On this page
- Resume guide for a teen resume
- How to write a teen resume
- Choosing the best resume format for a teen resume
- Include your contact information
- Make use of a summary
- Right vs wrong: the same teen summary, twice
- Outline your experience
- Say which jobs your age lets you do, and which it does not
- Build a snapshot of your key skills
- List your education and certifications
- Choose the right layout and design
- Teen job market and outlook
- What pay you can expect as a teen
- Key takeaways for a teen resume
- Related student resume examples
- FAQ
In short, a teen resume is a one page document that tells a manager three things: how old you are, which shifts you can cover, and what you have already done that took showing up on time.
However, the age part is not a detail. In fact, a shift manager reading your application is quietly working out what they are allowed to put you on. If they cannot tell from the page, the safe move is to hire the applicant whose paperwork they already understand. That is why your resume's job is to take that doubt away in the first four seconds, and it takes two lines to do it.
Resume guide for a teen resume
For this reason, this guide and the corresponding teen resume example will cover:
- How to write a teen resume when you have never had a payroll job
- Which tasks federal rules open and close at each age
- Also, three adaptable summaries, written at 14, at 16 and at 17
- What counts as experience when none of it was paid
- Finally, what the youth job market looks like right now, with current federal figures
How to write a teen resume
Overall, six short sections: contact header, summary, availability, experience, education and activities, and skills. One page, and never two.
Put the age bracket high, because it is the question underneath every other question. Everything after it, then, is evidence that you show up.
SectionWhat it is answeringWhere it goes
- Age bracketWhat am I allowed to schedule this person for?In the header, one line under your name
- AvailabilityWhich of my open shifts does this cover?Directly under the summary
- ExperienceHas this person ever been counted on by anyone?Reverse chronological, paid and unpaid together
- Education and activitiesIs there a record of turning up week after week?School, grade, and two or three activities with durations
Write your age as a bracket, not as a birthday
The federal youth employment rules in the Fair Labor Standards Act work in brackets, not in individual ages: under 14, then 14 and 15, then 16 and 17, then 18 and over (U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #43, revised December 2016).
So write the bracket the way the rule writes it. A line that reads "Age 16. Available for any hours in non-hazardous work" answers the manager's question in their own vocabulary. A line that reads "Born March 2010" makes them do arithmetic while forty other applications wait.
One sentence is enough. You are not applying for the rules, you are removing an obstacle to the interview.
Run the finished file through the ATS resume checker before you send it. Grocery, restaurant and retail chains almost all take applications through a portal that reads your file before a person does.
Choosing the best resume format for a teen resume
Reverse chronological, one page, no exceptions. List whatever you have most recently done first, whether or not anyone paid you for it.
Skip the functional format. After all, it was invented to hide a timeline, and you do not have a timeline to hide. A short honest one is fine. Two months of anything beats a page of adjectives.
If the page looks empty, the fix is not a bigger font. The fix is more rows: the babysitting round, the team, the church or community group, the school store, the fundraiser you actually ran. Therefore, all of it belongs on the page, with dates.
Include your contact information
Two rules that cost people interviews. Use an email address that is your name, because the one you made in sixth grade is the first thing a manager reads. And use a phone that you answer; if a parent's number is the reliable one, write "(208) 555-2178 (parent's phone, ask for Wren)" so a caller is not confused.
Do not put your street address on the page. City and state are enough.
Make use of a summary
For the summary, use three or four lines: who you are, your age bracket, what you have done, and what you can cover. No adjectives.
First job teen adaptable resume summary example
First payroll job teen adaptable resume summary example
Experienced teen adaptable resume summary example
Right vs wrong: the same teen summary, twice
For example, every line in the right column can be checked, and two of the three can be put straight onto a schedule. In other words, the left column is what a manager can act on. The right column is what every other application in the stack already says.
Outline your experience
Unpaid work is still work. Instead, write it with the same structure you would use for a payroll job: what you did, for whom, how often, and for how long.
- Instead of
Babysitting
UseRegular sitter for three families in the same neighborhood, most Friday and Saturday evenings for two years
- Instead of
Volunteered at a food pantry
UseSorted and shelved donations at Ridgeline Community Center, one Saturday shift a week for 14 months
- Instead of
Helped out at a store
UseCourtesy clerk at Redfish Market, three closing shifts a week, register and cart retrieval
- Instead of
Did yard work
UseYard and pet care round for four households, weekly from April to October, arranged and billed on my own
- Instead of
Member of the track team
UseTrack team, three seasons, 6 a.m. practice four days a week from February to May
The last row is the one people leave off, and it is the most persuasive thing a 14 year old owns. A manager, of course, cannot verify that you are reliable. Even so, they can read that you got yourself somewhere at 6 a.m. four days a week for three months, which is the same claim with evidence attached.
Adaptable resume employment history example
Courtesy Clerk, Redfish Market, Boise, ID, March 2025 to present
Work three closing shifts a week during the school year and four to five full shifts a week over school breaks.
