If you're writing your high school resume, but you're experiencing problems taking the right approach, we can help. This step-by-step guide will take you through the entire writing process, from start to finish.
There are many different types of resumes, papers, and essays that high school students can write. The length and content of your resume depend on the specific course requirements, the subject of study, and your skill and level.
Introduction
Your high school resume should have a clear goal - to persuade your audience of a perspective or position you're trying to apply for. The instruments of persuasion used are informed arguments.
If you manage to base your arguments on interpretation, analysis, and evidence, you should be able to win your readers over easily.
Your resume should have an introduction, a clear career objective, information about your education, volunteering experiences, and a convincing conclusion, all written in an appropriate font.
Let's delve deeper into how to accomplish this.
Write a killer career objective
Your career objective should be a reader's introduction to your resume. Therefore, it has to be precise, clear, and engaging enough to grab the reader's attention and interest. At the same time, it also has to be informative and easily readable.
This is where you inform your audiences of your dreams, aspirations, and wants, what you think an ideal career objective should be for you, etc. You can write a killer career objective by introducing what is otherwise known as the hook.
The hook allows you to grab the attention of your reader and take them further down the rabbit hole. Use bold statements, a surprising statistic, a quote, or a question to add to the relevance of your career objective, and provide context and background.
Now that you've properly introduced your reader to who you are and what your career objective is, it's time to formulate your statement. This is your thesis statement that provides signals and your focus on the topic. Make sure you clearly define your statement regarding your ideal career objective.
Don't make it longer than one or two sentences as you're not writing an essay here; just a quick overview of what your ideal career objective would be.
Describe your Education
Highlighting your education is the next step in writing an attention-grabbing resume. Since your education is one of your most precious assets, use it as a tool to impress your readers. So far, your resume includes an introduction and career objective, so make education your third resume section.
When describing your education, don't include only the degree you have and the school you went to. Feel free to add any other achievements as well. It can be anything, really. If you made the Dean's List or had a high GPA, include that too.
The more you highlight your academic achievements, regardless of what they might be, the more you impress your readers. You can also choose to emphasize all related experiences in your education section.
Since you're still in high school, your work experience is pretty limited, but that doesn't mean that you don't have any related experience. If you do, feel free to include any experience as this can significantly contribute to bringing your personality closer to your readers. Include any internships, clubs you've participated in, etc.
Spotlight your volunteer experiences and extracurricular activities
Highlighting your volunteer experiences and extracurricular activities matters too. Since you lack any work experience, you can bring your resume closer to your audience by mentioning volunteering experiences, extracurricular activities, and additional skills.
a) Volunteering experiences
These experiences show your dedication, devotion, ability to focus, your value, etc. Volunteering experiences help your readers see who you are and what interests you. They are clear evidence of your working habits and pay a great role in writing an engaging high school resume.
If there are any volunteer positions you've worked on, make sure you include them in your resume. If your volunteering experience includes any achievements, make sure you mention these too. They will help show the responsibilities you held in that position or job.
b) Extracurricular activities
Extracurricular activities include all types of activities that you can do, before, at, and after school. These activities greatly help to make your resume more appealing.
You can include all your hobbies and the activities you are pursuing at the moment. You can write about what you would like to pursue in the future. Some of the most impressive activities include:
- Student government
- Academic clubs and teams
- The debate team
- The arts
- Internships
- Culture clubs
- Community service and volunteer work
- The student newspaper
- A part-time job
- Athletics
c) Additional skills
Make sure you include any additional skills you might have. This can be anything from typing courses, communication skills, creative writing, customer service, planning, leadership, teamwork, reading, hiking, music, etc.
Additional skills help your readers get a complete picture of who you are, your interests, your personality, capabilities, aspirations, and more. The more skills you include, the better; but, don't overdo it.
Include relevant coursework
If you attended any courses, make sure you include them, along with the achievements you've accomplished. Having additional course degrees greatly improves your chances of making it to the school of your choosing.
Conclusion
This is the final section of your high school resume. This is where you sum up everything about you. It has to be strong and compelling. Finish your resume with an impactful and memorable sentence that emphasizes all the important skills and achievements you've accomplished so far.
Make sure you write your conclusion in a way that emphasizes the most important facts about your life to create the strongest final impression possible. Keep it short and to the point. Remember, this is just a resume, the way you introduce yourself to the new audience.
It's not an essay, so avoid writing a resume that's more than one page long. If you need professional help with your resume, you can always hire professional writers to help you with your efforts.
Here at ResumeCV, you can count on a whole team of professional resume writers that will work with you to prepare the draft and deliver the final product according to your requirements in a timely manner.
These are qualified writers, specializing in industry-specific resumes with comprehensive writing skills. Impress your audience with the most excellent resume that will win your readers over.