Intern Resumes & Writing Guide

If you are looking for a foot-in-the-door into your first full-time job, becoming an Intern is one of your best options. Furthermore, the more internships you have under your belt, the more attractive you will look to potential employers.

The only obstacle standing in your way, however, is a large amount of competition. Luckily for you, we know what hiring managers want to see and how a professional Intern’s resume should look.

Start by reading through our Intern resume samples. An Internship resume should focus on your transferable skills, education, and other abilities rather than your work experience. This may seem daunting, but we are here to help.

Your goal is to ensure that your resume stands out from other applicants by being both informative and entertaining to read, all without overwhelming the recruiter or hiring manager with irrelevant information.

Intern Resume Examples

(Free sample downloads are at the bottom of this page)

Internship Resume Writing Guide

Resume Sections:

  1. Contact information
  2. Profile Summary
  3. Work History 
  4. Achievements
  5. Education 
  6. Skill Section
  7. Certification & Licensing
  8. Extras: Languages/Awards/Publications/Volunteering/hobbies

What to Highlight in an Internship Resume

You are likely writing this resume while you are in the process of completing an undergraduate bachelor’s degree and are tempted to include your theoretical knowledge. There are, however, several essential details that hiring managers need to see in an applicant’s resume to ascertain if you are the right fit for their team or not.

Firstly, you need to list the internships you have already completed. Internships are classified as follows:

  • Paid Internships
  • Credit Internships
  • Externships
  • Nonprofit Internships
  • Service-Learning Internships
  • Summer Internships

When you have categorized your internships, you are required to indicate the industry that these internships took place. Interns can work in any number of industries and positions; you need to be specific. The type of industry areas you worked in need to be included in your summary at the beginning of your resume and within each position description.

Secondly, employers want to see that you are a hardworking, responsible individual that grabs every opportunity with open arms. You can show them this by including your casual work experience. Examples include being a math tutor, helping at your local school, and working at a local farmers' market. The more information you can include, the better. This shows that you used your time effectively while at high school and college, besides just partying!

Lastly, you need to include the following information:

  • The areas you are happy to work in and if you are happy to travel or relocate temporarily.
  • List any special skills and qualities you have that will benefit the field you want to work in. For example, if you want to go into marketing, mention that you have a YouTube channel, or if you are interested in accounting, mention that you are familiar with Accpac.
  • Include any written references from past employees. These add serious credibility to your resume.
  • Your GPA score.
  • Your computer literacy is important and can look very impressive. Mention if you are competent using Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, Oracle, Excel, and Visual Studio.

1. Contact information

  • First Name and Last Name
  • Email
  • Physical Address
  • LinkedIn (optional)

2. Career Objectives & Summary

Many organizations receive thousands of applications from students looking for Intern positions.. As you are applying for an internship, you won’t make use of the normal Career Summary suited to candidates with permanent working experience. However, your resume needs to be of the highest standard to stand out from the rest and give you the best chance of securing an interview

One of the best ways to do this from the get-go, is with a well-written career objective paragraph. You need to keep your career objective concise and to the point. The aim is to provide a short introduction of who you are and what you have to offer. Your career objective should be placed at the top of your resume, right after your contact information.

The first part of your objective needs to highlight the person you are and your interests.

Next, list the degree you are in the process of completing, and lastly, finish off with why you want to land an Internship with this company. You will quickly learn that the job description is like your cheat sheet.

It contains all the information you need to create a captivating resume. Read through the job description and outline the specific qualities and skills the employer is looking for.

Integrate these into your career objective and throughput your resume (if you have them). Remember to include any outstanding qualities you possess, such as effective time management or excellent people skills.

Examples:

Intern Summary 1

Recent Bachelor of Digital Marketing graduate seeking an internship that will provide the opportunity to add value to (insert company name) by applying theoretical knowledge into practice. Eager to learn the ins and outs of the advertisement field. Previous vocational experience with social media channel set up and blogging has been gained during university as part of the Campus Newspaper team.

Intern Summary 2

A Dynamic Political Science Major would appreciate the opportunity to learn and develop as an intern at the international business's federal office. Fluent in Dutch, Spanish, German and Italian with a working knowledge of French.

Intern Summary 3

Current Dean’s List student (3.8 GPA) motivated to learn the ropes in a community-oriented healthcare clinic. Fast learner and a hard worker with a keen interest in community healthcare, specifically focused on children from low-income communities.

Intern Summary 4

Motivated and creative Graphic Design student seeking to apply design skills, writing skills, and social media experience into an experience-building internship at PeDac Graphic Design Studios.