Bag, retrieve carts, face and rotate shelves, and run the nightly front-end close, including cleaning the self-checkout lanes and staging the morning cart line.
Trained on the register in the second month; now cover breaks on lanes 1 to 4 on closing shifts.
Train new courtesy clerks through their first three shifts, four people so far this year.
No missed scheduled shift in the past twelve months.
Say which jobs your age lets you do, and which it does not
In practice, this is the section that separates a teen resume from every other resume, and almost nobody writes it.
Federal youth employment rules are set by age bracket, and as a result they decide what a manager can legally put you on. When you leave your age off the page, you are asking a stranger to guess, and the guess they make is usually the cautious one. When you state the bracket and what it means, you have handed them the answer.
| Age | What you can be scheduled for | What has to wait |
|---|---|---|
| Under 14 | Nothing in covered nonagricultural employment, so your record is unpaid work: family jobs, neighborhood jobs, volunteering, school activities | All covered nonagricultural jobs |
| 14 and 15 | The limited set of occupations the rule allows, inside specified hours | Everything outside that list, and all 17 hazardous occupations orders |
| 16 and 17 | Unlimited hours in any occupation not declared hazardous | The 17 hazardous occupations orders declared by the Secretary of Labor |
| 18 and over | Anything; the federal youth employment provisions no longer apply | Nothing under the youth rules |
What the teen hour limits mean for you
Two things follow from the table, and both belong on your page.
First, the hazardous occupations orders are a real list, not a vibe. The Secretary of Labor has declared 17 of them for nonagricultural work, and they are what stands between a 17 year old and certain tasks on a floor where everything else is open. Therefore, if you are 16 or 17, write your availability as "unlimited hours in non-hazardous work" rather than "fully flexible". The first version, in turn, tells a manager you have read the rule. The second tells them nothing.
Second, Fact Sheet #43 also sets daily and weekly hour limits for 14 and 15 year olds, and those limits change between the school year and the summer; read the fact sheet itself for the numbers that apply to you.
Your state can be stricter than the federal rule, and then the state controls
Federal law is a floor, not a ceiling. States run their own youth employment rules, including work permits or age certificates, and where a state rule is stricter than the federal one, the stricter rule is the one that applies to you.
So do two things before you send the resume. Read Fact Sheet #43 on the Department of Labor site for the federal brackets, then find your own state labor department's youth employment page for the permit, the paperwork and any local hour rule.
Then put one line at the bottom of your availability block: "Age paperwork for Idaho completed and available on request." A manager who has to chase paperwork is a manager thinking about the other applicant.
Build a snapshot of your key skills
For skills, list eight to twelve entries in three groups. Concrete things you have actually done, the tools you have used, and the things that make you easy to schedule.
Adaptable resume skills example
On the floor: Register and self-checkout support, Cart retrieval and lot safety, Stocking, facing and rotation, Closing procedures, Customer questions and returns handoff
Reliability: Punctual across 18 months of closing shifts, Own transport to and from shifts, Comfortable calling in changes a week ahead
Tools and paperwork: Point of sale terminal, Scheduling app shift swaps, Food handler card, Idaho age paperwork complete
Working with people: Training new clerks, Working a lane with a line, Working with a two-person close
Skip the abstractions. "Team player" is not a skill; "trained four new clerks through their first three shifts" is the same claim with a number on it.
List your education and certifications
For education, list school, expected graduation year, grade level, and anything with a date and a name. A teen resume can put education above experience if the experience is thin; once you have a year of shifts, experience goes first.
Adaptable resume education and certifications example
Foothill Ridge High School, Boise, ID. Expected graduation May 2027. Grade 12.
Coursework worth naming: Accounting I, Business Communications, Spanish III.
Activities: Track and field, three seasons, February to May each year. Student store volunteer, two years, Tuesday and Thursday lunch shifts.
Certifications: Food handler card, Central District Health, issued March 2025. CPR and first aid, American Red Cross, issued September 2025.
Grade point average goes on only if it is strong. Nobody will ask why it is missing; on the other hand, plenty of people will read a weak one.
Choose the right layout and design
Single column, plain type at 11 or 12 point, one page, no photograph, no graphics, no columns of skill bars. Save as PDF unless the portal asks for a Word file, and name the file for yourself: wren-kowalczyk-resume.pdf.
Managers print these. Similarly, a design that depends on color goes gray in the office printer and takes your section headings with it.
Do
- Put your age bracket in the header in one line.
- Write availability as days and hours, not as the word flexible.
- List unpaid work with dates and frequency, exactly as you would list a job.
- Use a name-based email address.
- Say what your state paperwork status is.
- Keep it to one page and save it as a PDF.
Don’t
- Do not leave your age off the page and hope it does not come up; it is the first thing that comes up.
- Do not claim you can work any hours or any task if you are under 18, because the hazardous occupations orders say otherwise and a manager knows it.
