Jamie Birt is a career coach with 5+ years of experience helping job seekers navigate the job search through one-to-one coaching, webinars and events. She’s motivated by the mission to help people find fulfillment and belonging in their careers.Include
For most positions, hiring managers are interested in reviewing resumes to find the best candidate for their open position. Even without experience,
your high school education can help you stand out from your peers and other candidates who are applying for the same position if you’re able to show what makes you unique.
Your resume should be comprehensive enough to appeal to a hiring manager and entice them to contact you for an interview.
In this article, we explain why it’s important to include your high school education on your resume, share how to include education and provide a template and examples you can use as guides for writing your own resume.
Why include your high school education on a resume?
It’s important to include your high school education on your resume so that you can show a hiring manager what makes you stand out from the competition.
If you’re currently in high school, recently graduated from high school or chose not to pursue higher education beyond high school,
include your high school experience on your resume.
Here are some other reasons why including this information may beneficial:
The job requires some education. You may applying for a position that requires at least a high school diploma or equivalent.
Many applicant tracking systems (ATS) are set up to look for education on your resume, and without these details, you may not qualify for the position.
You want to prove your work ethic.
High school education requires that you have ambition and a strong work ethic.
Within your resume,
you can share details about your high school experience that helps a hiring manager understand how hard you work to accomplish your goals.
Employers look for it.
Education is a common section that hiring managers immediately look at when reviewing candidate resumes.
You want to make sure that you provide details about your education so you’re including as much as your peers and the employer doesn’t skip your resume.
How to include your high school education on a resume
Review these steps to learn the best way to write your resume to include your high school education:
1.Create a section of your resume specifically for education
Because employers look for an education section, make sure you have one on your resume.
Typically, education sections appear toward the bottom of your resume after your experience,
although you may include this information on either the left or right side of your resume if you’re using a unique template.
Create an education header and only include information pertaining to your education in this section.
2.Place high school education after your college experience
If you’ve attended any years of college,
even if you have yet to earn a degree, list that experience first,
followed your high school education.
If you have a college degree,
you can leave your high school education off your resume.
Once you have complete a college degree,
you should include information regarding classes, projects,
internships or organizations that you participated in that are relevant to the role since this information is more recent.
For example, if you were captain of the swim team or student body president and just graduate three years ago,
you may want to keep your high school education on your resume even if you’re about to graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
Accomplishments such as these show a hiring manager you have leadership potential and can work well with a team.
3.Include your school’s name and location
It’s customary to include your high school’s name and location on your resume.
Hiring managers and human resources representatives use this information to confirm what appears in your background check and also to get a better understanding of where you went to school.
sure to explain the kind of high school you attended if it’s not clear from the name. For example, there are some high schools that specialize in performing arts.
You may list the name of the high school, plus a short description, so a hiring manager fully comprehends the environment you were in.
4.Include your recent or anticipated graduation date
Whether you’ve graduated with your diploma, are a current high school student or chose not to finish high school and earned your GED instead, include your graduation date or anticipated graduation date.
A hiring manager can choose if they are comfortable hiring a candidate who still has some schooling left, depending on the requirements of the position.
If you’ve completed some high school and then left a traditional high school environment to pursue specialty education, like at a trade school,
you can still include your high school name, and then also include the specialty or trade school you attend with the completion date as well.
Similar to how you would list college education on your resume, you only include the date if you graduate within the last three years.
After that time, keep only the name of your high school listed if it is the highest level of education you have completed.
5.Consider sharing your grade point average (GPA)
Your GPA is a way for hiring managers to understand how well you did in school. As a numerical average of your grades, the higher to a 4.0 GPA you are, the better you performed in your classes.
A hiring manager may prefer to hire a candidate who has a higher GPA because it shows that they worked hard,
took their education seriously and were interested in building their knowledge base, all traits that are useful in any work environment.
However, if your GPA is below 3.5, consider leaving it off your resume and instead focusing on the unique attributes you have that make you an ideal fit for the role. If a hiring manager wants to know what your GPA was, you can provide the details when they ask.