Internships are your launchpad to the great professional career ahead. Plenty of successful people started with one. Steve Jobs had a summer job at Hewlett-Packard as a teen, where he developed a penchant for technology. Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon, was once a retail intern at Bloomingdale. And of course, there’s Lauren Weisberger, the author of The Devil Wears Prada, which was roughly based on her time as an assistant to Vogue’s editor. 

But because good internships open many doors, the competition can be cut-throat. Half of internship seekers submit over 50 applications before landing a spot. This means you need to come prepared. 

This post will show you how to write a resume for an internship that’ll make recruiters say “Congrats, you’re in!” 

Resume Sample for Internship (Word)

Download resume example (.docx)

Internship Resume (text version)

Sample Resume for Internship With No Experience

Do you also need a cover letter example for your internship? Check this sample.

How to Write a Resume for an Internship: Step-by-Step 

A good college student resume for an internship offers a clear overview of your skills, competencies, and academic achievements. 

Since you may not have much (if any) relevant work experience, you skip the chronological resume format for a better alternative — a functional resume or a combination resume. 

Instead of focusing on where you’ve worked, a functional resume emphasizes what you can do. Your skills go at the front in the form of a resume summary and a featured skills section, then education and work history or personal projects. 

A combination resume, in turn,  blends the best of both worlds, spotlighting your skills while also giving a nod to your work history. It’s ideal if you held several jobs, but want to also showcase your academic credentials and skills acquired via other avenues — volunteering, previous internships, and so on. 

Once you’ve settled on the format, start filling up the key resume sections: header, skills, work experience, and education. Here’s how to do this. 

Your Personal Information

The resume header must include personal information — your name, contact info, and LinkedIn profile (if you have one). A home address is optional (and a bit old-fashioned). 

While it may seem obvious, you will be amazed at how many applicants forget to include their contact deets or think they don’t need to include it on their resume. 

Next, always title your resume with your name. Your name should be the title of your resume or CV and not ‘Resume’ or Curriculum Vitae’. Your name and contact information should really stand out so that the reader can easily go back and find it should they wish to invite you for an interview.

Resume Summary 

A resume summary gives a short introduction of your background and main competencies. 

It should basically cover why you think you are the person suitable for this internship. 

Most employers don’t have a lot of time to sit and read a large amount of text. So keep this to about three to four sentences. Include a resume objective statement as the last sentence i.e., tell exactly what you’re aiming for with this internship. 

Showcase Your Key Skills And Qualifications

Most internship applicants have little work experience. But that’s not a deal-breaker. Use the extra space to accentuate your skills instead. 

Always start with your most recent qualifications as these are going to be of more interest to the employer. You could elaborate a bit here by detailing some of the key modules or projects you studied and the skills you picked up as a result that would be useful to apply in the internship role.

Include a combination of hard and soft skills. Remember: Most employers aren’t looking for super-competent interns, but rather people with a good personality match: Solid self-management and interpersonal skills. 

For extra ideas, look again at the internship job vacancy description. It will often give you clues such as ‘the ideal candidate will have XYZ skills or competencies’. If you have matching skills – list them on your internship resume. 

Browse more resume examples from our team to get a better sense of skills you can list for different types of jobs and industries. 

Education 

State upfront that you’re a student or a recent graduate — employers are here for those academic creds. Include the name of your school, your degree, and your major and minor, if it’s relevant to the position. Then your expected graduation date (or actual date if you’ve already thrown that cap in the air!). 

If you’ve got a GPA above 3.0, list it on your resume too. Otherwise, keep it on the down-low. Don’t forget to add honors like Dean’s list, relevant coursework, academic achievements, or extracurriculars that make you truly shine. 

Extracurriculars can go either into your education section or work experience (if that one is sparse). Highlight activities where you honed leadership or administrative skills. If you’ve taken any special certifications, training programs, or even online courses, slip those in here as well. 

Tailoring your education section to align with the internship you’re eyeing shows you’re not just another student – you’re a future intern who’s got the goods!

Work Experience

Employers will be impressed to see that you already have some work experience under your belt, so include your most recent employment or work experience first. Make sure you emphasize any skills used in that job that are useful or relatable to the internship you are applying for.

Listing your positions in reverse chronological order is important here so they can see your most recent job or work experience. Include any responsibilities or achievements accomplished while working to show that you are dedicated and have good leadership skills. You should bullet-point your key skills to emphasize them better.

Hobbies And Interests

Remember that employers are looking for interns who can work well as a team and culturally add to the organization. So if you have some space left, throw in a couple of hobbies and interests. 

But be strategic about your choices. Saying that you’re an avid gamer is great if you want to intern as a designer with a game development studio, but hardly so if you’re after an accounting position. Mention interests that relate to the company, sector, or role in some way.

Offering References

Listing references on a resume makes sense if the company explicitly asked for those. In most cases, you can limit this to the “References available upon request” statement at the bottom of the page and provide the contact deets later during an email exchange. 

Some internship positions may also ask for a letter of recommendation. Your favorite professor, past boss, or even a peer from a club are good candidates to ask for one. 

Final Touches: Add an Internship Resume Template

If you don’t like the plain boring look of a Word file or struggle to fit all your deets into one page, use a professional resume template. It’ll keep things sleek, organized, and eye-catching, making sure your application pops right off the recruiter’s screen.
We have over 180 fabulously free resume templates on our website. The most popular resume designs among interns include a Sweet & Simple resume template with a photo, a minimalistic Straight Shooter Word resume template, and a two-column Sunny Afternoon template.

The post How To Write A Resume For An Internship: Examples and Tips appeared first on Freesumes.com.

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