to a resume at 16 years old, low-key hate school, and don’t have straight As.

The education section in a resume for teens needs:

• School name: just copy the name from the school website or Google Maps.
• Graduation date or years of study: if you haven’t finished school yet, add an expected graduation date.
• Key achievements: won an international competition or a state contest? I highly suggest you write about it!
• Extracurricular activities: volunteering, organizing school events, being the president of a school club—these all show that you do something valuable.
• Favorite classes: sounds cringy, but hey, it’s better than nothing! Adding relevant coursework to a resume can show you’ve got a bit of knowledge about the job you want.
• GPA: Add your GPA to a resume only if it’s impressive. If it’s below 3.5, feel free to cut it. 

Read more: 50 Best Resume Tips to Land a Job in 2024

3. Show Relevant Experience in Your Teen Resume

“But I don’t HAVE experience!” That’s likely the case. You’re writing a teen resume, which is most often a resume for 16-year-old with no experience.

But try to show some kind of relevant background. The good news? It doesn’t have to be work-related!

Here’s what you can put on a teenager resume with no work experience:

• Volunteer work: even if you haven’t done any, you can easily find charity work in your area ASAP and gain some valuable experience (along with meeting some new people!).
• Freelancing experience: you might think that odd babysitting gigs, helping your dad out in their office, or mowing neighbors’ lawns aren’t real jobs. Guess what, you’re wrong.
• Job shadowing: your graphic designer friend showed you how to use Photoshop? Or maybe you spent a day in your mom’s company and observed how things are done?
• Extracurricular activities: did you help to organize a local manga convention? Or maybe joined a local book club to review and discuss books weekly?
• Personal projects: things like running a personal Instagram account with 10,000+ followers, setting up a successful Facebook fanpage, running a YouTube channel, or learning valuable skills in your free time will look great as projects on a resume.

Also, focus on customizing your resume:

• Put your current/newest job title first.
• Add the company name and start and finish dates.
• Write a short job description and provide some achievements in the form of bullet points.

Here are some common responsibilities in teenager jobs:

Teenager Jobs Keywords for a Resume

• Customer Service: Assist customers by answering questions, providing information, and resolving complaints.
• Cash Handling: Operate cash registers, handle transactions, and provide correct change.
• Stocking Shelves: Replenish merchandise on shelves, organize products, and ensure displays are neat and presentable.
• Cleaning and Maintenance: Perform cleaning duties such as sweeping, mopping, dusting, and keeping work areas tidy.
• Food Preparation: Prepare food items, follow recipes, and ensure kitchen cleanliness and food safety standards.
• Sales Assistance: Help customers find products, make recommendations, and assist with fitting rooms.
• Order Taking: Take customer orders accurately, either in person or over the phone, and ensure they are processed correctly.
• Inventory Management: Track inventory levels, report shortages, and assist with restocking and organizing storage areas.
• Event Assistance: Set up and take down event equipment, assist with event logistics, and provide support during events.
• Administrative Tasks: Perform office duties such as filing, data entry, photocopying, and answering phones.

And no matter what resume keywords you’re targeting, start each bullet point with an action verb like these ones:

Teen Resume Action Verbs

• Assisted
• Completed
• Delivered
• Enhanced
• Managed
• Organized
• Participated
• Performed
• Provided
• Supported
• Volunteered
• Coordinated
• Operated
• Maintained
• Created

Consider including a 'Projects' section on your resume to highlight non-work-related achievements. Whether it's a school project, a personal coding endeavor, or an event you organized, showcasing these initiatives demonstrates your proactive nature, ability to manage tasks, and relevant skills. This can make a significant impression, especially if you lack formalwork experience."

Pro Tip: Still don’t have enough experience? Even a couple of days of volunteer work are a solid teen resume builder that will supersize small resumes.

4. Put Your Best Skills on a Teen Resume

There are pros and cons to holding a job while studying, but you’ve decided to go along with your plan. So, how can you convince recruiters to hire you? Well, one of the ways is to show that you’ve got the job skills they need. 

