As a student in 2025, landing your first job can feel overwhelming, especially when crafting a resume that grabs attention in today’s competitive job market. Your resume is often the first impression recruiters have of you—and in the fast-evolving hiring landscape, keywords, formatting, and personalization matter more than ever. That’s why having the right resume example to guide you is crucial.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the 12 best resume examples for students in 2025, each tailored to help you showcase your unique strengths, be it for internships, part-time jobs, or your first full-time role.
1. The Classic Chronological Resume
If you’re a student who has held jobs or internships that seem directly relevant to the field you’re pursuing, the chronological resume is your best bet. It lists your experience in reverse-chronological order, starting from the most recent role. This is especially effective when targeting traditional industries like finance, education, or government roles.
- What to Include: Focus on maintaining a clear structure by listing your contact information, followed by an objective/summary, work experience, education, and any relevant skills.
- Pro Tip: Highlight tangible achievements, such as improving efficiency or contributing to organizational success, even in earlier roles like part-time campus jobs.
2. The Functional Resume
Worried you don’t have enough job experience? For students just starting, the functional resume format emphasizes skills over work experience, making it ideal for those transitioning into a new field or industry.
- What to Include: Focus on transferable skills like teamwork, communication, and leadership by creating sections for key skills followed by detailed examples of how you’ve demonstrated these skills (even through school projects).
- Pro Tip: Pair this with a strong cover letter to explain how your academic experience aligns with the job requirements.
3. The Combination Resume
This format, also known as a hybrid resume, merges the best of both the chronological and functional resumes. For students entering a specialized field such as tech or design, it allows you to highlight technical skills first while still outlining work experience.
- What to Include: Create a section for key skills (especially relevant software tools or programming languages) and back it up with a chronological overview of your related work or internship experience.
- Pro Tip: For tech roles, include a portfolio link showcasing your previous projects.
4. The Creative Resume
If you’re entering a field like graphic design, marketing, or content creation, consider creating a more visually appealing, creative resume without sacrificing clarity. This type of resume emphasizes design elements such as infographics, colors, and layouts.
- What to Include: Make sure to balance creativity with professionalism. Use design to highlight achievements, but ensure readability on all devices.
- Pro Tip: Ensure that any creative elements you use don’t exceed 20% of the resume’s entire content. Too much design distracts from your qualifications.
5. The Internship-Focused Resume
Internship experience is highly valuable, especially if you’re still wrapping up your degree. An internship-focused resume emphasizes these short-term experiences to demonstrate your capability and readiness for a more permanent position.
- What to Include: Organize your internships in chronological order, but devote significant space to the skills and lessons you gained, such as problem solving or client communication.
- Pro Tip: Include metrics where possible. For example, if you increased engagement by 20% during your marketing internship, make sure it’s front and center.
6. The Entry-Level Engineering Resume
For students pursuing positions in engineering or technical fields, it’s essential to present both your hands-on experience with projects and your familiarity with industry standards.
- What to Include: Highlight technical proficiencies (software like MATLAB or AutoCAD), and list coursework or projects, especially capstone projects, that demonstrate your engineering abilities.
- Pro Tip: Don’t just mention the software or tools; explain how you used them in practical applications.
7. The Curriculum Vitae (CV)
A CV is typically used for academic, research, or specialized opportunities. While similar to a resume, a CV provides more comprehensive details about your academic achievements, including research projects and publications.
- What to Include: Focus on your educational background, academic experience, and any publications or relevant coursework. Tailor it to academic positions by including teaching experience, if applicable.
- Pro Tip: If you’re applying for research assistant jobs or graduate programs, include a section for research interests to align with the field.
8. The Part-Time Work Resume
If most of your experience has come from part-time jobs during your studies, emphasize the transferable skills you’ve developed, from customer service to time management.
- What to Include: Focus on soft skills like communication, collaboration, and problem-solving in part-time roles like retail or restaurants. Employers value versatility.
- Pro Tip: Reframe part-time experiences to show how they contribute to your professional growth. For example, managing a student team at a part-time job demonstrates leadership.
9. The Skills-First Resume
This format is ideal for students entering fields that value specific expertise, such as IT, healthcare, or data analysis. A skills-first resume features a dedicated section that specifies advanced capabilities relevant to your new career.
- What to Include: List technical proficiencies such as programming, data analysis, or nursing skills upfront. Additionally, complement your skills section with relevant certifications or coursework.
- Pro Tip: Use action verbs (e.g., “analyzed,” “designed,” “developed”) to add strength to your skills and accomplishments.
10. The Academic Achievements Resume
Academically high-achieving students should develop a resume that emphasizes their education, awards, and relevant coursework. This is a strong format if you’re applying to highly selective companies or graduate programs.
- What to Include: List your GPA (if higher than 3.5), Dean’s List achievements, honors, and significant research projects that align with the job or internship you’re applying for.
- Pro Tip: Use the “Achievements” section to prove you’re driven by more than just grades, such as winning debate competitions or leadership roles in student organizations.
11. The LinkedIn-Based Resume
With the rise of social recruiting, many employers will review your LinkedIn profile during the hiring process, so creating a LinkedIn-optimized resume can work to your advantage. You can convert LinkedIn’s structure into a resume format while highlighting your online presence.
- What to Include: Follow the LinkedIn format, focusing on sections like “Projects,” “Recommendations,” and “Skills & Endorsements,” while ensuring your off-line resume mirrors your LinkedIn profile.
- Pro Tip: Include clear, professional links to your LinkedIn profile on your resume, or vice versa, using customized URLs that are easy for employers to navigate.
12. The Digital Portfolio Resume
For students applying to creative or tech-centric jobs in 2025, a digital portfolio is almost indispensable. Incorporating a link to your digital portfolio in your resume allows hiring managers to explore your projects themselves.
- What to Include: Pair your portfolio link with a tailored resume that emphasizes the hands-on experience reflected in the work they’ll see in your portfolio. This approach is especially effective for web developers, graphic designers, and videographers.
- Pro Tip: Annotate your projects in the portfolio itself to highlight the specific skills and contributions you made. Don’t depend on hiring managers making the connections themselves.
Take the Next Step
Whether you’re applying for your first internship or your dream full-time role, your resume in 2025 needs to be more than just a list of your experiences. It’s a reflection of your personal brand. Tailor it to your strengths, get your formatting right, and don’t forget to optimize for the industry you’re entering.
Ready to create your winning resume? Check out our resume tips for students, or get help from a professional resume writer! Make sure your first impression is the best it can be.