How to Help Your CTE Students Build a Strong Student Resume with No Work Experience

How can you, the teacher or parent of teenagers, set the stage for building strong student resumes with no work experience? Oftentimes, our CTE students, high school seniors, or even teenagers just looking for summer jobs freeze when they start writing their resumes, because wait...there's nothing to put on their resumes!

High schoolers are young, so understandably, they may not have robust resumes yet. YET. But there's always time, especially with guidance from parents and teachers. This blog post offers resume examples for high school students, from skills such as leadership and organization to real and reflective work experience. 

Key Takeaways:

• Students can build strong resumes even with no work experience. Leadership, service, skill-building, career exploration, and real-world projects all help students create meaningful resume content.
  
• Resume-building starts with experience-building. If students don’t yet have experience to put on a resume, the solution isn’t panic; it’s intentionally creating opportunities to gain skills and experiences
  
• CTE and career readiness go hand in hand. Job shadowing, entrepreneurship, work experience, leadership roles, and hands-on learning experiences help students build both hard and 21st-century skills.
  
• Teaching resume writing matters. Resume templates, writing guidance, and reflection help students learn how to communicate their strengths, skills, and accomplishments professionally.
  
• Real-world learning creates resume-worthy experiences. Career exploration, service-learning, clubs, projects, and skill development all give students meaningful experiences to showcase.
  
• This post shares 12 practical resume-builders for teens. Whether students are preparing for a summer job, college, internships, or future careers, these ideas help them build confidence and stronger resumes over time, even with no work experience. 

In this era, where technology is at our fingertips, students can easily find great resume examples, resume-building software or websites, and resume templates. So teaching resume writing to your high school students is the easy part, in my opinion. 

The tricky part isn't the writing itself; it is having something to put on student resumes with no work experience to speak of.  

As high schoolers, they likely don't have a robust portfolio of experiences to add to their resumes, and that is where you come in. That is where they need you the most.​

How to Teach Resume Writing: 

1. Provide a resume template for students to work with. You can certainly ask your CTE students to build a resume template from scratch, but I don't personally feel it's necessary. I would rather they focus their energy on acquiring skills and experiences that will stand out on their resumes, so having a ready-made template is helpful.

2. Teach resume writing guidelines. Have students learn about resume sections, fonts, structure, length, etc. Teach them how to highlight their biggest accomplishments and leave out unnecessary information.

• After reviewing resume-writing guidelines, I like to have my students find examples of resumes and evaluate or rate them in small groups.
• Then I have my students look for a job posting in one field of interest, identify the job requirements, and write a hypothetical resume as if they are an applicant who is highly qualified for the position. 

3. Facilitate resume builders. This step is where my high school students and I spend most of our time.  Your students will realize, as they write mock resumes for positions they aren't qualified for, that they don't have much to add to their resumes beyond work experience. Some may not even have that.

It's perfectly normal for high school students to have flimsy resumes that lack substance. However, you can help their resumes stand out by providing opportunities for them to gain valuable skills and experiences, turning their ordinary resumes into something super impressive. 

There are some features of resumes that are more obvious and expected than others, such as work experience or GPA. But my favorite resume builders aren't so obvious. They relate more to skill- and character-building.

I've done a lot of hiring in my career, and I look for more than just work experience in an ideal employee. I want to see that they care, work well with others, have proven leadership experience if it's a leadership role, have the specific hard skills required for the role, such as digital literacy, and more.

With the onset of the information age, career landscapes are constantly evolving. Grades and work experience alone aren't enough to stand out. Employers are looking for employees who are versatile and multifaceted. 

Help your students get that advantage! How? I've listed my favorite high school resume builders for students, all of which can be done by students independently (such as over the summer break) or together as a class with your guidance. 

How to Help Your CTE Students Build Strong Student Resumes with No Work Experience

1. Building a 21st-Century Skills Portfolio:

As I said above, having something to show for yourself other than the fact that you can get a decent GPA is critical. A GPA demonstrates limited capabilities and isn't always an accurate representation of performance or potential.

Employers of today are looking for employees who can creatively problem-solve, work well with others, work independently, navigate technology, effectively communicate, collaborate, and are adaptable, and other soft skills that reflect 21st-century life and careers.

I like to have my students build 21st-century skills portfolios.

Essentially, students make plans for building specific skills, such as resourcefulness or collaboration skills, and act on those plans. They showcase evidence of skills growth within their portfolios. 

I require my students to add a minimum of 8 skill-building experiences and outcomes to their portfolios per quarter. I build work time into the schedule for students to develop skill-building plans, reflect on the skill-building experiences, and add outcomes to their portfolios. 

All of the suggested resume builders for students included in this blog post are skill-building activities by nature and could be added to this portfolio in addition to resumes.

At the end of the quarter, students share their portfolios with their caregivers at conferences. 

