How to write an effective student resume

Writing a resume when you are still in school can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to showcasing your relevant experience. Luckily, there are many formatting and writing tricks you can have up your sleeve to make your student resume competitive and compelling.

In this guide, we will teach you everything you need to know about writing a resume as a student. Keep reading to learn how to:

• Choose a format that focuses less on work experience
• Write a resume summary that expresses your best skills
• Include a wide variety of hard & soft skills on your resume
• Describe extracurricular & volunteer experience in your work history
• List your academic credentials & awards properly

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1. Choose the best format for your student resume

No matter if you are a high school, college, or higher education student, the first crucial step to writing your student resume is to choose the best format for your needs.

Generally, applicants who are current students will have limited formal work experience, but an extensive academic background. Along with coursework, this may include extracurriculars, student assistantships, internships, and volunteer work.

The best format for this type of experience is the functional resume. Functional resumes do not focus on work experience as a standard reverse-chronological resume would. Instead, this format focuses much more heavily on education, skills, and unpaid experience.

Of course, if you do have some work experience, you may want to opt for the more traditional reverse-chronological resume or a hybrid resume format. Reverse-chronological resumes focus on your most recent job first and work backward from there, making the work experience section the largest on the document. Hybrid resumes, by contrast, spread the focus out more evenly between all sections.

Choose your preferred template and make your resume shine.

2. Write a resume summary that expresses your best skills

Your resume summary is a short statement that summarizes your best attributes as a professional or as a student. This can include your credentials, accomplishments, or goals, but should always focus primarily on providing compelling details to catch the attention of the reader.

To help illustrate how to write a strong resume summary, here is an incorrect example followed by a correction and explanation.

Why is this incorrect?

When you write your resume summary, you want to think not only about including relevant information but also about how you word things to sound engaging and intriguing. This summary includes vital information about the student and their goals, but ultimately fails to grab the attention of the reader due to the poor writing and lack of specificity.

Why is this correct?

In this corrected example, the student includes a lot of the same information but with greater context and specific facts to back up their claims. The sentences have a better overall flow that gives the person reading the summary a clear oversight of who this student is and what their goals are.

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3. Include a wide variety of hard & soft skills on your student resume

As a student, you have probably heard your teachers or professors say you need to hone your skills – but did you know there are two distinct types of skills you can have?

These two types of skills are known as hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills refer to your technical and learned abilities, such as athletics or computer skills. These abilities take time and commitment to obtain, making them key qualifications for specific jobs.

Soft skills, comparatively, refer to your interpersonal and intellectual abilities that allow you to collaborate with others and understand the world around you. These can be both inherent and learned, and include things such as people skills and communication.

Including both types of skills on your resume shows the person reading it that you understand the importance of having both kinds.

With this in mind, here are 10 ideas for both hard and soft skills that are great for a student’s resume:

4. Describe extracurricular & volunteer experience in your student work history

If you are in high school or college and have never worked a formal job, it is likely difficult to write a standard resume that focuses on paid work experience.

It is important to remember that employers who are willing to hire current students are often aware that you may not have an extensive work history. Despite this, most students will have a variety of extracurricular or volunteer experiences that can be subbed in for formal work experience.

For instance, if you are a high school student and serve as the captain of a sports team, you can use this position as an entry in your work experience section. Additionally, rather than name the section “Work Experience,” name it something more fitting like “Hands-On Experience” or simply “Experience.”

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5. List your academic credentials & awards on your student resume

On a standard resume for established professionals, the education section should generally be kept short and sweet. However, student resumes often lack extensive work histories, leaving more room to expand on academic credentials and experience.

When listing an ongoing diploma or degree, it is important to note this to employers using an “Expected Date of Graduation” bullet point. Even though you have not graduated yet, this will give employers a better idea of when you will graduate and how your school schedule may affect the work schedule.

Additionally, it can be useful to include your GPA(s) when writing a resume while still a student, as this can help to illustrate your work ethic to employers.