Internship Resume Examples, Template, and How-to Guide

Internship Resume

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.

This article will cover:

• Skills to include on an internship resume
• Internship resume examples and tips
• The best resume format to use for an internship resume
• Frequently asked questions for internship resumes

What do employers look for in an internship resume?

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:

Choosing the right format for your internship resume

Figuring out how to lay out 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. No matter which resume format you need, ResumeHelp’s Resume Builder can help you format a professional resume in just minutes. There are three strategies when it comes to formatting:

1. Chronological (aka reverse-chronological) resume format: The most common format, it focuses on work history and is the one recruiters and hiring managers are most used to seeing.
2. Functional resume format: Emphasizes skills and training, and can be helpful when you don’t have a lot of work history, have been out of the workforce for a long period of time or are mainly academically focused.
3. Combination resume format: A good choice if you are applying to jobs in areas outside of your field of study or relevant experience, as it highlights both transferable skills and work experiences.

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.

Considering changing or modifying your resume format?

Keep these 3 factors in mind:

1. What’s your level of experience?

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.

2. Is your career progression the focus of your document?

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.

3. Does it pass the ATS test?

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.

How to write an internship resume

1. Header and contact information

Your resume header should contain crucial information such as your full name, your phone number, LinkedIn and any additional contact information like portfolio links. Make sure to select a header that is easy to read and isn’t too boxy or distracting.

2. Resume summary or objective

Your resume summary or resume resume objective statement may only be a few sentences long, but it’s key to grabbing employers’ attention. What’s the difference between a summary for a resume and an objective for a resume? 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.

An example of an objective statement for a student resume:

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.

A summary statement would look like this:

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.

3. Showcase key skills from the job posting

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 resume skills section 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:

Highlight interpersonal skills such as:

And technical skills such as:

4. Work experience section:

This may not be the key section for your internship resume, but you can still provide examples from extracurricular or volunteer work, with quantifying achievements, or highlight 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 team improve sales by 15% by the end of the second quarter.

5. Education:

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.

6. Additional sections:

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:

How to add internship experience to your resume

So you’ve followed the tips on this page and you got that internship you wanted. How do you present that experience on your resume moving forward? And what should you do if the notable internship you completed isn’t getting the response you’re looking for from employers? One of our readers asked this very question.

Question:

My work history section contains exactly one item: an allegedly impressive, prestigious, highly competitive internship with a major firm in my city. I thought that if I mentioned this internship, potential employers would drool. I was told that with an internship like this under my belt, they would be fighting to sign me on. Guess what? They’re not. Nine resume submissions out of 10 are bringing no response at all, and every tenth submission results in an interview or phone call from an employer who asks about my internship program as if he’s never heard of it before. I feel like a fool. I worked all summer for no pay, just the promise that this opportunity would launch my career. What now?

Answer:

Well, you can’t get your summer back. What you should do at this point is move forward. You can also adjust the way you present this experience on your resume by following these four tips.

1. Don’t just mention the title of the program you completed. This program isn’t creating the gasps of recognition that you imagined, so you need to be specific. State the title and describe the program in one line, as in:

Internship, Dooley Bartle, Inc.
Three-month on-site training program for college graduates demonstrating academic merit in accounting and finance.

2. Break your program down into specific skill sets or branches of experience. For example, you could create a subheading for leadership training, technical training, professional exposure and so on.

3. Under each subheading, add bullet points that summarize what the program taught you within that category of experience. If your internship included a tour of city hall, list that under professional exposure. If you spent an entire week filing folders, list that under organizational skill development.

4. Above all, highlight any special accomplishments that took place during your internship. Any awards you won and any projects you completed (on your own or with a team) deserve special mention.

In this case, it looks like your potential employers don’t really care who you know; they’re more interested in what you can do. Make changes like the ones we suggest above easily with our quick and simple Resume Builder. The improvements in your resume should get you more positive results in your job search.

More internship resume tips and examples

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’re looking for just the right way to present your resume:

• More resume examples for hundreds of jobs
• Professional Resume templates you can use
• Resume format guide
• Resume design guide
• Best fonts for a resume
• How to write a resume

Internship cover letter: the best way to accompany 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. Are you now considering applying for a scholarship? Don’t miss out on our Cover Letter for Scholarship guide.