To make a resume for your first job, start from what you have actually done, not from a job history you do not have yet. Put your contact details at the top, add a one to three sentence objective naming the job, then fill the page with education, skills, and the sections that stand in for work experience: school projects, clubs and teams, volunteer work, informal jobs like babysitting or mowing lawns, and any part-time or seasonal work. Describe each item the way you would describe a job, with what you did and a result. Keep it to one page. Below are three complete samples, one for a teen with no jobs yet, one for a college student and one for a new graduate, followed by a table of sections to use instead of experience and a list of what to leave off.
Every person, school, employer and number in the samples is invented for this post.
What goes on a first resume
A first resume has the same skeleton as any other. What changes is what fills the middle.
| Part | What goes in | Notes for a first resume |
|---|---|---|
| Contact header | Name, city and state, phone, a professional email, LinkedIn if you keep one | CareerOneStop says there is no need to include your full street address |
| Objective | One to three sentences naming the job and what you bring | Better than a summary when you have little experience (see below) |
| Education | School, location, expected graduation, GPA if strong, relevant courses | Goes near the top for students and new grads |
| Experience, or what replaces it | Jobs, internships, projects, volunteering, activities | Each item gets a title, an organization, dates and one to three bullets |
| Skills | Tools, languages, certifications, practical skills | List only what you can show or talk about |
Two choices trip people up on a first resume.
Objective or summary. CareerOneStop, the career site sponsored by the US Department of Labor, says to skip the Summary section if you have three years of experience or less. For recent graduates with little or no experience, its special tips page suggests replacing the summary with an objective that highlights, "in 1-3 sentences, your degree, key skills or accomplishments, and professional interests, tailored to the specific role you're applying for." Penn State's IST career office makes the same exception in its guide to updating a high school resume: it lists objectives under things to remove, "unless you have limited experience and need to fill space." Our resume objective examples cover how to write one.
What employers look for. In NACE's Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update, a survey of 185 employers in February and March 2026, 85% said they look for evidence of teamwork skills on a college student's resume, and problem-solving and communication were the other top skills. That is useful for a first resume because all three can be shown without a job. A group project, a team sport, a club role or a volunteer shift is evidence of teamwork if the bullet says what you did with other people.
The stakes are real at both ends of the age range. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 21.3 million employed 16 to 24 year olds in July 2026, and a youth unemployment rate of 9.1%. For college graduates aged 22 to 27, the New York Fed puts unemployment at 5.70% against 4.06% for all workers (three-month averages to June 2026). A first resume that shows evidence instead of adjectives is one of the few parts of that search you control.
Sample: a teen with no jobs yet
Who it is for: a 16 year old high school junior applying for a part-time job at a grocery store, cafe or retail shop, with no paid work so far.
JORDAN ELLIS
Columbus, OH | (555) 010-0142 | jordan.ellis.work@example.com
OBJECTIVE
Reliable high school junior seeking a part-time cashier or stock role at
Greenleaf Market. Bring cash-handling practice from school fundraisers,
weekend availability and conversational Spanish.
EDUCATION
Westfield High School, Columbus, OH Expected graduation: 2028
GPA: 3.6 | Honor Roll, four semesters
ACTIVITIES AND VOLUNTEER WORK
Concession Stand Volunteer, Westfield Athletic Boosters Sep 2025 to present
- Run the cash box and card reader at home football and basketball games,
serving about 150 customers a night with a team of four
- Count and record the night's takings with the booster treasurer
Food Pantry Volunteer, Eastside Community Pantry Jun 2025 to present
- Sort and shelve donations every other Saturday; trained two new volunteers
on the stock rotation system
Varsity Cross Country, Westfield High School Aug 2024 to present
- Train six days a week in season; team captain for 2026
INFORMAL WORK
Babysitting and Pet Sitting, neighbors in Columbus, OH 2024 to present
- Care for three regular families' children and pets, including evenings
and overnight pet visits
SKILLS
Cash handling | Customer service | Spanish (conversational) | Google Sheets
AVAILABILITY
School year: weekdays after 3:30 p.m., weekends any time
Summer: full availability from June 8
Why it works:
- Every activity reads like a job. It has a title, an organization, dates and a bullet that says what Jordan did, with a number where one is true.
- The objective names the employer and the role. Change it for each application. It takes two minutes.