The portfolios could even be shared with potential employers and/or college admissions counselors to demonstrate skills and experiences. 

Resource Suggestion:

The 21st-Century Skills Portfolio Template that my students use is super user-friendly and saves everyone a ton of time. Go check it out.

Preview this Resource

2. Community Action Projects:

Community Action Projects are project-based learning experiences where students explore community issues (locally, nationally, or globally) that they find personally meaningful or relevant.

Students research the issue, make an action plan, and take action. 

This resume builder is not as simple as a community service activity or volunteer experience. Community action projects require research, commitment to the issue, and dedication to making a long-term change in the community.

Raising money, advocating for legislation, giving time, and raising awareness are some ways to approach community action projects.

What is cool about this high school resume builder compared to the others listed here is that community action projects are student-directed and community-based.

Aside from the fact that CTE students give their time to an important cause, the students lead the projects from start to finish. This allows them to build career-ready skills such as leadership, time management, creative problem-solving, task management, planning, decision-making, and more.
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Resource Suggestion:

I have a few community action resources that are theme-specific, all of which focus on an assigned issue.

The community action project resource that I recommend, however, is my community action project tool kit. This resource includes guiding materials that help students independently and productively design and lead community action projects of interest.

Preview this resource

3. Online Courses: 

There are so many free online courses today, many of them from highly reputable colleges and universities, that high school students can and should take huge advantage of.
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Not only does this high school resume builder increase content knowledge, but it also demonstrates initiative. Students are showing that they independently identified and participated in growth opportunities. 

Udemy, Coursera, and edX are some options among many others. The COVID-19 pandemic has led many digital course organizations to provide historically expensive online courses for free.

This resume builder is great for professional development and CEUs for educators as well. 

4. Start a Business:

Another one of my favorite ways to build student resumes with no work experience is entrepreneurship.

I love to have my high school students develop AND run their own businesses.

The experience can be as elaborate or basic as you'd like. The businesses could be as simple as lawn mowing or dog walking, or as elaborate as starting a skateboard clothing brand. I have had students do both.

There is so much to be gained from starting a business. Students learn about marketing, how to balance a budget, how to create and use spreadsheets, how to write a real business plan, how to ask for funding, and more.

This high school resume booster also offers them the opportunity to show off a variety of soft skills, including leadership skills, organization, planning, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, and more.

It also kills two birds with one stone! While students are building their resumes through entrepreneurship, they're also making money to fund future college endeavors, career training programs, or just general adulting, such as paying their own rent.

Resource Suggestion:

My students use my High School Entrepreneurship Tool Kit: Start a Business resource.

This resource is 26 pages of templates that seamlessly guide students through brainstorming business ideas, conducting market research, writing a business plan, building a business website, keeping a logistics spreadsheet, and more. 

Preview this resource

5. Service-Learning

Strong student resumes with no work experience should almost certainly include a volunteer or community service element.  While community service is great, I like to, again, kill two birds with one stone, or in the case of service learning, kill many birds with one stone.

I like to have my students take a service-learning approach to the "volunteer work" aspect of a student's resume.

Service-learning isn't just signing up for volunteer hours. Service-learning encourages students to identify community needs and develop creative ways to fill those needs. 

Students practice problem-solving, demonstrate empathy, build self-direction and leadership skills, and, by immersing themselves in real community issues, gain a much deeper understanding of all of the factors at play.

I would love to see a self-directed service-learning project on a resume if I were hiring for all of those reasons. That would certainly make an applicant stand out, especially one of high school age.

Suggested Resource:

Similar to my community action toolkit, I also offer a student-led service-learning tool kit.

This resource guides my students through observing community issues, identifying community needs related to the issues, and creatively meeting the needs associated with the issues.

preview this resource

6. Shadowing/Interning:

Shadowing and interning are great high school resume builders for students, especially when paired with career exploration experiences.

Not only that, internships and shadowing both give students a clear understanding of whether their "career path" of interest is really what they want.

​I thought I wanted to be a doctor my entire young life. I even went through almost two years of pre-med in undergraduate school, only to discover later that I was not only uninterested in the field but extremely uncomfortable with many of the tasks that would have been required of me.

I could have saved myself a lot of time, energy, and resources had I volunteered in a hospital during high school or shadowed a nurse or doctor before committing to a career that made me feel uneasy. 

Suggested Resource:

My Complete Job Shadow Experience Tool Kit (Teacher and Student Guides) helps make this process meaningful and organized by walking students through an actual job shadow experience from start to finish.

​Students explore realistic career options, prepare thoughtful questions, document their experience, reflect on what they learned, and create a professional career summary that can support future resume-building and career readiness.

Preview This Resource

7. Gainful Employment:

Work experience is an essential high school resume builder for students and one of many great ways for teens to discover their passions and interests, especially if their resumes have no work experience.

I am consistently surprised by how many of my high school seniors have never held a job in their lives, not even mowing lawns in their neighborhoods.

