How to Write a Resume for a Teenager With No Experience (Made Easy)

Are you struggling to write a resume for a teenager with no job experience? 

Resumes are often seen as documents meant to showcase your achievements and work history—and if you don’t have any yet, you might wonder: What’s the point?

But that’s not entirely true. It’s all about how you approach it.

Even as a teenager with no experience, you can still include information that makes you stand out to recruiters and brings you one step closer to real-world work opportunities. You just have to think outside the box and do things a little differently.

How to write a resume as a teenager with no experience

When crafting a CV as a teenager trying to land your first teen job, it's important to emphasize your potential rather than focusing solely on job experience. 

While you may not have years of professional work history, there are numerous other aspects you can include in your resume to showcase your abilities and make it stand out.

Here’s how to write a resume as a teenager with no experience: 

1. Choose the right resume format. As a teenager with no job experience, you should think about the formatting of your resume and choose a skill-based resume format that focuses more on your skills and other activities rather than formal job experience
2. Write a resume objective. Choose a resume objective that explains your motivations and potential rather than a resume summary that highlights your previous job experiences and achievements. 
3. Focus on extracurricular activities. Treat your extracurricular activities as work experience to show your capabilities. Show skills you’ve learned and mention all your responsibilities. 
4. Highlight your transferable skills. For a teenager with no experience, this might be the most important part as it’s the powerhouse of your resume. Mention all your gained experiences and show specific examples where and how you used them.
5. Add a section for personal projects or hobbies. A big boost to your resume are your hobbies and personal projects, they show initiative and proactiveness that’s highly valued at any industry.

Now, let’s look at each step in more detail.

1. Choose the right resume format

When it comes to resume writing, there are 3 formats to choose from. While many people overlook this step, it’s actually incredibly important as it sets the tone and organizes your resume sections to highlight different aspects of your background.

When writing a resume, you can choose from these resume formats: 

• Chronological resume format. Focuses on your previous work experience and places them in chronological order, with the latest presented first. 
• Functional (skill-based) resume. Focuses on your transferable skills, accomplishments, extracurricular activities, and even your personal traits and motivations. 
• Hybrid resume. A mix of the two, where skills are the main objective of the resume, stating them before work experience, but then still stating work experience in chronological order.

If you’re a professional with years of experience and a list of impressive achievements, a chronological resume makes perfect sense. It showcases your career journey and the crème de la crème of your accomplishments.

But if you’re a teenager trying to land your first job at a local swimming center or food delivery service, that approach doesn’t work as well. In this case, a skills-based resume is a much more rewarding choice, as it shifts the focus from experience to your abilities and potential.

2. Write a resume objective

A resume objective is another must when it comes to writing a resume for a teenager with no job experience.

This resume section serves as an introduction of the applicant, stating the most important things that should immediately grab recruiters’ attention and encourage them to keep reading. Similar to the resume format, you can choose between:

• Resume summary. Looks to the past, focusing on your achievements and stating the most important ones that demonstrate your capabilities as a professional. It gives the recruiter a clear picture of your abilities and experiences.
• Resume objective. Looks to the future, explaining your motivation, vision, and what you hope to achieve and gain from the job you’re applying for. This is where you can show your personality and enthusiasm to learn new things.

And as you might have already guessed, when you’re a teenager with no experience, using a resume objective is much more suitable than a resume summary that mainly focuses on your experience.

When it comes to writing a good resume objective, you should try to: 

• Grab the attention of the recruiter. To achieve that, be specific from the start and explain your motivation to apply. 
• Tailor your resume. Be relevant and try to highlight your skills and motivation that match the responsibilities and values of the role or company. 
• Show your personality. Avoid using buzzwords and vague phrases. Try to truly show a bit of who you are and why you’re applying. 

It could look something like this:

3. Focus on extracurricular activities

Volunteering, charity work, attending school clubs, helping organize events, participating in sports, or playing an instrument can all be turned into resume-worthy experiences. 

These extracurricular activities often require certain personality traits that are important for the role you're applying for. By doing them, you’ve also likely developed valuable skills along the way.

The trick here is to simply treat all these activities the same way you would treat work experience in a normal resume. 

Mention all the skills you’ve learned, the responsibilities you had, briefly describe the mission of the activity or a project, and you can even mention the size of the groups you were involved in. 

The extracurricular activities that are worth mentioning on your resume could be :

• Volunteering. (e.g., animal shelters, local libraries, NGOs)
• School clubs. (e.g., robotics, debate, yearbook committee)
• Peer mentoring or tutoring. e.g., helping classmates with math or reading)
• Creative pursuits. (e.g., photography, writing, music, design)
• Team sport participation. (e.g., soccer, basketball, swimming)
• Charity work. (e.g., organizing donation drives, helping at events)

By framing these activities as real-world experience, you're showing that you’re proactive, capable, and already building the kind of habits and skills that employers respect.

How to list extracurricular activities on a teenager’s resume with no experience

If you’re wondering how to list extracurricular activities on your CV, there are a few things you should have in mind when listing these activities. 

