what counts as experience on a first resume
Babysitting, mowing lawns and team sports count as experience on a resume for your first job. A manager hiring for a first job wants to know one thing first: will you show up? Show it with a schedule you kept.
A babysitting job or practice on a set schedule proves you come on time. Paid and unpaid work both count, so give each one a role, a place, dates and 1 or 2 bullets with a number.
| What you did | How to write it on your resume |
|---|---|
| Babysat for neighbors | Babysitter, self-employed: "Watch 2 kids ages 4 and 7 about 6 hours a week" |
| Mowed lawns | Lawn care, self-employed: "Mowed 5 yards a week every summer; never missed a booked job" |
| Volunteered | Volunteer, food bank: "Packed food boxes on Saturday shifts; logged 40 hours" |
| Played a school sport | Team member, JV soccer: "Practiced 10 hours a week in season and kept a B average" |
| Ran a snack table or bake sale | Snack table volunteer, JV boosters: "Took orders and made change for about 100 people at 3 home games" |
| Helped at a family business | Helper, family business: "Answered phones and restocked shelves 2 afternoons a week" |
| School club or church group | Member, church youth group: "Planned 2 fundraisers and kept the sign-up sheet" |
These numbers are examples, so use your own. If you do not know the exact count, use "about" and a fair guess. Use present tense for things you still do and past tense for things you stopped.
resume format for a first job: contact, summary, experience, education, skills
Keep it to 1 page, in 1 column, with a plain font. A blank Google Doc works fine. Put the parts in this order.
| Part | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Contact and availability | Name, city and state, phone number, email and the days and hours you can work |
| Summary | 2 to 3 sentences, about 25 to 50 words, about what you did. Example from Ava's resume at the top of this page: "Junior at Kennedy High School with 2 years of paid babysitting for 3 families and 60+ volunteer hours. Has not missed a Saturday food bank shift since starting in 2025." |
| Experience | Role, place, dates and 1 or 2 bullets for each one, newest first |
| Education | School, grade or class year, GPA if it is 3.0 or higher |
| Skills | 4 to 6 real ones, like cash handling, a second language, Google Sheets or CPR. Put the ones the job post names first. |
Your email should be your name. If yours is a joke, make a new one. Leave off your street address, a photo and "references available on request".
If you are 14 or 15, be exact about hours. Federal law caps you at 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week (U.S. Department of Labor). Your state can add its own rules. A line like "Available weekdays after 3:30 pm and weekends" under your name saves the manager a question.
sample resume 1: teenager first job, no experience
Ava's resume is the example at the top of this page. She has never had a paycheck from a company, but she still has babysitting, food bank shifts and JV soccer to list.
What to copy from it:
- The availability line sits under her name, next to her phone number and email.
- Every entry has a number: 3 families, 8 hours a week, 60+ hours, 6 home games.
- The soccer bullet about the cash box tells a store manager she can handle cash.
- The CPR card goes in skills. It is a real certificate, so it counts.
sample resume 2: first retail or food job
Marcus wants a cashier job at a grocery store. He read the job post and used its words for work he really did: cash handling, customer service, register, cash drawer, restock and inventory. The words in lime are also in the job post.
Marcus Hill · High school senior and student cashier Columbus, OH · (614) 555-0187 · marcus.example@email.com · Available evenings and weekends, up to 20 hours a week High school senior with cash handling and customer service experience from the school store and game-day concessions. Runs the register for about 40 customers a day at lunch. Student Cashier · Westland High School Store, Columbus, OH · Aug 2025 to now Concessions Volunteer · Westland Booster Club · 2024 to 2025 Lawn Care · Self-employed · Summers 2024 and 2025 Westland High School · Class of 2027 · Business class (A) · 2023 to now Cash handling · Customer service · Restock and inventory · Food handler card
read this example resume as text
summary
experience
education
skills
Here is how each line from the example job post turned into a line on Marcus's resume.
| Job post says | Marcus's resume says |
|---|---|
| "Run the register and balance the cash drawer" | "Run the register at lunch for about 40 customers a day; balance the cash drawer at close" |
| "Restock shelves and count inventory" | "Restock shelves and count inventory every Friday" |
| "Friendly customer service and accurate cash handling" | Summary: "cash handling and customer service experience from the school store" |
He kept only true lines and used the job post's words. Want more words to pick from? See skills to put on a resume.
have a resume? tailor it to a job in under a minute.
start nowsample resume 3: recent grad looking for a first full-time job
Priya finished college in May 2026 and wants a job as an office and operations assistant. She has a summer internship, a campus front desk job and 2 summers waiting tables.
Priya Shah · Business graduate, UT Austin Austin, TX · (512) 555-0163 · priya.example@email.com · Available full time, weekdays May 2026 business graduate with 3 school years at a campus front desk and a summer operations internship at a moving company. Booked about 25 moves a week and built the claims tracker the office still uses. Operations Intern · Lone Star Movers, Austin, TX · Jun 2025 to Aug 2025 Front Desk Assistant · UT Austin Recreation Center · Sep 2023 to May 2026 Server · Casa Verde Cafe, San Antonio, TX · Summers 2022 and 2023 The University of Texas at Austin · BBA, Management · GPA 3.3 · 2022 to 2026 Scheduling · Google Sheets and Excel · Customer service · Phones and front desk · Spanish (conversational)
read this example resume as text
summary
experience
education
skills
What to copy from it:
- Put the job closest to the one you want first. For Priya, that is the internship.
- Keep the restaurant job. Serving 6 to 8 tables at a time shows an office manager she can handle many requests at once.
- Put education after experience. Her degree goes last.
- 1 bullet is enough for an old summer job.
turn a weak bullet into a strong one
Start each bullet with what you did and add a number. End with the result if you have one.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Babysat | Watch 2 kids ages 4 and 7 about 6 hours a week; make dinner and get them to bed on time |
| Volunteered at a food bank | Packed food boxes on Saturday shifts; logged 40 hours over 1 school year |
| Was on the swim team | Trained 12 hours a week in season and kept a 3.2 GPA |
| Helped with the school store | Ran the register at lunch for about 40 students a day; balanced the cash at close |
| Responsible for mowing lawns | Mowed 5 yards a week for 2 summers; got 2 new customers from referrals |
These are examples, so swap in your real tasks and numbers. Never make up a number, because a manager can ask about it in the interview.
when you have a job post, tailor your resume to it
Your first resume is the base, and each job post asks for different things. One cashier job post asks for cash handling, and another asks for opening and closing shifts. Before you apply, change your summary, bullet order and skills to match the job post. The table in sample resume 2 shows how. For the full steps, read how to tailor your resume to a job post.
When your first resume is done, jobsmaxxing can do this part. jobsmaxxing tailors a resume you already have to one job. It does not write a resume from zero. Upload your resume once. Every job and bullet goes into your Experience Bank. Paste any job link (LinkedIn job links work) or the job post text. You get a one-page resume rewritten for that job from your real experience, in under a minute. It does not invent titles, dates or numbers. $9.99 for the first 7 days, then $29/month. No free tier.
If you have a resume and a job post open right now, start on the homepage.