How to Write a High School Resume to Show Achievements

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As your high school career comes to an end, you may be looking to move into an entry-level job in your chosen career field. Whether you’re looking for an internship while you take college courses or are moving straight into the workforce, it’s important to have a high school resume that highlights your achievements. In this article, you can learn how to highlight achievements and experience on your high school resume with examples to help you list the skills you have developed.

What is a high school resume?

Your high school resume will look different from the resume of someone who has been in a professional position for many years. Most employers won’t expect you to have much work experience—if any—so showcasing achievements, awards and any experience you do have is important. From being a student council secretary to having a part-time job at a local retailer, you have learned skills that can be a benefit to you as you take on new jobs. You should use your high school resume to show how your education, extracurricular activities and achievements in school have all helped shape the employee you will become.

Tips for showing achievements on a high school resume

When writing a high school resume, you can make any achievement or experience relevant if you think about the soft skills you developed. Soft skills are things like listening skills, conflict resolution skills, time management abilities and problem-solving capabilities that can all be useful at any job. These are also called transferable skills.

Think about the experiences you’ve had as a student—you’ve probably learned skills from even seemingly small experiences and school projects. You can showcase hard skills, like a second language or computer software knowledge by choosing important professional skills you have learned from the classes you have taken.

Some of the most common high school experiences that teach important skills include:

  • Jobs like babysitting, lawn maintenance, pet services and newspaper delivery
  • Athletics 
  • Clubs
  • Social media

In each of these experiences, you learn valuable skills that you can use in future jobs. Even having a social media presence is important because it shows that you’re good with new technology and understand how to market yourself. Social media is a valuable tool for just about every company today, so having someone who knows about the various platforms is a big benefit.

How to show achievements on a high school resume

Here are a few ways to include your achievements on your high school resume:

1. First, highlight important achievements in your career objective

It’s important to state a career objective on your high school resume since you won’t have much or any work experience to demonstrate the direction your career is headed. Use this space to show off the achievements you are most proud of earning. Write a strong statement that relates to your career goals.

2. Second, include relevant skills throughout your resume

You can use achievements in your coursework and any limited work experience you might have to show how you’ve already started working toward your career objective. As you write your resume, think about your various skills and include them either in a bulleted list or separated by commas. For example, ‘Relevant skills: Intermediate Spanish; mastery of Microsoft Office Suite; excellent communication, time-management and problem-solving skills’

3. Third, use a dedicated achievements section

If you have a list of achievements or awards, you may want to have an achievements section on your resume. This can be particularly useful if you don’t have much relevant work experience because you will have the space available. You can choose to treat the section as a replacement for work experience or as a bulleted list and keep it simple and concise. Use this space as a place to highlight the best achievements of your high school career. 

Examples of a career objective for a high school resume

Here are some examples of how achievements can be included in a career objective for a high school resume:

Coursework example:

Valeria Munoz
987-654-3210
munozval@gmail.com

I am a motivated, aspiring marketer who enjoys all things creative. My coursework in art, computer animation and creative writing has given me a chance to try out different areas involved in marketing, and I am looking for an opportunity to learn even more alongside industry leaders in B2B and B2C marketing.

In this example, the student explains how their coursework directly relates to the field they are attempting to find a job or internship in. They could include this in either their career objective or within a section dedicated to relevant coursework.

Work experience example:

Max Stephens
987-456-7890
maxstephens@gmail.com

As an aspiring hairstylist who has worked as a shampoo assistant, I am looking for an opportunity to work alongside a talented team of stylists.

This example shows that the student has been working in their chosen field. This achievement will help them stand out. An achievements section could also be useful to expand on the details. 

Even though you may not have much traditional work experience, your high school resume can still showcase your achievements and skills to your future employer. It’s important to relate your achievements and any experiences you do have to your career objective to show future employers that you have an intended career path and can provide value to their company. Use your achievements to show how you have developed a strong set of skills that you can use in your future position.