How To List An Internship
List your internship on a resume the same way you list any employment. This is particularly important if you choose to intersperse internships and job experience. You should include the name of the organization, the months you worked there, the location, your position, and a bulleted list of your responsibilities.
Your resume formatting can take many forms, but make sure it’s consistent. Don’t change the formatting for internships, as this could give the impression that you believe these are less valuable than other points on the resume, when the opposite should be the case.
Company Names And Software Tools
As proper nouns, the names of companies and software tools typically get a capital letter, unless theyre written in all lowercase letters or all caps by the company itself. Usually, companies only use this kind of unorthodox styling for logos, but occasionally it carries over into regular text.
Do you use Microsoft Excel? Adobe Photoshop? Make sure theyre capitalized, whether they appear within a bullet or are listed in a skills section. I always look up the name of a software program to see how the company writes it, and then follow that. Make sure you also pay attention to caps in the middle of a name, or lowercase letters at the start, like:
- JavaScript
- iPhone
How Do I List Internships On A Resume
Some students feel uncomfortable listing internships on a resume and therefore end up putting them at the bottom. The best practice, however, is to list any relevant internships at the top of your resume under “Work Experience.”
Each internship you participated in should be listed on a separate line and include a formal job title, the name of the company, the company’s location, and how long the internship lasted.
Plan to include 2-5 bullet points under each internship title depending on how long it lasted.
Directly under the header, list the responsibilities you took on in the internship, taking care to translate those into some of the highlighted responsibilities of the job you’re applying for. For instance, if a role requires experience in administration, you should highlight relevant administrative duties from your internship.
Plan to include 2-5 bullet points under each internship title depending on how long it lasted. Longer internships should include more bullet points.
Finally, make sure to always clarify each position as an internship. Failing to do so can make hiring managers question forthrightness and honesty.
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Use Strong Action Verbs
When filling out your information for each work experience, use easy-to-skim bullet point statements to help explain your responsibilities and accomplishments. Start each bullet point with a compelling action verb.
For instance, lets say that you want to highlight a capstone project that you completed for your class. Here is an example of how you might use action verbs to kick off each bullet point:
- Surveyed 150 families in Cincinnati to collect detailed data on clients target audience.
- Developed and implemented cost-effective marketing plan for local insurance company that leveraged social media and offline marketing techniques.
- a campaign budget of $1,200 which we estimated to be the minimum cost that would yield the highest return on investment .
Need some ideas for your resume? Here is a list of action verbs to get you started.
How To Include Internships On Your Resume
Showcase your knowledge and experience in the industry.
If you are a recent college graduate, you have limited working experience, or you are looking to change career path, including internship experience on your resume can open doors for you.
Breaking into an industry can be tough in a competitive job market and sometimes a sacrifice is needed. In many companies, the only difference between an intern and an employee is the salary.
Employers understand the value of interns who are willing to work hard, for little or no money, to learn more about the industry because this demonstrates a passion and enthusiasm for the sector or position.
Unpaid work is not time wasted, and if you know how to write a resume effectively, including internships on your resume can give your resume an edge over your competitors and get you through to the interview stage.
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Bonus: How To Tell About The Internship On Interview
During the interview, the questions about your internship will inevitably arise. Heres how to tell about this experience to make the best impression possible.
Skip the menial tasks. Obviously, all the interns do the coffee runs and make calls for their boss. Yet, this isnt something that the interviewer wants to hear during the interview for a junior marketer role. Focus on telling about the duties that have to do with your target job.
Show what youve learned. Tell about the successful projects youve contributed to, or even completed individually. Mention the practical skills youve built and how you put those skills to practice. Your goal is to show youve built skills that will help you succeed in the workplace.
Dont bring up the salary issue. Whether the internship was paid or not, dont concentrate too much on this issue. The interviewer will bring up this matter later during the interview. You dont want to come across as someone motivated only by money.
Dont downplay your internship experience. Even if you werent given the opportunity to contribute much during the internship, youve certainly learned something. Youve probably learned the organizational structure and business process of the company, performed clerical duties, or shadowed the professionals work. Dont be shy to tell about it.
Add A Table Of Contents
It is good practice to provide a table of contents as the first section in your internship report. This will allow readers to navigate the document with ease and get an accurate idea of what it contains in the sections that follow. Including a table of contents can also show that you are detail-oriented.