​Employment helps students practice teamwork, punctuality, work ethic, personal finance, and other employability and life skills.

Not only that, but it gives students a sense of accomplishment and pride.

The most notable difference between this resume builder and the others in this blog post is that work experience is unavoidable on a resume long-term. Any template out there is going to have a section dedicated to job experience. 

If your teens don't have jobs, have never had jobs, and you don't want them to prioritize jobs, they can certainly add the other resume builders in this post to their resumes. But in order to gain job experience to add to a resume, eventually your students are going to have to work.

Employers are going to want evidence from applicants that they can effectively obtain, do, and keep a job.

Suggested Resource:

My students use a Real Work Experience Workbook, which helps students go beyond simply having a job by intentionally learning from it.

Students track their work, reflect on real experiences, build employability skills, and update their resume based on actual responsibilities and growth.

​Instead of wondering what to put on a resume, students leave with meaningful experience, stronger self-awareness, and concrete examples they can add to their resumes.

Preview this resource

8. Start a Blog or a Podcast: 

Have students identify something that interests them, such as art, music, history, social issues, education, etc., that they can develop a blog or podcast around. 

The blog or podcast should be based on a topic that they wish to display on their resumes.

For example, if they are interested in music production as a potential career, starting a blog about the local music scene would make sense.

Creating a blog or podcast is an experience in itself and is one of my favorite high school resume builders for students. There's a huge learning curve. I know from experience.

Blogging and podcasting are also multi-disciplinary and help students build 21st-century skills.

Another cool thing about creating a blog or podcast is that they are available to the public, so potential employers or clients could access them to get an idea of the student's personal character, skill set, and knowledge on the subject matter. 

​​9. Learn a New Skill:

I like to have my students learn new skills related to their career interests or jobs that they would like to apply for. 

In this case, when I say “skill”, I am not referring to soft skills such as collaboration and problem-solving. Your students should build those skills for resumes as well, using the portfolio that I’ve already mentioned. 

But students should also build hard skills or technical skills that might give them a leg up or a competitive edge in the application pool. 

For example, if a student is interested in project management as a career option, they might want to learn how to create and format a spreadsheet or how to use a specific project management software.

If a student wants to get into marketing, they might want to learn how to conduct a marketing audit. If they want to get a summer job doing alterations, they could learn how to use a sewing machine.

The "Skills" section on a resume is where students can list abilities such as using a sewing machine, creating spreadsheets, conducting marketing audits, or utilizing complex project management software.

I like the concept of learning a new skill for a variety of reasons, other than the fact that it is one of my favorite high school resume builders for students.

Suggested Resource:

I take a project-based learning approach to learning new skills with my students. Because the PBL experience is more about skill-building than it is about deep diving into complicated content, it makes for a great introductory self-directed project-based learning experience.

Check out my Build a New Skill PBL, which guides students through this high school resume builder from start to finish.​

preview this resource

10. Start a Club

I love having my students launch their own clubs to build stronger student resumes with no work experience.

The experience and ability to coordinate and maintain a club look outstanding on resumes.

Starting and running a club takes organizational skills, follow-through, commitment, creativity, leadership skills, time management skills, and more. It also shows initiative, which many employers and recruiters look for.

Summer reading groups, a community clean-up group, a wildlife club, and a skateboard club are all great examples of clubs that students could start, and they are fun and build relationships to boot!

Suggested Resource:

I have a resource that walks students through the process of creating, launching, and managing a club. Similar to the Learn a New Skill resource, this Start a Club resource is also project-based. 

preview this resource

Bonus: Plan and Host a Fundraiser!

I wanted to add one more resume builder! It came to my attention recently that a fundraiser that one of my students planned and hosted a while back got him a job!

His employer told him after he was hired that this fundraiser was what stood out on this student's resume. It was different than his competitors. 

Organizing fundraisers can be a challenge, so taking the challenge on shows an ability to organize, plan, manage tasks, and work together with others, among other skills. It also shows care and compassion.

​I highly recommend encouraging your kids or students to choose a community issue that is important to them and organize a way to raise money for the cause.

Suggested Resource:

Need a helpful resource? Check out this high school fundraiser planning guide and workbook for students. 

Wait, one more: A Mentorship Experience!

I love the idea of a mentorship experience, and this could go in a couple of ways. The first is for the student to find a mentor of their own. This is a great way to get great references for resumes.

But another unique and fun way to build resumes is for high school students to mentor others. Maybe it's mentoring a younger student, being a tutor, or teaching someone else a skill.

Thanks for checking out 10 high school resume builders for students! There are, of course, many other options than what is listed here. I would love to hear your ideas and comments. Thanks for stopping by! 

All of the resources mentioned in this blog post can also be purchased together. Check out these bundles filled with strong resume builders for student resumes with no work experience from Experiential Learning Depot.

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