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School Leaver Resume Template

If you are a recent school leaver or in college and looking for an internship, you will need a powerful resume to compete with other candidates. Your application will need to outperform other school leavers and possibly individuals who are well into their careers.

Having little work experience can feel like the most significant challenge. However, we show you how to create a compelling school leaver resume and provide a template for you to use.

–> DOWNLOAD A FREE SCHOOL LEAVER RESUME TEMPLATE

School leaver resume sections

The core sections for a student resume include:

  • Contact information
  • Resume introductory statement
  • Education
  • Work experience (optional)
  • Skills

At this stage, don’t be deterred if you don’t have work experience. You can share information about volunteering, projects, interests, languages, publications, extracurricular activities, awards, and qualifications. This information adds weight to your resume and demonstrates that you are as worthy a candidate as those already in the workforce. You can create a dedicated section for those that apply to you or include them within those mentioned above (volunteering under work experience).

Contact information

Your contact information should appear at the top of your resume. We recommend including your name (as the title of your resume), your email address, telephone number, and location. If you have a LinkedIn profile, website, blog, or online portfolio, it is helpful to include those links here.

You should not include a headshot, date of birth, or an unprofessional-looking email. Once you have added your contact details, double-check it is accurate. A mistake here will guarantee a recruiting manager can never get in touch, even if they wanted to.

Resume introductory statement

Your short introductory statement is your first chance to compel an employer to find out more and request an interview. Your field of study, relevant skills, goals, and why you are applying are valuable information to include here.

Education

Add your education in reverse-chronological order, including the school’s name, years of attendance, subjects, and grades. If you have a university degree, you do not need to mention your high school and only mention your GPA if it is 3.5 or higher.

If you have little work experience, ensure that education comes first on your resume. Furthermore, expand on projects, course modules, awards, and recognition. The goal is to highlight the skills and attributes the employer seeks and quantify you can use them.

Work experience

If you have work experience, it is time to put that on your school leaver resume. Start with your latest work experience and include the job title, company name, employment dates, and achievements. It would be best if you qualified your achievements by mentioning facts, percentages or received recognition.

Volunteer experience can be placed in this section if you have it. Volunteering is a superb addition if you haven’t worked, and it is never too late to start and add it to your resume.

Skills

A school or college resume can include a skills section comprising hard and soft skills. Hard skills are measurable and technical abilities, such as Google Ads proficiency or bookkeeping. Soft skills are communication, social, and personal traits, such as storytelling, critical thinking, and empathy.

The key to creating an effective skills section is to prioritize the soft and hard skills that are mentioned as desirable or must-have in the job advert and job description.

-> DOWNLOAD A FREE SCHOOL LEAVER RESUME TEMPLATE

Resume templates

If you are a school leaver preparing to apply for a job in a particular industry, check out our resume templates by profession: