The short answer

A first resume is not a list of paid jobs. It is a short, honest page that tells a manager three things: what you have done, when you can work, and how to reach you. If you have never had a job, your experience comes from everything else you have done where someone counted on you.

Start with the list below. Pick everything that fits, give each one a plain name, and write two or three short lines about what you did.

You do not need a fancy title. "Volunteer", "Babysitter" or "Team member" is right if that is what you were. A made-up title is the first thing an interviewer asks about.

What counts as experience

Volunteering

A food bank, a place of worship, a community event, a library, an animal shelter. Hours you did for school count too.

Babysitting and pet sitting

Someone trusted you with their kids or their pets. Say how often, and for how long you have done it.

A sports team

Showing up to practice, a role on the team, helping coach younger players, a season you finished.

School clubs and groups

Student council, a school band, a yearbook, a robotics or debate club, a fundraiser you helped run.

School projects

A group project, a science fair entry, a presentation, something you built. Say what your part was.

Family business and odd jobs

Helping at a family shop, cutting lawns, shovelling snow, tutoring, selling things you made.

Certificates count too: first aid and CPR, a lifeguard or swim instructor course, a food handler certificate, a babysitting course. Put them in their own short section.

How to write each line

Every line answers one of three questions: what did you do, how much or how often, and what came of it. Start with a plain action word, leave out "I", and keep it to one line.

Instead of: "Helped out at the food bank"Write: "Sort and shelve donations for 3 hours most Saturdays." The second line tells a manager you show up on a schedule and can do a task without being watched.
Instead of: "Responsible for watching kids"Write: "Look after 2 children, ages 4 and 7, two evenings a week since last summer." Same job, but now a reader can picture it.
Instead of: "Team player and hard worker"Write: "Attend practice twice a week; missed one practice all season." Words like hard-working are things you claim. Showing up every week is something you can prove.

Use the present tense for things you still do and the past tense for things you finished. Keep each entry to two or three lines. If you cannot think of a number, write what you did in plain words and leave it there. A plain, true line is better than a big one you cannot explain.

Do not dress it up

It is tempting to paste your life into a chatbot and ask it to make you sound impressive. What comes back usually sounds like everyone else's resume: "results-driven", "dynamic", "passionate self-starter". Managers who hire for first jobs read a lot of these, and they skip them.

The bigger problem is the interview. Anything on your resume is fair game, so every line should be something you can talk about for a minute in your own words. If a line says you "managed" something, be ready to say who you managed and what happened.

The test for every line: could you explain it out loud to the manager, with an example, without making anything up?

Tell them when you can work

For a part-time job, when you can work matters as much as what you have done. Put a short availability line near the top, right under your name or summary. For example: "After school and weekends, about 12 hours a week." It saves the manager a question, and it shows you have thought about the job as a real commitment.

The order that works for a first resume

Put the strongest things near the top, where a busy reader looks first.

  1. Your name, city, phone number and a simple email address (your name, not a nickname)
  2. A short summary, if you have something real to say (optional)
  3. When you can work
  4. Experience: paid work, odd jobs, babysitting, family business
  5. Volunteering, teams and clubs
  6. School, and when you expect to finish
  7. Certificates
  8. Skills you can show, and languages you speak

Leave out your age, your full street address, and a photo. A manager doesn't need any of them to decide, and in Canada a photo on a resume is not the norm.

Volunteer hours count

If you are in high school, you may already have hours you can use. Many schools and some whole provinces and states ask students to do community service before they graduate. In Ontario, every student needs at least 40 hours of community involvement to earn their high school diploma. In Maryland, every public school student needs at least 75 hours of service-learning. Other places have their own rules, or leave it to the school, so ask your school what counts.

Whatever you did to earn those hours is experience, and it can go on your resume like any other volunteering: a plain title, where, roughly how long, and a line or two about what you did.

One page, then practise saying it

A first resume fits on one page. When it is done, read each line out loud and imagine a manager asking, "Tell me more about that." If you can answer, the line stays. If you would have to make something up, change the line until you would not.