Resume Guide for Beginners

This blog post is a resume guide for beginners.

If you’ve ever stared at a blank document thinking “What even goes on a resume?” — you’re not alone. I’ve met so many students (from high school seniors to recent college grads) who feel completely lost when it comes to building one. And honestly? That’s super normal — especially if you’re first-gen and no one in your circle has ever walked you through it.

The truth is, most of us aren’t taught how to write a resume. We’re just expected to know it. That’s why I wanted to write this post — to walk you through the basics in a simple, non-intimidating way. I’ve been to the workshops, helped students craft resumes from scratch, and seen firsthand how even a few changes can completely level up your confidence and your chances of getting hired.

So whether you’re a high school senior applying to your first part-time job, or a recent college grad stepping into the full-time world — this guide is for you.

Resume Guide for Beginners: What Is a Resume?

Think of a resume as your personal highlight reel. It’s a one-page document that shows off your skills, experiences, and accomplishments — all the stuff that makes you a valuable candidate for a job, internship, or even a scholarship.

Yes, scholarships too. Some of the biggest awards I’ve seen (we’re talking thousands of dollars) ask for a resume — and you’d be surprised how many students miss out just because they don’t have one ready.

Don’t worry — you’ve got this.

The fact that you’re here means you’re ready to learn. And the good news? A strong resume isn’t about having fancy titles or years of experience. It’s about formatting things clearly and highlighting the skills you already have — even if they come from volunteering, student orgs, or part-time jobs.

Resume Guide for Beginners: Basic Structure of a Resume

Let’s break it down — a resume doesn’t need to be fancy, but it does need to be clear and well-organized. Here’s the basic structure I recommend:

Header
Education
Experience
Leadership & Involvement
Skills & Certifications

Yup, that’s it. Simple, clean, and straight to the point. And yes — the format matters a lot. You want your resume to be easy to read, visually consistent, and most importantly, professional.

Lucky for you, I created a FREE resume template to make this process even easier. You’re welcome to tweak the layout or fonts to match your style — just keep these formatting tips in mind:

Use a clean, readable font (Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, etc.)
Font size should be 10–12 pt for body text
Your name should be larger — I set it to 20 pt in the template
You can bold or italicize, just keep it consistent

In my version, I bold the company or organization name, then italicize the position title, location, and dates. This kind of consistency makes your resume easier to skim — which is important, because recruiters and managers see so many resumes a day.

Should You Use a Fancy Canva Resume?

You may have seen all those beautiful, colorful resumes on Canva or Pinterest — the ones with fun icons, pastel boxes, and super aesthetic fonts. They look amazing, no doubt. But here’s the honest truth:

You don’t need that.
In fact, it could hurt your chances.

I’ve actually been told by multiple career professionals not to submit highly designed resumes when applying for jobs — especially online. Why? Because:

Many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) — and those fancy formats often confuse the system
They can come across as unprofessional in certain industries
And most importantly… the design doesn’t matter as much as your content and structure

Resume for Beginners: Header Section

Alright, now that we’ve covered formatting, let’s go over the actual structure of your resume — section by section.

We’ll start with the header, which is basically just your personal info. Nothing fancy here — just the essentials that tell the employer who you are and how to reach you.

At minimum, your header should include:

Your full name
Phone number
Email address
Location (City & State is enough — no need to list your full address)

That’s it! Some people choose to include all three contact elements (email, phone, and full address), but I personally just include my city and state, plus my email and phone number.

You can also add bonus links if they’re relevant:

LinkedIn profile
Personal website
Online portfolio
GitHub, Behance, etc. (depending on your field)

For example, here’s what my resume header looks like:

Resume for Beginners: Education Section

Now let’s move on to the Education section.

Here, you’ll want to list your schools in reverse chronological order, meaning your most recent education should go at the top. For each entry, include:

University or School Name
Location (City, State)
Your Major or Program
Graduation date or expected graduation

Depending on what the job or opportunity is asking for, you can list all your degrees — and yes, you can include your high school if you’re a current student, a recent grad, or don’t have much college experience yet. If you’re working toward a graduate degree, definitely include that too.