- Do not pad with adjectives; four short evidence lines beat a full page of them.
- Do not use a template with two columns and a photograph for a store portal.
- Do not put your street address on the page.
Teen job market and outlook
On pay, there is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational profile for a teen worker, because "teen" is an age, not an occupation. Instead, what BLS does publish is a picture of the whole population you are competing inside, and it comes out every August.
| Measure, July 2026 | Value |
|---|---|
| Employed 16 to 24 year olds | 21.3 million |
| Youth labor force participation rate | 59.1 percent |
| Youth employment-population ratio | 53.8 percent |
| Youth unemployment rate | 9.1 percent |
Read these as the population you belong to rather than as a job outlook. They describe everyone aged 16 to 24 who is working or looking, which means that if you are 14 or 15 you are not counted in them at all; you are competing for a narrower set of jobs than the numbers describe.
More young people are working than a year ago, and fewer are looking
The youth employment-population ratio was 53.8 percent in July 2026, up from 53.1 percent in July 2025, and the youth unemployment rate was 9.1 percent against 10.8 percent a year earlier (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Unemployment Among Youth, Summer 2026, published 20 August 2026).
Meanwhile the labor force participation rate for 16 to 24 year olds was 59.1 percent, little changed from 59.5 percent a year earlier, across 21.3 million employed young people.
Put plainly: a larger share of young people who wanted work in July 2026 had it than in the summer before. That is a better market than the one your older brother or sister applied into, and it is a reason to apply to the place you actually want rather than to twenty places at once.
What pay you can expect as a teen
Likewise, no federal agency publishes a median wage for teenagers, and any site that gives you one has made it up. In reality, pay for the jobs open to you is set by the role and by the minimum wage that applies where you work, which your state labor department publishes.
So the honest version is: look up your state's minimum wage, then ask two questions at the interview. First, what is the starting rate for this role, and what does it take to move off it. Meanwhile, a manager who cannot answer the second question is telling you something useful.
What a resume can move is the second question. In the jobs teens are hired into, pay rises with three things: hours you can actually cover, time served past the first season, and a named added responsibility such as training, opening or closing. That is why the experienced summary above says "front-end trainer" and not "reliable worker". In contrast, the first is a line on a payroll record. The second is an opinion.
Hours matter more than people expect. With 21.3 million 16 to 24 year olds employed in July 2026 (BLS, published 20 August 2026), what separates two applicants is usually not enthusiasm but which of them can cover the Friday close.
Key takeaways for a teen resume
- To start, put your age bracket in the header; it is the question behind every other question.
- Next, write availability as days and hours, and say what changes over school breaks.
- If you are 16 or 17, say "unlimited hours in non-hazardous work" rather than "flexible".
- List unpaid work with dates and frequency; babysitting, yard rounds and a sports season all count.
- Check your own state's rules as well, because a stricter state rule is the one that applies.
- In addition, give every entry a number: how many households, how many shifts, how many months.
- One page, single column, PDF, and an email address that is your name.
Related student resume examples
- 16 year old resume
- Student resume
- High school student resume
- Summer job resume
- Internship resume
- College student resume
- College graduate resume
- Entry level resume
- Volunteer resume
- Tutor resume
- Scholarship resume
- College admissions resume
Teen resume questions, answered
What do I put on a teen resume with no job experience?
Everything that took showing up. Babysitting or pet care rounds with the number of families and how long you have done it. Volunteering with the organization, the shift and the number of months. A sports season with the practice schedule. A school club with your role. Write each one with dates and frequency, because frequency is the thing a manager is actually reading for.
How old do I have to be to get a job?
Under the federal rules, under-14s may not be employed in covered nonagricultural jobs; 14 and 15 year olds may work in a limited set of occupations within specified hours; 16 and 17 year olds may work unlimited hours in any occupation not declared hazardous; and at 18 the youth provisions no longer apply (U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #43, revised December 2016). Your state may be stricter, and if it is, the state rule is the one that governs your hours and paperwork.
Should I put my age on my resume?
For a teen applying to hourly work, yes, as a bracket. Adults are usually told to leave age off because it invites bias. For you it is the opposite: your age decides what a manager may schedule you for, so stating it removes the reason to pass over your application. One line in the header does it.
How long should a teen resume be?
One page, and most of the good ones are shorter. A half page with five specific entries reads better than a full page padded with adjectives. As you collect shifts, replace the padding rather than adding to it.
Do I need a work permit?
That depends on your state, not on federal law. Several states require a work permit or an age certificate before you start, and some make the school or the employer file it. Check your state labor department's youth employment page, get the paperwork ready before you apply, and put one line about it on the resume so the manager knows it is not their problem to solve.
Is my resume any good if all my work was unpaid?
Yes, if you write it like work. The manager is buying reliability, not a payroll history. Two years of the same Saturday shift at a community center proves more than three weeks in a paid job that ended. Give the duration, the frequency and the one thing you were trusted with, and the unpaid line does the same job as a paid one.