- Informal work counts. Babysitting for three regular families shows someone trusted Jordan with their children. Label it honestly as informal.
- Availability is a section of its own. For a teen this is practical, not filler. Under federal rules, 14 and 15 year olds may not work more than 3 hours on a school day or 18 hours in a school week, or before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. (9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day). At 16 and 17, federal law sets no hour limits outside jobs declared hazardous, but states add their own rules. A manager filling a schedule wants to know when you can actually work.
Sample: a college student
Who it is for: a second-year college student applying for a summer internship or a part-time job related to their major, with one part-time job and some course projects.
PRIYA RAMAN
Madison, WI | (555) 010-0178 | priya.raman@example.edu | linkedin.com/in/priyaraman-sample
OBJECTIVE
Second-year economics student seeking a summer 2027 operations internship at
Northlake Logistics, bringing Excel modeling from coursework and two years of
customer-facing work.
EDUCATION
University of Lakeshore, Madison, WI
Bachelor of Arts in Economics, expected May 2029 GPA: 3.4
Relevant coursework: Intermediate Microeconomics, Statistics for Economics,
Business Analytics with Excel
PROJECTS
Campus Dining Wait-Time Study, Statistics for Economics Feb 2026 to Apr 2026
- Collected 400 timed observations at three dining halls with a team of three
- Built an Excel model showing a 12-minute lunch peak; presented a staggered
shift plan to the dining services manager
EXPERIENCE
Barista, Brightwater Coffee, Madison, WI Sep 2025 to present
- Prepare orders during weekday morning rushes of about 90 customers an hour
- Count the till and record waste at close, three shifts a week
- Trained four new hires on the point-of-sale system
LEADERSHIP AND ACTIVITIES
Treasurer, Economics Student Association Aug 2026 to present
- Manage a $3,500 annual budget and file reimbursement requests for 60 members
SKILLS
Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, charts) | Google Sheets | Square POS
Spanish (intermediate)
Why it works:
- Education moves up and grows. Relevant coursework, with a GPA because 3.4 clears the 3.0 bar CareerOneStop gives for recent graduates. Penn State's guide tells new students to add a college GPA after the first semester.
- High school is gone. Penn State's guide says to "keep only relevant experiences and student involvement from high school", and by the second year little is still relevant.
- A class project gets its own section. It shows the problem-solving and teamwork NACE's employers ask for, with a count of observations and a result.
- The coffee job stays. Penn State's guide says "work experience in the service industry is great" and asks students to show the soft skills used and the numbers behind them. Rush volume, closing the till and training new hires are all real evidence.
Internships are worth chasing early. NACE reported in April 2026 that employers converted 63.1% of their 2024 to 2025 interns into full-time hires, the highest rate in five years. And in NACE's Job Outlook 2026 survey, an internship with the employer and an internship in its industry were the only two attributes employers rated as having "very much influence" when choosing between two otherwise equal candidates. Our guide on how to get an internship covers the search.
Sample: a new grad
Who it is for: a graduate with a bachelor's degree, one internship and some part-time work, applying for an entry-level analyst role.
MARCUS BELL
Atlanta, GA | (555) 010-0163 | marcus.bell.sample@example.com | linkedin.com/in/marcusbell-sample
OBJECTIVE
Recent marketing graduate seeking an entry-level marketing analyst role at
Halcyon Home Goods. Ran A/B tests on email campaigns during a retail
internship and built weekly reporting in SQL and Looker Studio.
EDUCATION
Riverbend State University, Atlanta, GA
Bachelor of Business Administration, Marketing, May 2026 GPA: 3.6
Honors: Dean's List, six semesters
EXPERIENCE
Marketing Analytics Intern, Pinecrest Outdoor Supply, Atlanta, GA Jun 2025 to Aug 2025
- Set up four A/B tests on promotional emails; the winning subject line format
raised open rate from 21% to 26% on a 40,000-person list
- Wrote SQL queries for a weekly campaign report used by a team of five
- Presented a summary of summer results to the marketing director
Sales Associate, Corner Bookshop, Atlanta, GA Aug 2023 to May 2026
- Worked 15 hours a week through college; ran the store's Instagram account
and grew it from 900 to 2,400 followers in a year
PROJECTS
Senior Capstone: Customer Segmentation for a Local Gym Jan 2026 to Apr 2026
- Clustered 1,200 member records into four segments in Python with a team of
four; the gym used two segments for its spring promotion
SKILLS
SQL | Excel | Looker Studio | Python (pandas) | Google Analytics 4
Mailchimp | A/B testing
Why it works:
- The internship leads. It is the closest thing to the job, so it sits first under experience and gets the most bullets.
