How to write an internship resume. Writing guide + examples

Internships offer invaluable experience and a leg up in the job-hunting race for soon-to-be college graduates and professionals in the middle of a career pivot. But before you reap the benefits, you need to apply and get accepted as the best candidate. An internship resume can help with that. But what do you write when you have no relevant job experience and no completed degree? We’re here to answer all your questions, guide you through the writing process, and provide templates and examples for your inspiration.

What is an internship resume?

Just like any other resume, an internship resume is a part of an application for a position with a certain business. The critical difference between an internship and a regular resume is its contents. Most internship applicants do not possess much experience, and their degrees are often in progress. As a result, the major sections of the resume are somewhat different from what you traditionally see in job applications.

Instead of highlighting past positions, make your internship resume focus on your skills and achievements in academic, professional, volunteer, or extracurricular activities. A good resume should reflect your excitement about the position, as well as your drive and experiences that may be useful for the business or organization.

At the same time, remember that a resume is not a personal statement or a cover letter. It should provide dates and objective, verifiable data. If you want to go into detail about some of your skills and experiences, you can do so in a cover letter or during an interview.

Writing tip from SpeedyPaper

How to write an internship resume

Let’s go through the main stages of completing your resume from scratch in five simple steps. Completing them in order should help you beat writer’s block and achieve a winning resume in no time. If you have more questions about how to write a statement of purpose or a cover letter, check out other entries in the SpeedyPaper blog.

Analyze the position posting

You cannot write an internship resume until you learn everything there is to know about the position, company, and its mission and values. Take the time to break down the internship posting to seek keywords to include in your resume. You can also use the company’s mission statement, strategic objectives, and values to build your application around.

Writing tip from SpeedyPaper

Once you have a good grasp of the requirements, brainstorm your skills and qualifications to be the focus of your resume. You want something that fits the position requirements but also makes you the best candidate for the job. Take your time and jot down every example that comes to mind. Even if you don’t use them all in one resume, they may come in handy in your future applications.

Touch base with potential references

If you have friends, relatives, professors, or acquaintances who work within the field, contact them for advice and recommendations. As they know the industry better than you do, they may possess insights you can sneak into the resume, cover letter, or interview. It can give you a leg up against other candidates.

Alternatively, use your contacts as potential references, listing their contact details at the bottom of the resume. But remember to ask your contacts for their permission to list them and their details and ensure they know you well enough and have something good to say about you in a professional capacity. College professors, sports team coaches, volunteer supervisors, and other people in positions of authority make for the best references.

Focus on relevant strengths

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with an internship resume is to write it like an autobiography, listing everything you’ve ever done or learned. Most hiring managers will ignore such applications. Instead, you need to focus on your knowledge, skills, and experience relevant to the position you want to fill and leave everything else for other job or internship applications.

For instance, your babysitting jobs prove you’re trustworthy and capable of dealing with human charges. That would fit a nursing or medical internship well or a position in a nursing home. However, such experience would not be applicable in non-human-facing positions, like data processing or web development. For these, you’d be better off citing your Math club membership or your high scores in STEM classes.

Fill in the blanks

As you’ll notice in the resume template below, there are many sections for you to fill, but that doesn’t mean you should give up if you don’t have relevant job experience or education. Internships are all about your future career, and that’s what you should focus on. Instead of using generic stock phrases, hone in on your specific duties, skills, or achievements.

The best examples of your qualifications should include metrics that demonstrate your abilities. For instance, if you worked in a fast food restaurant, describe how many customers you could serve within 60 minutes during the lunch rush hour. It will be a good demonstration of your ability to work under pressure and remain highly productive even with repetitive tasks. Both skills are handy in many industries, from nursing to data analytics and software engineering.

Writing tip from SpeedyPaper

Edit and proofread the resume

Nothing screams your claims of “attention to detail” are lies like leaving a bunch of typos and errors in your internship resume. Besides, it’s just unprofessional and rude. So, take the time to carefully look over the finished application and tweak anything that seems out of place. It’s time to reconsider word choice, remove repetitions, and add more substance.

