Highlight skills, extracurriculars and accomplishments over limited work experience. Here's how to put together a well-crafted internship resume that shows hiring managers you have the right professional capabilities.
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An internship resume differs from other resumes in several key ways. Rather than work experience, an intern resume highlights skills, school activities, and accomplishments. By following these internship resume examples and tips, you can create a strong resume for an internship in no time.
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An internship can help you make crucial connections at a company you want to work for. The purpose of this role is for interns to learn practical skills related to their career goals by assisting in various jobs at a company. You may choose to do a summer internship or a part-time internship during the school year depending on the company and whether the internship is for academic credits.
To land a great internship position, you need a strong resume. By including these key elements in your resume, you can place yourself ahead of the competition:
Figuring out how to layout your resume to showcase your best skills is an ongoing process as your career journey continues. You may even be working in a different industry years from now and need to change things around, so don’t be afraid to customize your document as needed. Generally, there are three main types of resume formats you can choose from: Chronological, Combination, and Functional.
The best format for your resume depends on your skills and experience, with all three formats being suited to user preference. ResumeHelp’s resume builder can help you format a professional resume in just minutes. There are three strategies when it comes to formatting:
For an internship, you’ll likely use a functional format, but a combination format also works if you have some professional experience under your belt that showcases the skills and qualifications the internship needs.
Different resume formats can be used to highlight different aspects of your career background. If you want to demonstrate that you have a strong work history choose a chronological resume format.
With some work experience and a strong set of industry-specific skills, a combination resume would be an excellent choice. If you are new to the workforce but want to emphasize the skills you’ve developed in school, like in our intern resume sample above, a functional resume format is the best fit.
If you have gaps in your employment history, this should be a consideration for job seekers when choosing the best resume format. If you have been laid off, are light on work experiences, or have taken time off for personal reasons, a functional resume format would emphasize relevant skills over your work history.
If you want to apply to jobs related to your previous field, but have different training then the best resume format for the job would be a combination resume so you can highlight your transferable skills. The chronological resume format is a solid choice for a professional with a long work history and an impressive career trajectory.
A well-organized resume is critical to getting past an applicant tracking system (ATS). ATS software is used by the majority of companies in the U.S. and is designed to scan your resume for a specific set of keywords to weed out unqualified candidates. Crafting a well-organized resume starts with a format that is easy to scan and puts your most impressive achievements front and center.
Your resume header should contain crucial information such as your full name, your phone number, LinkedIn, and additional contact information like portfolio links. Make sure to select a header that is easy to read and isn’t too boxy or distracting.
Your resume summary or resume objective statement may only be a few sentences long, but it’s key to grabbing employers’ attention. A summary (which is preferred by most job seekers with experience) is an overview of your best skills, work achievements and qualifications that is specifically tailored to the company.
While an objective is used to tell a recruiter what your career goals are and your reasoning for applying to the role, its focus is on your career path.
Student at XYZ University with experience managing marketing for social media accounts seeking an internship in social media marketing with XYZ Company. PRSSA scholarship award winner with strong technical skills and work ethic.
Highly motivated accounting intern offering working knowledge of accounts receivable, accounts payable and financial reporting. Self-starter, with adaptability to a fast-paced environment with extremely aggressive deadlines.
A great resume will be tailored to each internship with keywords from the job description. You can pick out relevant skills, tasks and responsibilities to match up with your own experiences and then make sure to place these crucial skills in your bulleted skills list, summary, and a separate skills section if desired.
The skills section of your resume is a great place to show recruiters that even though you may be a student or recent graduate, you have what it takes to make it. This is your opportunity to show competencies in both soft and hard skills like this:
This may not be the key section for your internship resume, but you can still give examples with quantifying achievements, or highlighting relevant accomplishments and specific responsibilities that match what the new job wants. Here’s what that could look like: Conducted market research and analyzed marketing surveys to help management figure out how to improve sales by 15% by the end of the second quarter.
List your top academic achievements such as your college or high school degrees in this section with the most recent first, along with any awards or honors and your GPA if it is required.