As for me? I keep it simple and only include my Bachelor’s degree, since it’s my highest level of education for now. This is what it looks like in my template:

Here’s How I Structure My Education Section:

I keep it simple:

School name (spelled out, no acronyms) and GPA
Degree and major underneath
On the right: city/state and graduation date
Optional: 1 bullet point for relevant coursework

If you’re still in school, use “Expected: Month Year” so it’s clear when you’ll be graduating.

And please — keep the formatting consistent with the rest of your resume. Align everything properly. Recruiters do notice when it’s messy.

Do You Have to List Your GPA?

Short answer: nope.

Longer answer: you can — but only if it helps you. My undergrad career center always said to list your GPA if it’s 3.0 or higher, but honestly? If you don’t want to include it, leave it off. It’s not required unless they ask (which most won’t, maybe an internship will), and it won’t make or break your entire resume.

What Counts as “Relevant Coursework”?

Totally optional, but if you don’t have a lot of experience yet, this is a great way to show off what you’ve learned that actually connects to the job.

Only include courses that go beyond the basic gen ed stuff. Think:

Coding or programming languages (Python, SQL, Java)
Research methods
Lab techniques
Software tools (SPSS, Tableau, Adobe Suite)
Any upper-division course that shows a specific skill

If your classes don’t really tie into the job you’re applying for, feel free to skip this part.

Resume for Beginners: Experience Section

On my resume, I keep this section labeled just as “Experience” (not “Work Experience”), and here’s why: a lot of high school and college students — especially first-gen — haven’t had a paid job yet. And that’s completely okay. What matters is that you’ve done things that helped you build transferable skills.

So yes — you can include unpaid work, internships, volunteer roles, leadership positions, or even major school projects. As long as what you did connects to the job you’re applying for, it counts.

Structure + Layout Tips

When listing your experience, use reverse chronological order — meaning start with the most recent role at the top, and work your way down.

That way, whoever’s reading your resume (whether it’s a recruiter or hiring manager) sees what you’re doing right now first. It’s the clearest and most common format.

For each experience, include:

The name of the organization or company
Your position title
Location (City, State)
Dates of involvement (Month Year – Month Year — or “Present” if you’re still in the role)
2-3 bullet points describing your main responsibilities and accomplishments

A Note on Consistency in Formatting

In my resume template, I made sure to keep the same formatting across all my experience entries — and I recommend you do the same! Consistency helps your resume look clean, organized, and professional.

Here’s how I format each entry in the Experience section:

The company or organization name is always in bold
The location, your position title, and the dates are all italicized
Bullet points underneath are written in regular font, starting with an action verb and focused on results

This is what the structure looks like in my template:

Resume Guide For Beginners: Weak vs. Strong Bullet Points

Now let’s talk about something that can seriously make or break your resume: your bullet points.

It’s not enough to just list what you did — you want to show how well you did it, who it impacted, and if possible, what the results were.

Here’s the difference:

Weak:

Mentored students in math

Strong:

Mentored 10 high school students each semester, helping improve their math grades by an average of 20%

The second version tells a story. It shows the scope (10 students), the timeframe (each semester), and the impact (grades improved).

Weak:

Collaborated with departments to increase sales

Strong:

Collaborated with four departments to improve sales strategy, resulting in a 35% increase in monthly revenue in Q2

A hiring manager reading the strong version immediately thinks: “Okay, this person works well across teams and helped increase sales. Noted.”

Weak:

Created content on company’s Instagram and Facebook

Strong:

Created 15–20 weekly posts across Instagram and Facebook, growing the company’s audience by 1,200+ followers in two months

Notice how the second one shows effort, frequency, and measurable results. These are the kinds of things that catch attention — even if you’re applying for a part-time job or internship.

What Makes a Bullet Point Strong?

Strong bullet points:

Start with a verb (e.g., created, mentored, designed, managed, facilitated)
Include numbers when possible (how many? how often? by how much?)