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How To Include Internship Experience On Your Resume
Jeffrey Macks
6 min read
Are you a recent college graduate? Are you transitioning into a new career path?
If the answer to either of those questions is âyesâ, you probably feel like youâre in a pickle. After all, every employer wants someone with experience but you cannot get experience without a job.
The solution? Get an internship!
After youâve completed your internship, you can include the experience on your resume. And yes, an internship does count as actual work experience.
Figuring out how to maximize the impact of an internship on your resume is tough. After all, many are unpaid and donât require much skill to attain.
But, with the highly competitive job market today, it would be foolish to leave out experience that is relevant to the career you are seeking.
Thereâs much confusion about how exactly to include an internship on a resume. Where do you include internship experience? With the rest of your work experience? Or, maybe in a separate internships section?
The answer is…it depends on your situation.
Weâll go over these questions, in detail, and more in this blog post.
Did Something Go Wrong At The Internship
Hopefully, this isnt an issue for you. But in the rare case that there was some extremely difficult situation or even a legal issue during your internship, Wasserman says, you may decide to leave it off. You dont want to run the risk of the recruiter or hiring manager reaching out to someone thereand hearing only negative things about you.
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How To Put An Internship On A Resume 5 Tips
Internships are a great way to kickstart your career when you have no relevant experience. Typically, internship programs are offered to potential employees so that they could learn more about the company and show what theyre capable of. According to the statistic, 66.4% of paid intern were offered a job with the company.
Yet, internships also influence the candidates employability in general. 57.5% of college seniors who had an internship got a job offer, comparing to 43.7% of seniors who didnt have an internship. So, listing an internship on a resume can make a significant difference in getting you hired. Today, our best resume writers will guide you through the process of adding resume internships and share practical tips.
Write The Formal Title Company Location And Date Of Your Internship
As you list your internship, include the formal title you worked under. You can talk with your past internship supervisor to learn the formal name of your internship if it’s not already known. For example, if you served as an intern in a marketing company and created posts for their social media accounts, your title could be social media marketing intern.
Include your internship title, the date you served in the internship and where it was located.
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Positioning Your Internship On Your Resume
Recruiters have many resumes to consider, so it is best to ensure your key accomplishments stand out as headlines on your resume.
Internships, therefore, should not be placed at the bottom of your resume or be listed as a sub-section in the education section. They are valuable work experiences and should be highlighted appropriately.
If you are a young or established professional, internships should be included within your work experience or work history sections. Where you place your internship within your work history will depend on its significance and relevance to the role for which you are applying.
If an internship is the most relevant example of experience you have for a job role, then place it above your work history so it has prominence.
If you are a student or recent graduate and are relying on internships to illustrate your on-the-job experience, they should have their own internships section.
If you have a separate internships section, this should be placed above your educational information.
Finally, ensure the formatting on your internship entry matches the rest of the work experience or internships section and is consistent across your resume as a whole.
A resume with a uniform aesthetic creates a professional impression.
Where On Your Resume Should You Include Internship Experience
Again, this depends on what stage in your career you find yourself in.
If an internship is the only working experience in the field youre applying for, list it at the top of your CV, even above your education section. Experience is what matters most and what will make you stand out from the crowd of applicants.
On the other hand, if youve been in the workforce for some time already but still want to show off a flashy internship from your student years, put it closer to the bottom of your CV.
In this way you put less emphasis on it while still letting it illustrate your abilities. In this case, consider creating a separate section for full-time employment and then another one for internships only. But remember to only do this if the internship or the company were truly exceptional and well known in the field.
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Include An Additional Experience Section
Removing jobs from your resume can create gaps in your work history. A long period of inactivity is a red flag on a resume for hiring managers because it could mean your skills are outdated or that you were fired and had trouble re-entering the workforce.
A clever way to explain employment gaps on your resume is to add an additional experience section. An additional experience section gives you room to combine jobs that arent related to each other or list any unpaid work youve done.
When you describe your additional experience, be brief to save space, like this:
ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Lab Technician, Oakridge Facility, 0109/2020: Analyzed medical samples
- Intern, Milford Industries, 03/201707/2018: Researched and assisted senior lab technicians
How To Write A Resume For Internship With Examples
Writing a resume for internships is high-key stressful. We mean, lets face it. There is a lot at stake with that one little piece of paper. The right internship can serve as the launchpad of your career, allowing you to learn industry-relevant skills while expanding your professional network.
