Oct 12, 2016 ● Kate Lopaze

How to Write a Perfect Internship Resume: Samples, Templates, and Tips

A polished and professional internship resume is key in your quest to secure coveted internship opportunities. However, internship resumes are different from regular resumes in key ways.

For one, no one expects you to have decades of experience in the field when searching for an internship. Your internship resume doesn’t need years of relevant experience. However, you’re still looking to get that foot in the door, so you don’t yet have tons of relevant skills and experience.

If you're looking for advice on how to write an internship resume that helps you land an interview, look no further! In this blog post, we'll walk you through everything you need to know, from what to include (and what not to include)to some helpful tips and 3 examples to help you get started.

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Sample 1: How to Write An Internship Resume for College Students

Let’s start by looking at what not to do. Kaitlyn is a junior in college, looking to get an internship for the summer.

Kaitlyn Martin

63 University Place, Apt. 2C

Storrs, CT 99999

(555) 555-1111

kmcutie@emaildomain.com

Objective: I am seeking an internship that will allow me to build experience.

Experience

UConn Dining Services

Food Service Worker (Work-Study)

Serve food in Sprague Hall.
Clear tables, and clean kitchen areas before and after dinner service.
Handle payment for meals (HuskyCard swipes, cash)

Harbaugh Dental Services

Receptionist

Summers

Answer the phone and greet patients
Schedule appointments
Prepare patient files for the dentists and hygienists
File and maintain patient records as needed

Tas-T-Freeze

Food Server

Summers

Served ice cream to customers
Cleaned and maintained the food prep and serving areas
Processed payment for customers (cash and credit)
Made and decorated ice cream cakes

Skills

Social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook)
Graphic design
Working with people

Education

University of Connecticut, Storrs

Communications major

Current GPA: 3.2/4

Keep Your Resume Concise

First, the good: Kaitlyn’s resume is short, which an internship resume should be (one page, max). The use of bullet points helps keep her resume concise but impactful.

Tailor Your Resume to A Specific Internship

The not-so-good: Kaitlyn’s resume is unfocused and unspecific, and it’s missing key information. A good internship resume is tailored specifically for the job you want. That means vague statements like, “I am seeking an internship that will allow me to build experience,” are not a good idea.

Generic statements rise two main red flags to hiring managers:

1. The applicant is using a one-size-fits-all resume, and probably sending it everywhere.

2. The applicant hasn’t put time and energy into this particular application.

A good internship resume’s objective is to help you land an interview. With those two red flags, it’s likely the hiring manager reading this resume will glaze right over Kaitlyn’s resume, and move on to the next resume.

Connect Experiences to Internship

The next problematic element is her experience: The jobs are also kind of all over the place—Kaitlyn has worked in food service, and as a receptionist at a dental office. However, it is difficult to tell if and how any of those experiences connect to her skills or the internship she’s applying for. For instance, under the skills section of her resume, Kaitlyn lists her top skill as “social media.” However, this skill is not reflected in any of her past experiences.

Your resume’s job is to tell your story. It’s important to shape the experience and skills in your resume around the job you want, making sure to highlight your most relevant experience.

Stay Professional

Kaitlyn also unwittingly sets off some alarm bells with her resume. Her email address is clearly a personal one—she’d be much better off either using her school email address, or creating one that’s based on her name.

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Let’s look at Jeff, who’s applying for an internship in his local state senator’s office.

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Jeff Hernandez

76 Van Pelt Street, Apt. 4

Boston, MA 88888

JHernandez@emaildomain.com

(999) 888-7777

Dynamic Political Science Major Targeting Experience-Building Opportunities As Part of Senator Coughlin’s Team

Current Dean’s List student (3.9 GPA) motivated to learn the ropes in a community-oriented legislative office. Fast learner and a hard worker with a special interest in legislative process and protocols.

Key Skills

Software: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, VisualStudio, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, Oracle

Languages: Fluent in Spanish, proficient in German

Communication: Presenting, public speaking, proofreading and editing

Education

Hawthorne College, Boston, MA

Anticipated graduation: 2017

Major: Political Science

Minors: English, History

GPA: 3.9/4

Awards/honors: Honors program, Dean’s List (8 semesters), Student Volunteer Award (2015)

Work Experience

Leominster City Hall Registrar’s Office Leominster, MA

Records Assistant 2014-2015 (summers)

As a seasonal summer employee while attending school, worked with the City Registrar to organize and maintain local records.