Focus on what you did, how you did it, and what changed because of it

It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering — but the more specific you are, the more memorable and legit you’ll sound on paper. If you’re still doing that task in your current role, use present tense. If it’s something you did in a past job, use past tense.

Tailor Your Resume to the Job

Here’s a pro tip most people skip: your bullet points should be customized to match the job description.

Take time to read the job posting. Look at the keywords they use — whether it’s communication, teamwork, data analysis, social media, etc. — and mirror those in your bullet points (as long as they’re true to your experience!).

You may need to tweak your resume a bit for each job you apply to, and that’s totally normal. The more you align your experiences with what the employer is looking for, the better your chances of getting noticed.

Resume Guide For Beginners: Leadership & Involvement (Optional but Valuable)

Next up is a section I call Leadership and Involvement — this is where you can highlight relevant community service, student orgs, volunteer work, or leadership roles you’ve held.

This section is totally optional. If you don’t have anything to put here, feel free to delete it. But I include it in my template as a space for unpaid experience that still shows off skills related to the job I’m applying for. This is what it looks in the template:

The format is pretty much the same as the Experience section:

Name of Organization in bold
Location, Role, and Dates are in italics
2–3 bullet points describing what you did and what you accomplished

Why I Separate It

I like to keep paid experience in the Experience section, and put unpaid but still relevant experience under Leadership and Involvement. It just makes everything more organized and easier to read — especially if you’ve got a mix of both.

BUT — if most of your experience is unpaid, that’s totally okay! You can just combine everything under Experience and delete the Leadership and Involvement section entirely. No one’s going to judge you for not splitting them up — especially if you’re applying for something like a part-time job or your first internship.

Resume Guide for Beginners: Skills & Certifications

And now we’ve made it to the last section: Skills and Certifications.

This is where you can list out any relevant, transferable skills that connect to the position you’re applying for. Think software, tools, platforms, or industry-specific knowledge — anything that shows what you already know how to use or understand.

In my resume template, I formatted it like this:

In the Skills and Certifications section, you can list anything that shows off your relevant expertise — whether that’s languages, software, licenses, or certifications. If a skill needs more context, feel free to add that in parentheses (like if you’re a beginner or certified in something specific).

And if you don’t have any official certifications — no worries. You can leave that part out, or swap it with other achievements like scholarships, awards, or completed trainings.

Just make sure the skills you list make sense for the job. You want to show the employer that you’re already familiar with some of the tools or concepts you’d be using if you were hired.

And that’s it — you officially have the structure of a strong, clean resume!
You can grab the FREE Resume Template and start plugging in your info.

Just remember: you can style your resume however you like — just make sure it’s clean, legible, and consistent. While formatting matters, what really makes your resume stand out is:

Strong bullet points that clearly show your skills and accomplishments
Content that aligns with the job description (especially when you can quantify results!)

Those two pieces are what recruiters care about most — and what can help you stand out from the stack of applications.

Resume Guide for Beginners: Upload It the Right Way

Before you hit upload, make sure you’re saving your resume as a PDF — this keeps your formatting clean and consistent no matter what device or system it’s opened on.

And please, label your file professionally. You don’t want to submit something called resume(6).pdf — that just screams unprepared.

Here’s a better format:

FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf
Example: Estefania_Villicana_Resume.pdf

It’s simple, clear, and helps recruiters easily find your file when they’re reviewing applications.

Resume Guide for Beginners: You’re Just Getting Started

Applying to jobs or internships can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re doing it for the first time. But please don’t be too hard on yourself — this is a learning journey.

And look at you! You just learned how to format a solid resume, and someday soon, you might be helping someone else create theirs for a role you landed first.

I hope this blog post gave you the structure, clarity, and confidence to write a resume that gets you that post-grad job, summer internship, or scholarship win you’re aiming for.

Ready to take it to the next level?

Check out my next blog post on how to write a strong cover letter — and why including one (even when it’s optional) can seriously strengthen your application.

You’ve got this!