Last updated: July 17, 2026 · By QuickResumeAI Editorial Team
Resume for First Job: Sample, Template, and How to Write It
To make a resume for your first job, lead with education, then 8 to 12 skills, then experience built from school projects, volunteering, clubs, and casual jobs like babysitting. Pair every line with a number and a result, keep it to one page, and copy the full sample and template below.
Or build a first job resume from scratch in 5 minutes.
How to Make a Resume for Your First Job (6 Steps)
- Add contact info. List your name, phone, email, and city and state at the top. No street address.
- Write a 2 to 3 sentence objective. Name the exact role you want and your top one or two relevant strengths.
- Lead with education. Put your school, graduation, GPA if 3.5 or higher, relevant coursework, and honors as your strongest section.
- Add a skills section. List 8 to 12 specific tools and abilities that match the job posting.
- Build an experience section from what counts. Use projects, volunteer work, clubs, sports, and casual jobs, each paired with a number and a result.
- Format for ATS and check the score. Keep it one page and single column, save as PDF, then run it through an ATS match check against the job.
What Counts as Experience on a First Job Resume
Anything that took commitment and produced a result counts. If you have never worked a paid job, write the result, not the chore. Find what you have on the left, delete the weak line in the middle, and use the resume-ready bullet on the right:
| Activity you have | Weak line (delete this) | Resume-ready bullet (use this) |
|---|---|---|
| Babysitting / childcare | Babysat for neighbors | Provided childcare for 3 children ages 4 to 10, averaging 8 hours per week for 18 months, earning $20/hour through repeat referrals from 4 families. |
| Class or group project | Did a group project | Co-led a 4-person English project analyzing 3 Shakespeare plays, delivering a 25-minute presentation to a class of 32 and earning a 98% final grade. |
| Volunteer work | Volunteered at the food bank | Volunteered 120 hours over 8 months at a local food bank, sorting and packing about 40 boxes per shift and training 3 new weekend volunteers. |
| Club or student government | Was treasurer of a club | Served as treasurer of a 22-member debate club, managing a $1,200 annual budget across 8 tournaments and cutting travel costs 18% through group bookings. |
| Sports | Played soccer in high school | Played 2 varsity soccer seasons as team captain, leading 18 players through 6 practices per week and organizing a fundraiser that raised $900 for equipment. |
| Yard work / lawn care | Did yard work for money | Built a 6-customer lawn-care route, mowing and edging weekly for 6 months and earning $1,800 net while managing my own scheduling. |
| Tutoring | Helped kids with homework | Tutored 5 middle-school students in math for 2 hours per week over a semester, helping 4 of them raise a letter grade. |
| Personal project | Sold things online | Ran an Etsy shop selling handmade prints, completing 70+ orders in a year with a 4.9-star rating across 50 reviews. |
Notice the pattern: an action, a number (hours, people, dollars, weeks), and an outcome. That formula turns any activity into something a recruiter reads as real. QuickResumeAI prompts you for each of these in plain language and writes the bullet for you. Start on the homepage.
Copy-Paste First Job Resume Template
Copy this, swap in your own details, and you have a working draft. Keep the headings exactly as written so the ATS reads each section cleanly.
QuickResumeAI fills this template for you from plain-language answers and formats it ATS-safe. Try the builder.
Full Sample Resume for a First Job (No Experience)
Here is a complete one-page first job resume for a student with no paid work history, top to bottom. Notice it leads with education and fills the experience section with projects, volunteering, and a casual job.
Maya Reyes
Austin, TX · (512) 555-0148 · maya.reyes@email.com · linkedin.com/in/mayareyes
OBJECTIVE
High school senior applying for a part-time sales associate role at Best Buy, bringing tech knowledge from two years on the robotics team and cash-handling skills from 80 hours running the school store register.
EDUCATION
Lakeside High School, Austin, TX · Expected graduation June 2026
GPA: 3.8 / 4.0 · Honor Roll (4 semesters)
Relevant coursework: Business Principles, Computer Science, Statistics
SKILLS
Customer service · Cash handling and POS basics · Microsoft Excel · Google Workspace · Teamwork · Time management · Conversational Spanish
EXPERIENCE & ACTIVITIES
School Store Volunteer, Lakeside High School · Sep 2024 to present
- Ran the register during 80+ hours of lunch shifts, handling cash and card payments with zero drawer shortages.
- Restocked inventory weekly and tracked best-selling items in a shared spreadsheet.