Follow these steps to create an impressive skill section for a teen resume:

• Make a long list of all the skills you’ve got. Go for a mix of soft skills and hard skills.
• Read the job advertisement closely and underline the keywords that refer to the required knowledge and abilities.
• Compare your own skills with the job requirements.
• Make a curated list of 5–10 skills you’ve got that are relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Common Teenager Resume Skills

• Microsoft Office Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Leadership Skills
• Teamwork and Collaboration
• Decision Making Skills
• Written and Verbal Communication
• Active Listening
• Analytical Skills
• Organizational Skills
• Problem Solving
• Time Management
• Critical Thinking

5. Add Extra Sections to a Teen Resume

Maybe you don’t like being extra in life. But flexing on a resume is a good thing. It can help convince the hiring manager that you’re the right choice for the job. 

Now that the key parts of your resume are ready, use additional information to fill the space on your resume:

• Honors and Awards: Winning competitions not only boosts your ego but also proves you can do something really well. Brag about your honors on a resume to make the hiring manager remember you!
• Activities: Describe things you do in your spare time that are somehow related to the job you want. For example, if you’re applying for a dishwasher job, mention how you help with chores at home effectively.
• Associations: Maybe you learn to code in your free time and belong to an online discussion board? Or you joined a local artists’ club to find an outlet for your creativity?
• Certifications: Did you know that you can sign up for free online courses? They can certainly help you learn useful workplace skills and also award you a certificate to list on a resume.
• Interests and Hobbies: Mention interests relevant to the job you want. For example, if you want to work as a shop assistant at a clothing store, mention following fashion trends and reading books about fashion designers.
• Publications: Did your restaurant review find a way to a local newspaper? Or maybe your blog post got featured on Medium? Listing publications on your resume can be a great way to find a writing job.

Not really sure what kind of work you want to do? Check here: What Job Should I Get?

6. Write a Teen Resume Objective or Summary

“We MUST interview this one.” Start a resume for teens right, and you’ll get that response. Use resume profiles such as an objective or a summary to introduce yourself.

Teens should go for a career objective—it allows them to show their best qualities and state how valuable they are for the job. I recommend a resume summary only for young adults who already had their first jobs and held them for at least 2 years.

Here’s how to write a resume profile as a teenager:

1. Start with a compelling adjective like creative or tech-savvy.
2. Add your title (high school student).
3. List years of experience if you have any (1, 1+, 2).
4. Cite your goal (Committed to contributing to innovative applications).
5. Share your most impressive school/work accomplishments.
6. Proofread to eliminate any typos or errors.

Pro Tip: Resumes for teens need short and sweet objective statements. Stick to 60 words. Need more space? Write a great teenage cover letter. Even with no experience, you can make one that gets interviews. We’ll show you how later on.

7. Match Your Teen Resume with a Cover Letter

Wait, aren’t cover letters for people who grew up with rotary phones? That’s what many experts say. But they’re talking about generic cover letters. Nobody needs a cover letter that just says, “Here’s my resume.”

Is a cover letter needed for a teenager's first job? Absolutely yes. You need to make the recruiting committee want to read your resume. A cover letter will do the job. Here's to craft one:

• Address the hiring manager. Can’t find their name? Call the place and ask.
• Start your cover letter with your biggest achievement relevant to the job you’re trying to get.
• Prove you understand the job needs and that you can fill those needs.
• Last, end your cover letter with an offer and ask for an interview.

Listen, I get it. Most teenagers don’t write cover letters. You don’t want to do that either. But writing one will make your teenager resume stand out!

Pro Tip: Most teens don’t know to follow up on their job applications. A nudge a few days after you send your teen resume and cover letter can put you on the map at the right time.

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:

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See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Need more tips on writing a resume? These articles may help you to write the best teenager resume you can: 

• No Experience Resume Example
• How to Write a Teenager Resume With No Experience
• Student Resume Example
• High School Student Resume Example
• High School Graduate Resume Example
• High School Student Resume Templates
• Resume Example for College Admissions
• College Student Resume Example
• Resume Example for Part-Time Job
• Entry-Level Resume Example

About Zety’s Editorial Process

This article has been reviewed by our editorial team to make sure it follows Zety's editorial guidelines. We’re committed to sharing our expertise and giving you trustworthy career advice tailored to your needs. High-quality content is what brings over 40 million readers to our site every year. But we don't stop there. Our team conducts original research to understand the job market better, and we pride ourselves on being quoted by top universities and prime media outlets from around the world.

Sources

• Walden University, "Should Students Hold Jobs While in High School?"
• Jobvite.com, "2017 Job Seeker Nation Study: Finding the Fault Lines in the American Workforce"