- The part-time job stays, cut to one bullet. Three years of 15-hour weeks through college shows reliability; the bullet picks the part that matches a marketing role.
- The objective earns its place. It names the role and the company and repeats two skills from the posting that the experience section then proves.
- High school is not on it. CareerOneStop says to leave off high school once you have education beyond it.
For how to format the degree line, honors and graduation dates, see how to list education on a resume.
Sections to use instead of experience
If you have no paid work, these sections carry the page. Use whichever have real content, and give each entry a title, an organization, dates and a result.
| Section | What counts | Sample bullet (invented) |
|---|---|---|
| Projects | Class projects, science fairs, personal builds, a site or app you made | "Built a budgeting spreadsheet for a family of five; cut monthly grocery spending by $60" |
| Volunteer work | Food banks, shelters, events, tutoring, religious or community groups | "Tutored three middle schoolers in math weekly for a school year" |
| Activities and leadership | Clubs, teams, student government, band, debate, robotics | "Led a four-person robotics build team to third place out of 15" |
| Informal and family work | Babysitting, pet sitting, lawn care, a family business | "Ran the register at my family's restaurant on Saturdays for two years" |
| Key qualifications | A short bulleted list of skills from coursework or projects | CareerOneStop suggests this directly under the objective |
| Honors and awards | Honor roll, scholarships, competitions | "AP Scholar, 2026" |
| Relevant coursework | Two or three courses that match the job | Keep it to the ones a reader would recognize as relevant |
| Certifications | CPR, food handler, lifeguard, software certificates | List the issuer and the year |
The test for each entry is simple. Could you talk about it for two minutes in an interview, with a specific moment and a result? If yes, it belongs. If you would struggle, cut it.
What to leave off
- A photo. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says employers should not ask for a photograph of an applicant before an offer, so US resumes leave it off.
- Your age or date of birth. The same EEOC page calls age irrelevant to hiring decisions. If a form asks whether you meet a minimum age, answer the form. Your graduation year already tells an employer roughly where you are.
- Your full street address. City and state are enough.
- References. Penn State's guide lists professional references under things to remove. Keep a separate list ready for when an employer asks. Our post on references on a resume explains how.
- Pictures, graphics and heavy templates. Penn State's guide also lists pictures and graphics for removal and suggests building the resume in Word without a template. A plain one-column page is easiest to read and to parse.
- High school, once you are past it. Keep it while it is your highest level of education. Drop most of it after your first year of college.
- A weak GPA. CareerOneStop gives two lines on its own site: include a GPA if it is higher than 3.0, and graduates usually list it if it is 3.5 or higher. Treat 3.0 as the floor and 3.5 as the comfortable line. NACE's Job Outlook 2026 found that a GPA of 3.0 or higher ranked below general work experience, leadership roles and extracurricular involvement as a tiebreaker, so a missing GPA costs less than people fear.
- Skills you cannot back up. "Proficient in Excel" invites an Excel question. List what you could demonstrate tomorrow.
- Filler adjectives. "Hard-working team player" proves nothing. The bullet about training two new volunteers proves both words.
A five-step way to build it
- List everything you have done in the last three or four years: school, jobs, chores for pay, clubs, teams, volunteering, projects, awards.
- Pick the job you are applying for and read the posting. Circle the skills and duties it names.
- Choose the five to eight items from your list that best match, and sort them into the sections above.
- Write one to three bullets for each, starting with a verb, with a number where a true one exists: customers served, hours a week, money raised, people trained.
- Write the objective last, naming the role and the two or three things the page proves. Then read it aloud, check every date and phone digit, and save it as a PDF named with your name.
For the full list of standard sections and their order, see what to put on a resume.
If you reach the point of sending many applications to entry-level postings, ApplyEze, the product this blog belongs to, writes a resume and cover letter for each posting, as PDF and DOCX, and reads each one back with a parser check before upload. Whatever you use, read the version that goes out and keep only skills you can talk about in an interview.