In addition to the basic resume sections above it is important for an internship to be as specific as possible. So if it is relevant to the specific application, you may want to include:
If you want to make the best impression with your internship resume you need to be able to adapt to changes quickly and have a set of versatile templates that can help your documents be professional and readable. ResumeHelp has many resources which could help you to create the perfect resume for your next internship opportunity.
Check out these resources if you are looking for just the right way to present your resume:
A great cover letter is the most effective way to mention your interest in the company and how you believe you’d be the perfect fit for the team by being able to expand on the details of your resume and provide useful background information.
If you need help crafting your cover letter ResumeHelp has plenty of cover letter writing tips and cover letter examples you can use to write the perfect accompaniment to your internship resume.
Make sure you’re adequately prepared by researching things like the company’s mission statement, history, culture, and the skills they value.
Do some self analysis and group your best skills together to find the industry that’s right for you, ResumeHelp has a great selection of industry resume examples to help you get started.
Even if you’ve never had a traditional job you can draw from the experiences you have volunteering, academically, or through temporary work like babysitting, camp counseling, or seasonal positions.
It’s important to show that you’re committed to the role by inquiring about training or progression opportunities within the company and showing you’re prepared for the day-to-day responsibilities of the role.
Be enthusiastic and engaged when interacting with the recruiter or hiring manager and use a skills based approach to your resume so you can showcase the different kinds of soft skills you possess in a Professional Skills or Summary of Qualifications section.
One of the best things you can show in your resume is your ability to switch back and forth between tasks based on their importance and urgency, say by balancing school work with after school activities.
Even if you don’t get this particular internship this can still be a great networking opportunity for you, so focus on the benefits of getting feedback and try to either apply again at a later time or look for opportunities in a similar field.
Remember to thank the recruiter or hiring manager for their time and consideration and use this resume and cover letter opportunity as a way to get to know your industry and your audience so you can get comfortable with the terms and setting.
The best format for an internship resume depends on how much experience you have. The Reverse-chronological resume format is the most popular format because hiring managers are accustomed to reading it, and it also features your work experience. But, if you don’t have a lot of relevant experience, a functional resume format can place the focus on your skills.
An internship resume allows the candidate to make a strong first impression. A professional-looking internship resume shows hiring managers that the candidate has the capabilities to excel in the internship. A great resume can even display your ability to take on a further role in the company.
Hiring managers will often keep the resumes of interns when looking to fill entry-level positions. Your resume can help the hiring manager recall all the hard work you put in during your internship experience.
An internship resume is a resume that focuses on education and skills and is highly customized for an internship context. It is used mainly for students and recent graduates to present their background, skills, and accomplishments in a way that is easy for recruiters and hiring managers to understand as an internship resume follows the same traditional structure as most resume formats.
Writing a resume for an internship, especially without direct work accomplishments, means you need to prove your skills another way. The effective combination of a skills-based resume in the functional format and an accompanying cover letter can be an extremely effective way to show that you have the skills required. It can show that you can effectively meet with and work alongside the right people to help you overcome your lack of experience.
Remember to use your skill section (and your cover letter) to show that you’ve researched the company and have curated the right academic or personal experiences for which they are looking.
With no direct work experience it may seem challenging to craft a resume. Instead, you can use research assistance, projects, previous school work, and relevant volunteering experiences as the base of your resume. You can also share your accomplishments, achievements, awards, or other relevant accolades.
For your summary section, since you don’t have a directed job title, you can create an introduction to yourself and what you can bring to the company. Create some simple but effective points about your personality and how they would enrich the job you would be doing. List soft skills such as hardworking, trainability, and communication skills so you can increase your appeal to hiring managers.
A resume is a one-page document that is mainly focused on relevant work experiences and training that pertain to one particular field. How thorough job seekers need to be with the information put on the page is the central difference between a CV and a resume as a CV, for countries, should include every element of your work and academic history and other relevant background information.
Additionally, for some countries and specified industries, it may be appropriate (or required) to include your picture, hobbies, interests, and various background details.
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