How to write a resume for an internship [with examples]

If you're wondering how to write a resume for an internship with no experience, you've come to the right place.

An internship is a great way to gain valuable work experience. Even if an internship pays poorly (or not at all!), it can help you gain the contacts, knowledge, and references you need to land your dream job.

Good internships are highly competitive, so you need an excellent internship resume to stand out from the crowd.

This guide will discuss:

• How to write a resume for an internship
• Which resume sections you need on an internship resume
• How to use a resume template to format your resume
• Helpful tips for writing a great internship resume

What is an internship resume?

An internship resume is a resume that focuses on education and skills and is highly customized for an internship context. It is an important part of applying for an internship.

Because most people do internships early in their career, they often don’t have work experience to list in their resume. You might be a student or recent graduate, and this internship might be your first step into the workforce. As you write your internship resume, it’s important to showcase your most important skills and academic accomplishments.

To do this, you might include sections for education, volunteering experience, extracurricular activities, skills, and academic awards. Anything that makes you look like an impressive candidate will look good on an internship resume.

Internship resume sections

An impactful internship resume should have the sections:

• Contact information: The first section that contains your name and contact details
• Summary: A short introductory paragraph that summarizes your qualifications as an internship candidate
• Education: A list of your degrees and academic achievements
• Skills: A list of the skills and competencies you possess
• Work experience: A list of your work history and related accomplishments

For many internship applicants, those sections will be enough. If you have more accomplishments you would like to showcase, however, you can also include sections such as:

• Volunteering experience
• Awards and honours
• Projects
• Research experience
• Publications
• Interests

How to write a resume for an internship: a step-by-step guide

Hiring managers know that most internship candidates don’t have much work experience, but they’ll still be looking for a great resume. To get past the initial resume screen, make sure your resume is well-formatted and easy to read. To write a great internship resume:

#1. Pick the right resume format

Most job-seekers use a reverse-chronological resume format. In this format, the Work History section is written in reverse-chronological order, beginning with the most recent position and working backwards.

As you may not have many previous positions to list, you may want to use the combination resume format instead. With this format, you still list your previous jobs in order, but make your skills or academic achievements the focus of the resume, rather than your work experience. This way, you can be sure to emphasize the right qualifications.

Consider your experience and your skills when you pick which format will work for you.

#2. Choose an excellent internship resume template

The right resume template will give you an important head start on a great-looking resume.

The specific template you choose will depend on the company and industry of your internship. If you are applying at a law firm, for example, you may want to use a traditional template, such as VisualCV’s ATS. If you are interning in a more creative field, like art or design, you may want to try a more modern template, like VisualCV’s Rainier.

In any case, it’s important that your template is clearly organized and easy to read.

If you decide to design your own resume instead of using a template, be sure to follow these rules of thumb:

• Choose a font between 10pt and 12pt
• Keep line spacing between 1.0 and 1.15
• Choose a neutral, professional font
• Make section headings between 14pt and 16pt
• Use bullet points when writing job descriptions

#3. Provide your contact information

Begin your resume with your contact information. This information has to be easy to find, so anyone reading your resume knows exactly how to contact you. For your internship resume, your contact information must include:

• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• City

If you have a professional social media account, an online student profile, or an online portfolio, you may want to include a link in your contact information as well

Social media like LinkedIn, GitHub, or even Twitter and Instagram can all be included, as long as all of your online behaviour is appropriate and professional.

#4. Write a brief summary

On a resume, a summary is a short paragraph or bulleted list summarizing your key qualifications for a position. It is your elevator pitch to an employer, and it may list core skills, academic achievements, or previous positions that make you a great candidate. The Summary section should appear near the top of your resume.

Before writing your summary for an internship resume, you should read the job posting carefully. Pick out key requirements from the job description, such as technical skills, education, and experience, and see how you can include them into your summary. For example, if the job posting calls for experience with JavaScript, and you have worked with JavaScript in your college classes, you can include this in your summary.

A good objective be no more than a few sentences or bullets, use action verbs to describe skills and achievements, and demonstrate why you are a great candidate for the internship. This should encourage the hiring manager to read the rest of your resume.

#5. Showcase your education

If you are seeking an internship, you may be a recent graduate or current student. This likely means that most of your skills and experience were gained in your education. If this is the case, your education section is very important to your internship resume.

In your Education section, list your degrees in reverse-chronological order, beginning with the most recent and working backwards. Each item in the Education section should include:

• Degree
• Major and minor
• Institution
• Dates attended

If you want to emphasize your academic experience, you can also include a description of each degree. If relevant, you may want to list:

• Classwork
• GPA
• Dean’s list
• Research areas
• Impressive projects
• Academic awards or honours
• Exchange programs

When you don’t have much experience in the workforce, details like this van help show that you still have the skills to succeed at your internship.

If you have a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, or any other post-secondary certifications, you don’t need to include your high school. Only include your high school education if it is the only education you have.

#6. List your skills

While in many ways the purpose of an internship is to develop your skills, you still have to list your skills on your resume. Make sure you have a clearly labelled Skills section in your internship resume.

Most job-seekers list their skills in a simple bulleted list. This is a readable and efficient way to display your skills.

If you want to give your skills more emphasis, you can also make each individual skill a heading and offer an explanation or example for each one. With VisualCV’s templates, you can even add strength ratings to each skill to show where your strengths are. This is a great way to draw attention to your Skills section in a stylish way.

#7. Work experience

Write your work experience section in reverse-chronological order, beginning with your latest role and working backwards. For each job, make sure to include:

• Job title
• Company name
• Dates of employment
• A bulleted list of your achievements and responsibilities in the role

Your work experience may include full-time roles you have held. If you are a student or recent graduate, you can also list part-time jobs, summer jobs, other internships, or even volunteering experience.

The important thing is to be sure that you can demonstrate that you are a good worker and a dedicated employee.

#8. Add other relevant qualifications

If you have other qualifications you’d like to highlight, be sure to include them in your resume. Other sections might include volunteering experience, extracurricular activities, projects, awards and honours, and more.

Consider what other qualifications you have, and if they suit the internship you’re applying for, add them to your resume.

Tips for writing an internship resume

Once your resume sections are in place, you can begin making sure the section content is perfect. As you write and edit your resume, keep these tips in mind:

Clarity is key

Your resume must be clear and easy to read. Ensure that every section has a clear heading, that the resume is structured well, and that the fonts are easy to read both in print and on a screen.

Be brief

An internship resume doesn’t need to be longer than a page. As you likely don’t have much experience, you should be able to fit everything you need on one page. If absolutely necessary, you can use a second page, but never more.

Customize your resume

It’s essential to customize your resume for each position you apply to. A generic, catch-all resume is not likely to grab a hiring manager's attention. Make sure your resume is tailored to the specific internship you are applying for.

To customize your internship resume, read the job posting carefully and take note of the key words and phrases it uses when describing the job requirements. These are the phrases that you should include in your resume (as long as it’s true). This might include skills, education, tools, software, experience, and more.

Beat the applicant tracking system (ATS)

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a type of software that reads resumes and selects the best ones to pass on to a hiring manager. Many companies use ATSs to streamline the hiring process.

To make sure your resume beats the ATS, make sure you use the exact keywords from the job description to describe your experience. These are the phrases the ATS will be looking for. Further, make sure to use a straightforward template without many tables or images. This will be easier for the ATS to parse.

Internship resume example