About halfway through their junior year, students should begin applying for scholarships and prepare what material they need to have when applying to a secondary education facility. To help make the application process easier, students should begin composing a resume their freshmen year.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a resume is a brief account of a person’s education, qualifications, and previous experience, typically sent with a job application. However, academic-focused resumes are often an upload requirement for post high school applications.

When deciding what to include in a resume, students should record everything they are involved in including but not limited to sports, clubs, volunteer organizations and religious groups.

In addition to what they are involved in, students should also write in any type of awards they have received in high school. Recognition papers received at school board meetings are considered awards, as well as banquet awards and academic team rankings (such as Academic-All District).

Another important thing to keep track of for resumes is any type of placements a student has earned. In this category, a student can write down sports placements (such as district championships), UIL placements in practice meets and major meets, stock show results and any other outside competition placements.

Students can also add work experience they have had, letters of reference and contact references in their resumes. Grades and ranking information can also be recorded.

To start a resume, one can make a list of all extra-curricular activities, awards and placements in events as they happen in the Notes app on one’s phone or in a word document saved to a Microsoft OneDrive account that is easily accessible as they happen. For example, if a student places in a UIL practice meet, they should record it immediately so they do not forget about it.

Students can choose to keep an informal list of achievements to themselves, but they should compose a formal resume to upload in applications.

If a student is not planning on continuing their education, these resumes can be used when applying for jobs after graduation. Companies look to see what students were involved in, in high school, not just other job experience.

It is not too late to start a resume. However, one should start sooner rather than later because when students begin their senior year, it can be difficult to remember the things they did, awards they received and placements they stood in throughout the last three years.