• List only relevant things. Mention only things that can show you’re the right fit. If you’re applying for a job in the food industry, there’s no reason to mention you're a good chess player. 
• Treat each activity like a job. If you have relevant experience that is relevant to the job you’re applying for, make the most of it by stating 2-3 bullet point key responsibilities. 
• Create a clear title. For example, if you’re volunteering, are you an event organizer or an assistant? Always create a clear title that explains what you did. 
• Highlight transferable skills. Are you volunteering at the local library? What skills have you learned, and what tools do you use to collect data, conduct research, and organize materials? Highlight all the skills you apply in your activities.

4. Highlight your transferable skills

Skills are becoming increasingly important in today’s job market. They are the currency for almost any role out there. 

While you may be lacking some of the skills required for a specific job, the good news is that skills are much easier to gain than, for example, a formal education or years of experience. 

And even if you feel like you don’t have any relevant skills yet, there’s a good chance you already have something worth mentioning on your resume.

Let’s break it down.

What are transferable skills

Transferable skills are skills and abilities you can apply across different jobs, industries, and situations. They’re not linked in a specific role or field, and you can use them in various roles and positions. 

They’re usually showing:

• Versatility. You can use them in different contexts; you might’ve earned them in school, but they are as important in your future work. Or later use them when switching roles in the future.
• Adaptability. They help individuals adjust to new challenges and environments. 
• Foundational. They are essential for success in any career path. 
• Can be hard or soft skills. While often associated with "soft skills" like communication and teamwork, they can also include technical skills like data analysis or coding. 

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Transferable skills can take many forms, but these are some of the most valuable across roles and industries:

• Communication skills. Whether it's writing essays, speaking up in class discussions, or taking part in debates, you've already been practicing how to express ideas clearly. When you mention this skill, try to include a real example, like a presentation you gave or a group chat you helped organize.
• Teamwork and collaboration. If you've ever worked on a group project, played on a sports team, or helped organize a school event, you've used teamwork. It demonstrates your ability to cooperate and contribute toward a shared goal.
• Tech literacy. If you're comfortable using tools like Google Docs, Excel, or Canva, you're already ahead. And if you've used Adobe apps, video editing software, or coding tools like Grasshopper, definitely mention those. They make your resume stand out.
• Leadership. Being a class rep, starting a club, or helping others with homework shows you're willing to step up. Leadership is also about taking initiative and being someone others can count on.
• Creativity. Whether you've made videos, written stories, designed digital art, or curated a cool Instagram feed, it all counts. Creative thinking is valuable in marketing, content creation, and any job that needs fresh ideas.

5. Add a section for personal projects or hobbies

Even if you don’t have any formal job experience, you might’ve worked on personal projects or pursued hobbies that taught you valuable skills.

It could be running a blog, editing videos on social media, writing stories, running a YouTube channel, or simply engaging in something actively. All these can be a huge boost to your resume when it comes to demonstrating initiative and showing your interests and motivation. 

How to include personal projects or hobbies:

• Give the section a title like “Personal Projects,” “Creative Work,” or “Independent Projects.”
• Add a brief explanation of what it is, your role, and what you learned or achieved.
• Where possible, include numbers (views, followers, published posts) or tools used (software, platforms).

Deciding what’s worth including in your resume and what’s not can be tricky, especially when it comes to things like hobbies and interests. This video might help you understand how to write and list hobbies to help you boost your CV. 

Teenager resume with no experience example

With these steps, you should be able to put together a strong resume even as a student with no experience. However if you’re more of a visual learner, we’ll show what a good resume looks like: 

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 Tenager resume mistakes to avoid

When you’re making your first resume as a teenager, there are a few pitfalls you should be aware of, since they are really common resume mistakes and can narrow your chances of landing your job. 

• Lie about your work experience. The worst mistake you can make is to exaggerate or lie about your work experience. Even if you manage to get the job, there’s a high chance your lack of experience will come to light sooner or later.
• Choose the incorrect resume format. This is probably the most crucial step to make your resume stand out, even if you’re a teenager. Choosing the right format will set the tone and put the focus on the right things when you have no experience.
• Use buzzwords or vague filler. Words like “hardworking“ or “team player” since they don’t say much. Focus on action verbs that are connected to your achievements. 
• Forget to tailor the resume. If you’re applying for a job in the food industry, highlight skills like customer service or handling food safely. For a library role, focus on organization and research skills. Always tailor your resume to the job.
• Skip the proofreading. The devil’s in the details. And you should always proofread and make sure your resume is formatted correctly without mistakes to make a good professional impression. 

If you're aware of these resume pitfalls and follow these few basic rules, you should have a great resume in no time, even if you are a teenager or a student with no experience. 

Key takeaways

Landing your first job can be tricky when you’re a teenager with no experience, but nonetheless, you can still create a great resume that stands out. You just have to shift focus to the things you know and activities and projects that prove your potential.

The way to do it is by:

• Choose the right resume format
• Write a resume objective
• Focus on extracurricular activities
• Highlight your transferable skills
• Add a section for personal projects or hobbies 

And as always there are few common mistakes you should avoid: 

• Lying or exaggerating work experience
• Choosing the wrong format (e.g., chronological when you have no experience)
• Overusing buzzwords without examples.
• Not tailoring your resume to the specific job.
• Skipping proofreading and formatting checks.

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