The blank-resume problem feels like a trap: you need experience to get a job, and a job to get experience. Here's the part nobody tells you: the person reading applications for a first job knows you're a student. They are not expecting a career. They're scanning for three things: can you show up, can you learn, and did you care enough to write a clean page.

What counts as experience (more than you think)

  • Class projects. A group presentation, a research paper, a coding or art project: real work with a deliverable.
  • Volunteering of any kind, even informal — serving food, tutoring cousins, translating at church.
  • Caregiving and family responsibility. Watching siblings on a schedule or interpreting for your parents at appointments is responsibility employers understand.
  • Clubs, teams, and band. Showing up to practice for years is the exact reliability a manager wants.
  • Side money. Babysitting, mowing lawns, reselling, a small online shop — that's customer service and money handling. Side hustles count.

The sections, top to bottom

  1. 1Name and contact: phone, a professional-sounding email, your city (no full street address needed).
  2. 2One summary line, tailored to the job: “Reliable high school senior with two years of team leadership in robotics club, seeking a part-time retail role.”
  3. 3Education: school, expected graduation year, GPA if it's 3.5 or higher, plus 2–3 relevant courses or honors.
  4. 4Experience — projects, volunteering, and responsibilities from the list above, newest first, with bullet points.
  5. 5Skills: languages you speak, software you actually use, certifications (food handler's card, CPR, lifeguard).

The bullet formula

Every line under every entry works the same way: start with an action verb, say what you did, and attach a number or outcome when one exists. “Tutored two middle schoolers in math weekly for a school year; both raised their grade a full letter.” “Managed ticket sales for a 300-person school event.” Numbers make thin experience feel solid because they're evidence, not adjectives.

Tip
Never invent anything. A made-up job or inflated title can unravel in one interview question, and the whole page loses its credibility with it. The honest version, written well, is enough.

Formatting rules that do the heavy lifting

  • One page. Always, at this stage.
  • One plain font, 10.5–12 point, real margins. Skip photos, graphics, and rating bars for your skills.
  • Save and send as a PDF unless the application says otherwise; file name “Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf.”
  • Have one person proofread it. A single typo on a one-page document reads as carelessness.

A first resume isn't a record of jobs. It's one clean page of evidence that you show up, finish things, and tell the truth — and you already have more of that evidence than you think. Free fill-in templates live in the Careers kit.