Robotics Team Member, Lakeside High School · 2024 to 2026
- Built and tested 2 competition robots with a 6-person team, placing 3rd at a regional meet of 24 schools.
- Documented build steps so 3 new members could replicate the wiring.
Babysitter, self-employed · 2023 to present
- Provided childcare for 3 children ages 4 to 10, averaging 8 hours per week, earning repeat referrals from 4 families.
CERTIFICATIONS
Red Cross Babysitting Certification · CPR and First Aid (current)
This resume fills a full page with no paid work history because every line carries a number and a result. Build yours from scratch in 5 minutes.
Instant ATS Resume Checker for First Job Applicants
Upload your resume, paste the part-time or entry-level job posting, and get a match score plus the exact missing keywords (cash handling, POS, ServSafe, soft skills) in 30 seconds.
How to List Education When It Is Your Strongest Section
Put education right under your objective, not at the bottom. For most first-job applicants it is the single strongest thing on the page, and recruiters expect it from students and recent grads, so leading with school is a signal of confidence, not a gap.
Include these, in this order:
- School name and location, plus expected or actual graduation month and year
- GPA only if it is 3.5 or higher (leave it off otherwise)
- Relevant coursework, 2 to 4 classes that connect to the job you want
- Honors and awards: honor roll, dean's list, scholarships, academic finals
- Leadership in school: club officer, team captain, student government
If your activities and volunteer hours are stronger than your grades, you can still lead with education for structure, then give your experience section more space. For more detail by grade level, see resume for high school students and resume for college students.
Reverse-Chronological vs Functional for a First Job
Use a combination layout, not a functional one. Lead with an objective and skills, place education near the top, then list projects, volunteer work, and activities in reverse-chronological order within each heading. A pure functional resume hides dates, which raises red flags and parses poorly in many ATS systems. The sample resume above is a combination layout, the safest choice with no paid work history.
Resume Objective Examples for a First Job
Name the role, your top strength, and where it came from, in 2 to 3 sentences. The objective at the top of the page is your 5-second pitch, so match the role title and a keyword or two to the posting. Three examples by target:
- Retail (sales associate): Reliable high school senior seeking a part-time sales associate role at Best Buy. Two years on the robotics team built strong tech knowledge, and 80 hours volunteering at the school store built cash-handling and customer-service skills.
- Food service (crew member): Hardworking 17-year-old seeking a crew member role at Chipotle. ServSafe certified, with 6 months of food-prep experience volunteering at a local soup kitchen and a record of perfect attendance during junior year.
- Office / admin assistant: Detail-oriented recent high school graduate with advanced Excel skills and 200 hours as a volunteer office assistant at a local nonprofit. Seeking an entry-level admin role to build on data entry, scheduling, and bookkeeping basics.
QuickResumeAI writes a tailored objective for your target role in seconds, and you can regenerate as many times as you want.
Skills to Include on a First Job Resume
List 8 to 12 specific tools and abilities, not vague labels. The skills section is where a first job resume earns most of its ATS keyword matches at chains like Target, Starbucks, Chipotle, and your local grocery store:
- Customer service and conflict-resolution basics
- Cash handling and point-of-sale (POS) systems
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail)
- Time management and punctuality
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Written and verbal communication
- Problem-solving and adaptability
- Basic data entry and 40+ WPM typing
- Social media and Canva content creation
- Foreign languages (list proficiency level)
- CPR or first aid certified
- ServSafe Food Handler (if applicable)
Specificity beats laundry lists. Every skill should map to something you can talk about in an interview. See the full resume skills section guide.
ATS Basics for a First Job Resume
Keep the format simple: one page, single column, standard headings. An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) scans your resume before a human sees it, and almost every retail chain, restaurant group, and entry-level employer uses one (Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Taleo). If your resume fails the scan, it never reaches a recruiter:
- One page, single column, no text boxes, tables, or sidebars
- Standard headings: Objective, Education, Skills, Experience (avoid creative names)
- 10 or 11 point Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica
- Half-inch to one-inch margins
- PDF exported from a word processor, never a screenshot
- No graphics, photos, icons, or shaded boxes
- Use the exact keywords from the posting (for example, "cash handling" not "money management")
Most first-job applicants are still in school. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics youth employment data, millions of people ages 16 to 24 enter or re-enter the labor force each year, so entry-level postings draw heavy competition and a clean, ATS-readable resume matters even for a part-time role. QuickResumeAI builds your resume in an ATS-safe format from the start, so you do not have to memorize any of these rules.