Processed marriage, birth, and death records
Helped the Registrar staff overhaul their filing system, and implement an innovative digital filing system
Managed office supply inventory and ordering
Coordinated social media accounts for the Registrar’s office, sending out planned messaging approved by staff

Volunteer Experience

City Cornucopia Boston, MA

Volunteer 2012 - present

Deliver meals to homebound people, as well as managing distribution and food service at City Cornucopia
Organized Twitter outreach campaign to supplement fundraising efforts

Rockin’ Readers Boston, MA

Volunteer Reader 2014 – present

Weekly reading sessions with a third-grade classroom at Chester Elementary School to encourage reading and developing strong academic skills.
Select age-appropriate reading for kids at the third grade level
Interact with kids to make reading a fun and productive part of their school day

Jeff’s resume is a good one for his internship aspirations: like Kaitlyn’s, it’s short and sweet. Unlike Kaitlyn’s, it’s very focused. Jeff wants an internship in Senator Coughlin’s office, and centers his resume around that fact. He emphasizes that he wants this job as an experience builder, but also offers up his own strengths.

In Jeff’s case, it’s his academic record and his skills that he wants to showcase. His experience is fairly limited (and here he excludes anything that might not be relevant to the internship he wants), but he’s careful to include previous responsibilities that match up to what Senator Coughlin’s office is seeking in the job description.

Jeff also shows follow-through in his resume: in his summary statement, he emphasizes that he wants to build experience in a community-oriented role. So he makes sure to include two things that emphasize that: his volunteer work and the award he received at school for his volunteering. The most important part of an internship resume is making sure that the skills and experience you do have. Even though you may be very early in your career, a college student’s resume can be specifically tailored for the internship experience you want to have.

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Sample 2: How to Write An Internship Resume When You Have No Experience

Next up, let’s look at Genevieve’s resume. Genevieve is applying for an internship. She has the relevant skills called for in the job description, but no experience.

Genevieve Jackson

23 Anderson Street

Phoenix, AZ 33333

Email: Genevieve@emaildomain.com

LinkedIn: GenvieveJ

GenJacksonDesigns.org

GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN

Motivated, detail-oriented communications and graphic design student seeking to leverage design skills, writing skills, and social media experience into an experience-building internship in graphic design.

SKILLS

Creative design visual design and use of typography
Completing projects on deadline
Ability to work in a variety of environments
Communicating verbally and in writing
Working with clients and colleagues to complete projects on spec and on deadline
Software: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Bilingual: Spanish and English

EDUCATION

Partridge College, Phoenix, AZ.

Expected graduation: May 2017

B.A. Communications

B.A. Graphic Design

Activities: Campus Happenings Magazine (layout and design for print and digital content)

Marconi High School, Flagstaff, AZ

High School Diploma

Awards: Arts Innovation Award, 2014; Honor Roll (2009 – 2013)

Activities: Daily Bugle student newspaper (reporter and layout artist)

EXPERIENCE

Chilly Pete’s Ice Cream Factory April 2007 – August 2009

Server and cake decorator

Created visually stunning ice cream cakes, both for display and to customer specifications
Served customers and handled cash transactions
Provided cheerful, courteous service to all customers

Genevieve knows that in order to put herself in the best light for this internship, she needs to play up her skills and education, and play down her limited experience. She does this by crafting a highly targeted resume.

Her goal is to write a resume for a graphic design internship, so that becomes the theme of just about every part of her resume. From the headline and the objective statement to her skills, education, and experience, Genevieve is telling the hiring manager what she brings to the table.

She also includes links to her professional social media (LinkedIn) and her personal website, so that the reader can see what her designs look like. We haven’t yet gotten to a point where fun, graphic resumes have displaced the good, old-fashioned formats, so it’s important to give the reader options to see what Genevieve is talking about.

When it comes to building the perfect resume, it is not just about telling, but also showing. By linking her linkedin and website, she’s creating a brand around herself without yet having a lot of experience.

For more resources on how to get the internship you want (and then do a good job while there!), be sure to check out these articles:

Want more samples? Check out the following list for other resume templates:

career advice

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