And then theres the stress of figuring out how to fill out a resume for an internship when you dont have much, if any, experience. Like, does knowing basic Excel functions count as a skill? Is your babysitting gig considered work experience? What about all the TikTok dance challenges you have been absolutely crushing lately? Those are pretty impressive, right?
We know that writing a resume for internships can be super challenging. Thats why weve put together a simple guide where we break down the internship resume writing process.
Ready to score the internship of your dreams? Read on to learn how to put together an impressive resume for internships that highlights your skills and achievements.
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Education On An Architecture Intern Resume
Make sure to make education a priority on your architecture intern resume.If youve been working for a few years and have a few solid positions to show, put your education after your architecture intern experience.For example, if you have a Ph.D in Neuroscience and a Master’s in the same sphere, just list your Ph.D. Besides the doctorate, Masters degrees go next, followed by Bachelors and finally, Associates degree.
Additional details to include:
- Year of graduation
- Location of school
These are the four additional pieces of information you should mention when listing your education on your resume.
How Much Other Work Experience Do You Have
This is a similar question to the one above but not identical. As you start gaining post-internship professional experience and entries about those jobs begin filling up your resume, youll have less and less space for internships.
But the number of roles youve had will vary. For example, say youre six years out of college and have worked full-time jobs at three different companies since then. Youll certainly want to include those three full-time experiences with a good amount of detail, leaving less space for your past internships. However, say youre six years into full-time work but have been at the same company the whole time. In this case, youll likely have more space on your resume to include some or all of your internships.
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Why You Should Include Internships On Your Resume
Often, recent graduates lack professional experience to highlight on their resumes, making it difficult for hiring managers to ascertain their preparedness for a role. Internship experience can demonstrate to prospective employers that you are dedicated and eager to learn.
By participating in internships while in college, recent graduates can signal to employers that they used their time wisely and learned outside the classroom. Whether a student took on a paid or unpaid internship, they still had the opportunity to put their learning into action and gain skills that can transfer to future roles.
Writing a resume as a student or recent graduate can feel frustrating, as it may be a struggle to create a resume that looks robust. For those early in their careers, adding internships to a resume can help show work ethic and professional experience.
Include Figures And Accomplishments
Along with job responsibilities, also list at least 1-2 accomplishments. You may argue that its hard to accomplish much during one- or two-months internship, yet, any tangible contribution or exceeding expectations can count as achievement. If you struggle identifying your contribution, talk to your intern supervisor and ask how your contribution helped the company. Ideally, your accomplishments should include figures and percentages.
For instance, if you sorted out the incoming correspondence and calls, you can write Handled customer calls with 90% issue resolution rate. If you ran the social media accounts of the business, say Increased the number of Facebook subscribers by 25% in one month. Such details that show your measurable contribution help you look as a potentially good hire for employers.
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Should You Even Include An Unpaid Internship On A Resume
The key to this question lies in the relevance of the internship. If you are applying to be a university professor, and you have completed an academic internship, then it should be listed.
Do not list internships which have nothing to do with the job you are applying for, especially if they were unpaid .
If the internship was very short-term, be aware that an employer may not be impressed by it. If you feel like its still worthy experience, then check out tips for the best way to format a one-month job on a resume.
If you have a lot of relevant paid working experience, then it would be best to not include the internship.
You neednt list every single experience on a resume, so only include the ones which are the most impressive.
Put Down Your Contact Information
Just like the name suggests, the first thing you add to your header is your personal and contact information.
Its the easiest part to get right, just keep it short and to the point.
In your contact information section, mention the following:
- First and Last Name
- A link to a professional profile or personal webpage
Make sure to use a professional-sounding E-mail.
I.e. something along the lines of
Youre sure to leave a wrong impression if you use an email you created back in preschool .
Pro Tip
Make sure to double-check, triple-check your contact information. After all, the recruiter cant contact you if you have a typo in your phone number.
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Your Goals And Objectives
Start by introducing yourself and your professional goals. Briefly describe what you wish to achieve professionally and with the organisation you are applying for.
Here is an example of a brief but effective introduction:
Self-motivated journalism student seeking internship opportunities in content writing. Interested in honing creative-writing and critical-thinking skills to contribute to an organisations business objectives while gaining valuable experience in the media industry.