Internship Resume - Why Are They Important?

An internship resume is a document that serves as your introduction to companies offering internship programs. It is a personal marketing tool, which should be drafted in an error-free and organized manner to attract the attention of potential employer. Most employers need you to submit a resume along with your internship application.

Internship resume is important for numerous reasons-

• The goal of internship resume is to obtain practical experience and enhance your academic experience in the career field of your interest. You can use it to communicate your education, experience and accomplishments.
• Internship resume focuses on your transferable skills that you will need to apply in an internship setting. It helps you convince an organization that you have appropriate transferable skills and encourage it to invite you for an interview.
• You can use the internship resume to list the activities and hobbies that interest you. This can help reveal how active you are and how willing you are to complete the tasks. It also indicates leadership, communication and organization skills that you have.
• Internship resume provides you with an opportunity to demonstrate your current level of knowledge and skills you have developed throughout our college educational process. You need to describe your academic background in more detail than in a job oriented resume.

How to Write an Internship Resume

When you apply for an internship, the companies expect relevant and truthful information from you. A reader friendly resume that is free of errors and has flowing content with consistent formatting will surely help you draw the attention of your potential employer. Following some steps to compile an internship resume can be of great use.

Identify your Goals Clearly

Identify why you want to do an internship and why now. Determine what you want to learn from an internship programs. Specifying your goals in the resume clearly can give flavor to the tone of your resume. It also helps you while making interactions with your potential employers.

Identify your Skills

Identify what academic background and/or experience you have to contribute to achieve this goal. Try to find out what the needs of the organization are and what they would want to know about your background.

Collect Evidences of your Skills

If you have any records of any previous internship, academic experiences, leadership skills, extracurricular activities or volunteer experiences and evidence of other accomplishments that would be appropriate to the type of internship you are seeking.

Start Writing

Collect all the relevant information before writing. Formatting the resume is very important. For each skill, internship program or volunteer experience, use this format

• Give Title- Give title to each position, skill or discipline.
• Specify Date- Include the details like when and where you did it and what the duration of the experience was.
• Describe it- Use one or two sentences to describe the content of the program or field of study.
• Give References- List at least three persons. Include their names, professional title and business address. Teachers, faculty and former supervisors are some of the best references you can give.

It is advisable to include all the essential information in one page. If not possible, you can compile the resume in 2 pages. However, never exceed two pages. Margins need to be less than 0.5 inches on all sides. You can use professional fonts like Times New Roman and Bookman. Using 10 to 12 point font for general content and 10 to 14 point font for titles is advisable.

Organize It

• Organize the information in reverse chronological order. Under each title, list the most recent academic background and experiences.
• Avoid providing irrelevant information. Analyze each part of your experience from the perspective of the organization to decide what to include and what to highlight.

Example of an Internship Resume

                                              Richard Scott

                                             ([email protected])

Address                                                                               

76 Truman Avenue

Memphis TN  38104

Objective

To secure a summer position in sales

Education

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Anticipated Graduation - June 2014

Major:  Business

GPA: 3.2

Concentration: Sales Management

Major Course Work

Business Management

Management Accounting

Consumer Behavior

Expert Systems in Sales

Experience

Pizza Hut, Memphis, TN

Cashier

Duties- Handled Cash translations, responsible for store and calculating daily receipts (from July 2012 to April 2013)

Men’s Shop, Memphis, TN

Sales Associate

Duties- Sold men’s clothing and handled cash register transactions, summer 2011

Awards-

All American Scholar Collegiate Award (Winter 2010)

References

Available Upon Request

12 Tips on Writing an Internship Resume

Keep it short and crisp. Your resume should be a concise summary of your education, skills, experience and achievements. Keep it as simple and relevant as possible.

• Using bullet points to separate sections can make your resume look eye catching and easy to read.
• Customize your resume for each position you want to apply. Ensure that you highlight your strengths.
• Use a telegraphic style to compile the resume. Avoid or reduce the usage of articles like” a”,” an” and “the”.
• Avoid personal pronouns like I and My.
• Use present tense to describe your current positions and past tense for previous positions.
• Pay more attention to spelling, grammar and punctuation.
• Proofread your resume, using a dictionary. You can also get the help of your teacher or faculty to proofread it.
• Organize all the information in a logical manner.
• Keep descriptions to the point.
• Use action verbs to specify your skills and abilities like researched, assisted and demonstrated. This can help infuse energy into your resume.
• Use specific numbers to quantify the descriptions of your achievements and experiences. This helps increase the impact. For instance, “increase sales by 30% within 6 months” can help the potential employer get more accurate information of your abilities.
• Use a quality white or off white bond paper.

Providing too little or too much information on an internship resume is not at all a good idea. If your resume looks too sparse, consider adding your co-curricular activities, volunteer activities, and foreign language or computer skills and so on.

Now that your internship resume is ready, it’s time to consider your cover letter. Once you have properly written these, the next thing to do is to begin applying, so be sure to read our internship tips. Of course, once you land that interview, be sure to check out potential interview questions and answers.

By Diane Barlow