A resume is a valuable tool that synthesizes your background, skills, experience, and other information into a single document. Resumes are typically required on job and internship applications, but even if your not planning to apply to a job a resume can be a helpful document to have on hand when writing your college applications. When writing a resume its best to work off of a template, basic templates can be found online or in the templates section of Google Docs. Remember a template is just that, a template, and it is okay to deviate from a template as long as you remain professional and concise. Resumes should have the following information.

Basic Information

Include your name, address, and contact information. Feature it prominently near the top of your page.

Work Experience

List any work experience you have, with the job title followed by your specific duties. If you do not have any work experience rather then leaving this space blank remove it entirely.

Education

Include the name of your high school and your expected graduation date. You can also include your GPA (if its high) and classes that are related to the job you plan to apply to. If you have any additional education outside of high school such as vocational training or summer classes you can also include it here.

Community Service

Volunteer experience can help paint you as a more complete person and can also demonstrate your skills. For example if you are applying to a construction job having experience with a charity like Habitat for Humanity can be helpful.

Additional Information

This is a place to put additional information that you feel is relevant but that is not shown elsewhere in your resume. Some examples include technical skills, personal interests, and languages (if fluent in more then English)

Final Advise

Consider showing your draft resume to your parents or one of your teachers for them to critique, they might help you identify ways to make your resume better.

Try and keep your resume short and sweet, for a high schooler a single page should be sufficient.

Finally remember that your resume is just one part of any job or internship application, even if your resume isn’t strong you can still secure a position though a strong cover letter or interview.