Teenager Resume Guide for a First Job

A manager hiring for a first job is not looking for experience. They are checking three things, and once you know what they are, a short resume becomes easy to write.

What they are actually checking

Will you turn up? Reliability is the whole ballgame. Most of the trouble a manager has with young staff is attendance, so anything showing sustained commitment matters more than anything showing talent.

Can you deal with people? Politeness, staying calm, following an instruction.

When can you work? Availability is a genuine constraint for shift scheduling, and a candidate whose availability fits the gap gets the job over one who is more impressive and does not.

That third one is why the availability line below matters as much as anything else on the page.

What counts as experience

More than you think. All of these belong.

• Babysitting, pet sitting, yard work, car washing. Real work with real customers.
• Sports teams, especially several seasons of the same one.
• School clubs and roles: student council, yearbook, band, debate, robotics.
• Volunteering: church, community, library, animal shelter, sports coaching for younger kids.
• Family responsibilities, such as regularly caring for younger siblings.
• Anything you made or sold: art, baked goods, repairs, a channel, a small service.

Write each with what you did and what came of it, the same as any job.

Babysitting · Neighbourhood families · 2024 to present

• Look after three children aged 4 to 9 for two families, most weekends
• Handle bedtime routines, meals and homework, usually four hours at a time
• Both families have used me regularly for over a year

That last bullet is the one doing the work. Repeat business is evidence of reliability, which is exactly what the manager is checking.

The availability line

Put this near the top, under your contact details. Most teenage applicants omit it and it is one of the most useful things on the page.

Availability: After 4pm on weekdays, all day Saturday and Sunday. Fully available June through August.

Be honest and specific. Vague availability creates work for a scheduler, and a scheduler with two similar candidates picks the one whose hours fit.

If your state requires a work permit for your age, note that you have one or can get one. Rules on how many hours you may work and what jobs you may do are set both federally and state by state, so check your own state labour department before you apply. USAGov’s overview of labor laws and worker protection is a reasonable starting point for the federal side.

The whole thing on one page

Section order for a first resume.

1. Name, phone, email, city and state. Nothing else.
2. Availability.
3. Education. School name, expected graduation year, and GPA only if it is strong.
4. Experience. Everything from the list above, most recent first.
5. Activities. Sports, clubs, volunteering, if not already used as experience.
6. Skills. Concrete ones only.

Half a page is fine. A short honest resume looks better than a padded one.

The email address

Small thing, real effect.

Use something based on your name from a mainstream provider. A nickname address, a joke address or one made in middle school is the first thing a manager sees, and it sets a tone you then have to overcome.

Set up a plain one if you need to. It takes two minutes and you will use it for years.

The skills section, honestly

Cut anything that describes everyone: hard-working, friendly, good with people.

Keep anything checkable: a language you speak, software you actually use, a certification such as first aid or lifeguarding, a food handler card, a driving licence, cash handling, or specific equipment you can operate.

If you have none of these yet, a short skills section or none at all is better than a list of adjectives.

Handing it over

Most employers hiring for first jobs use their own form, and a resume is still worth bringing.

Print a few copies on plain white paper, single sided. Take them in person during a quiet part of the day, mid-morning or mid-afternoon rather than a lunch rush. Ask for the manager by name if you can find it out.

Then say one sentence: you are looking for part-time work, here is your resume, and here is when you can work. That is the whole conversation, and doing it in person makes a genuine difference for local jobs.

If you want to know what a job involves

O*NET has profiles for every occupation listing the actual tasks and working conditions. It is worth ten minutes before applying somewhere, both to know what you are signing up for and to use the right words on your resume.

Related

For a resume once you are at college, see the student resume guide. For specific first jobs, see the bartender resume guide, the receptionist resume guide and the customer service resume guide. For getting hobbies and activities right, see extracurricular activities on a resume. For other roles entirely, start from the full library of role guides.

Browse the student templates or build one free.