Updated on November 21st, 2022
When students need to craft their first resume, they typically have little to no applicable job experience. As a result, they might assume they can’t create a standout resume. Fortunately, that isn’t the case, mainly if they know how to write a resume with no job experience.
While the bulk of the resume writing process is the same for all aspiring job candidates, students need to adjust their approach a bit to make their application stand out. If your student needs to know how to write a resume with no job experience, here’s an overview of the process.
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Even if a student’s resume is top-notch, figuring out how to cover college costs is a common challenge. Fortunately, scholarships can help, and there are far more scholarships available than you might expect. If you and your student want to learn about scholarship opportunities, sign up for our free college scholarship webinar! Take a quick trip over to http://thescholarshipsystem.com/freewebinar to reserve a spot today.
How to Write a Resume with No Job Experience
If your student is trying to figure out how to make a resume with no experience, the process varies a bit depending on whether they’re a high school or college student or graduate. While the work history may be sparse or non-existent in both cases, there are nuances relating to the various situations that need to become part of the equation.
As a result, a resume for a teenager with no work experience will differ from what a college graduate usually creates. Here’s an overview of writing a resume for a high school student with no work experience and how to make a resume with no experience for college students.
High School Student Resume with No Work Experience
Contact Information
When your student is trying to figure out how to write a resume with no experience, it’s best to use a top-down approach. The first step is always to include their contact information at the top of the document.
Students should list their first and last name, email, and phone number at a minimum. Including their city and state, is wise, too, though the rest of their address isn’t needed.
Generally, the following format works well:
Name
City, State
Email • Phone Number
Resume Summary
Typically, when you look into writing a resume, objective statements are considered a little old-school, even if they’re more appropriate for those with no experience. However, labeling the section “Resume Summary” instead works well for high school students trying to figure out how to create a resume with no experience.
Resume summaries are more versatile than professional summaries, the latter of which implies professional experience. Students can highlight their relevant skills by discussing an achievement or describing themselves. Plus, they can discuss their goals relating to their job search.
Typically, resume summaries are two or three sentences long. Additionally, like the rest of a resume, they don’t involve “I” statements. Instead, they mainly consist of sentence fragments.
For example, a high school honors student may begin with, “Honors student with strong time management, communication, and organizational skills.” They can follow that up with a second sentence describing the work they’re seeking.
Skills Section
The skills section is where students can outline relevant capabilities that could help them thrive in a particular role. Even without job experience, high schoolers usually have capabilities hiring managers are after, including communication, collaboration, organization, self-reliance, and more.
These are usually set up as bullet points. Additionally, it’s common to use tabs to create some visual separation. While columns would make setting them up easier, some automatic resume screening software won’t read columns correctly, so they’re best avoided.
Education
For recent high school graduates, listing their education details above their experience section is a better choice. They should list the name of the school, the years attended, and the degree earned at a minimum.
High school students can mention if they were an honors graduate, salutatorian, or valedictorian here, too. Additionally, for students with a 3.5 GPA or higher, including their GPA isn’t a bad idea.
Experience
Even if a high school student has no work experience, that doesn’t mean they don’t have information to add in a general “Experience” section. Casual work like regular babysitting, pet sitting, or house sitting can potentially go here. The same is true of volunteering they’ve done that led to relevant skill building.
Participation in school clubs or athletic teams could fit here, as well. Those experiences do give students transferable skills, and they give their resume more content.
With these, relevance is the key. Students should focus on any experience that gave them skills that provide value to the employer. Additionally, they should discuss their role, such as any formal club title or if they were a team captain, as well as the achievements they had while in the positions.
Otherwise, outlining the skills they used to handle their responsibilities is enough. Students just need to focus on skills that the hiring manager may find valuable.
Awards and Achievements
Adding an Awards and Achievements section can also boost a high schooler’s resume. This can include academic, extracurricular, volunteering, or athletic achievements. With these, the name of the award or a description of the accomplishment followed by the date it occurred is usually enough.
College Student Resume with No Job Experience
Contact Information
This part of the process for how to make a resume with no job experience is the same for high school and college students. They need to include their first and last name, city and state, and email address and phone number.
If your student already has a LinkedIn page with some relevant content, they could add that too. That would make the format resemble the one below:
Name
City, State
Email • Phone Number
LinkedIn URL
Professional Summary
Even if your college student doesn’t have any formal work experience, it’s better to position their summary as a professional summary. In the Professional Summary section, college students should mention their highest relevant degree and applicable skills based on their academic pursuits, alternative forms of experience, and personal projects.
Skills Section
In the skills section, college students should use the same format as described for high school students. However, they should include hard skills acquired during their education that are relevant to their field and soft skills listed in the job description that they’ve honed. That creates a balanced approach.
In most cases, it’s best to limit the total number of skills to nine or 12, allowing all of them to remain on no more than three lines when properly spaced with tabs. Anything more than that may feel cluttered.
Education
College students without work experience also benefit from listing their education above their experience on their resumes. For college graduates, list the school’s name, degree level, major, and date of their graduation. Mentioning a GPA if it’s 3.5 or higher is an option, as well as noting if they were an honors graduate.
For college students who’ve yet to graduate, include the school’s name, degree level, and major. Follow that with “expected graduation date: [date]” to make it clear the degree is not yet earned.
College students can include their high school information if they prefer. It’s generally deemed unnecessary since having a high school diploma, or its equivalent, is implied if you’re attending college. However, if your student had a stellar GPA or graduated with honors, they may want to include it to showcase those points.
Experience
As with high school students, relevant experience can come from a range of sources. College students should consider their involvement in clubs and sports, volunteer work, and similar endeavors as potential sources.
Additionally, internships during college qualify as professional experience. If your college student interned during the course of their education, even for a short while, they need to list it prominently in the experience section, preferably at the top of the list.
Personal and Academic Projects
Many college students undertake personal and academic projects relating to their field. Since these can showcase relevant skills and experience, it’s wise to highlight them in a Personal and Academic Projects section. List them as bullet points, describing the nature of the project and the skills involved.
Awards and Achievements
Generally, this section works the same for high school and college students. Academic, extracurricular, volunteering, or athletic accomplishments can all go in this section, further showcasing critical capabilities.
Bonus Tip: Using Resume Examples with No Experience
Many students can benefit from checking out resume examples based on candidates with no job experience. It can show them how to format the document and give them ideas about what to include.
What’s critical for students to remember is to not copy any example verbatim when they’re trying to figure out how to write a resume with no job experience. Some companies do check resumes for plagiarism, mainly to see if the resume is potentially inauthentic or not genuinely reflective of an applicant’s skills.
Since that’s the case, when using resume examples with no experience during the writing process, students need to consider them a source of inspiration only. Avoid copying any of the content directly. Instead, students should tweak it to ensure it fits their capabilities and is appropriately targeted to the job they want to land.
Even if a student’s resume is top-notch, figuring out how to cover college costs is a common challenge. Fortunately, scholarships can help, and there are far more scholarships available than you might expect. If you and your student want to learn about scholarship opportunities, sign up for our free college scholarship webinar! Take a quick trip over to http://thescholarshipsystem.com/freewebinar to reserve a spot today.
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