Use advanced software like Grammarly for proofreading, or ask a friend (or a professional editor) to help you catch pesky typos. Finally, when you’re sure you won’t be messing with the resume anymore, format it to fit the internship posting requirements and submit it for consideration.

What is the best internship resume format?

The best format for writing your internship resume is the one that lands you the desired position. If the posting ad specifies a format, you should follow it to a letter, or your application will be ignored. For instance, if the company requires you to fill out an online form and upload your resume in PDF, do not email a DOCX file to a hiring manager.

One page is the perfect length for an internship resume. Longer applications will likely be ignored, especially if they are full of filler words. You can use a standard text processor format with 0.5 to 1-inch margins on all sides, legible font like 12 pt Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri, and bullet points to break up the text and make it readable.

You can also use one of the many online templates to write an internship resume but avoid overcomplicated layouts. Many employers rely on applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes, and your application can be rejected if the format is too incomprehensible for the processing algorithm.

Writing tip from SpeedyPaper

Basic internship resume template

Although SpeedyPapaer experts specialize in online homework help, they deal with enough resumes, CVs, and cover letters to come up with the best internship resume template you’ll find below:

• Contact information

1. Your name
2. Address
3. Phone number
4. Email, social media accounts

• Objective statement

1. Brief introduction
2. Position you’re applying for
3. Career goals

• Skills

1. Professional skills
2. Transferrable skills

• Education

1. Highest academic achievements
2. Relevant courses or topics

• Job experience

1. Positions and organizations
2. Duties and completed tasks

• Achievements

1. Volunteer work
2. Sports
3. Extracurriculars

• Extra details

1. Language skills
2. Awards
3. Hobbies and interests

• References (optional)

This template is highly customizable, as you can leave out the sections that don’t apply to your circumstance. For instance, you may omit past job experience if you have none, but include your college professors as references. The only must-have segments are your contact information, objective statement, and your skills.

Writing tip from SpeedyPaper

Internship resume example

SpeedyPaper experts who help writing paper assignments crafted this example to ensure you have a better grasp of our advice. When reading this sample, remember everything you’ve learned about resume writing. Notice how it uses some of the template elements and leaves out others.

Jane Doe

157, West Avenue

San Francisco, 12345

(012)3456789

[email protected]

Objective

Creative and driven Business Administration with a focus on digital marketing is seeking an entry-level internship position to apply my understanding of social media marketing trends and create compelling campaigns for products and services. I would appreciate the chance to enhance my experience in testing hypotheses and analyzing the results of marketing campaigns based on quantitative metrics to increase their ROI.

Skills

• Microsoft Office Suite
• Basic graphic design in Photoshop
• Marketing campaign design for Instagram and TikTok
• Analytical, evidence-based decision-making
• Frictionless team collaboration
• Fast skill acquisition and transfer
• Effective task prioritization

Education

Arizona State University, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, 2021 to present

• Expected graduation — June 2025
• 3.8 GPA
• Focus on online and social media marketing

Relevant classes:

• Market research and consumer behavior
• Pricing models and strategy
• Marketing analysis
• Marketing channels
• Advertising and integrated marketing communications

Languages

English — primary language

Spanish — fluent

French — conversational

As you can see, this template focuses on academic achievements and skills rather than past job experience. In this case, you want to highlight specific classes and grades relevant to the position. Language skills are further evidence of the candidate’s academic prowess, as well as their ability to work on international marketing campaigns aimed at different audiences. Participation in group projects and specific examples of campaigns and their results would make this resume even better and provide evidence for some of the skills listed at the beginning.

Final thoughts

If you follow our advice, you’ll end up with an impressive internship resume that will boost your chances of getting your dream position. Still, sometimes, no number of tutorials, templates, and samples can help, especially if you’re short on time and out of energy and inspiration. If that’s the case, you can always buy resume online from expert writers at SpeedyPaper. Our writers will analyze your requirements and come up with a compelling resume, even on short notice. You can download the finished piece within 24 hours of placing the order.

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