Intern Summary 5

Seeking an internship position that will allow for the exploration of career choices in the IT environment.. An enthusiastic, hardworking graduate student with majors in computer and data science. Worked in the computer center, tutored undergraduates, and completed advanced data analytics projects relevant to this internship position.

3. Employment History

If you are applying for a job as an intern, you likely have very limited experience. Do not stress though, hiring managers understand this but still expect to see some form of experience.

The more experience even if part-time, vocational or informal you can include, the better your chances of landing an internship. This is also one of the only times you can include your previous jobs unrelated to your internship field. Simply adding jobs to your resume will show that you are hardworking and responsible. These jobs can include any volunteer work or nonprofit work you have done.

The main difference between an undergraduate’s resume and a postgraduate’s resume is the amount of internship experience. As you complete an internship, add it to your resume so that by the time you are ready to find your first job, your resume is filled with relevant experience. We recommend that you use reverse chronological order when listing your internship and employment history.

Intern Resume Examples:

Internship at Coke

February 2014 – December 2018

Acted as one of two within the extruder research group developing waterborne dispersions for two and three-component polymer systems to be used in future food-grade metal coatings.

  • Developed an extensive report comprising of two years’ worth of experimental data to be used as a project management tool.
  • Cleaned, maintained, and assembled the extruder and its auxiliary parts and implemented the frequent calibration of liquid feed pumps and solid feed hoppers.
  • Aided in a frequent pipe and compression fitting replacement, consulted on liquid heating system re-design and heat pump installation for improved experiment reproducibility.
Internship at Pepsi

February 2013 – January 2017

Worked side by side with the administration of the LGBT Center to ensure that the daily functions of the center run smoothly.

  • Created daily reports when activities take place at the center and when groups visit.
  • Created the first-ever Philanthropic Packet that can be distributed online and in person to raise funds for different events for the LGBT Center throughout the year.
  • Assisted the planning of weekly and monthly functions of the LGBT Center.
  • Sent out emails about several events and news coverages that involved the LGBT center to individuals.

Job Descriptions Examples

During your previous internships, some tasks and responsibilities were given to you. These could be daily duties or spur-of-the-moment requests. Either way, your future employer wants to see these duties and responsibilities to gauge how competent you are. There are hundreds of different internships out there, so we have only provided a few below so that you can get the basic idea.

A Marketing Intern may:

  • Collect qualitative and quantitative data to prepare for market studies and analytics.
  • Analyze competitors.
  • Complete several admin duties such as phone handling, social media marketing, email filtering, moderation services, content writing, updating the CRM, and copywriting.
  • Preparing draft presentation materials for the pormotions and  marketing team using PowerPoint slides.
  • > See out Marketing Intern Resumes & Guide

A Graphic Design Intern may:

  • Assist in the organization of project details and client files.
  • Design Facebook adverts with click-through rates and sign-ups statistics.
  • Assist with designing marketing collateral, such as presentations, email newsletters, and social media campaigns.
  • Develop website icons and graphics.
  • Edit and proofread documents before they are published online or printed.
  • Coordinatining and presentining print requirements and specifications with various vendors and third parties.
  • Monitor project deadlines.

A Politics Intern may:

  • Aid the clerical staff by overhauling their filing system from paper-based to digital.
  • Manage the office's supply inventory and oversee the ordering of sundries such as stationery, IT Equipment, groceries, and office machinery.
  • Coordinating social media accounts for the Campaigns office on Facebook and Instagram and send out planned messages approved by staff.
  • Organize Twitter outreach campaigns to improve fundraising efforts.
  • Ensure that brochures, pamphlets, signage boards, and other promotional materials are printed and collected.

A Business Management Intern may:

  • Assist with general office work in HR and operational departments.
  • Help write up policies and procedures.
  • Read through production reports and compare them to the financial reports.
  • Assist with the safety documentation update on the company system.
  • Check sales reports to ensure that they are accurate.
  • Writing and proofreading company information emails to staff.
  • Ensure that every new employee is registered on the staff database and issue access cards to those that require them.
  • Printomg and binding documentation for weekly management meetings.
  • Develop and improve user procedures and documentation for management systems.

A General Office Intern may:

  • Answering phone inquiries, take messages and direct calls.
  • Schedule travel arrangements of directors.
  • Receiving and posting packages and registered letters from couriers.
  • Take minutes and distributing notes after meetings.
  • Ensure that database and filing systems are maintained.
  • Oversee general errands and provide basic company information.
  • Print, photocopy, and bind documents for company presentations.
  • Assist in the preparation of data and information materials; create and maintain PowerPoint presentations.
  • Preparing and organizinging conference rooms.
  • Ordeing food, beverages and liquor for teambuilding sessions and company events.

A Healthcare Intern may:

  • Interact with patients to collect medical history relating to previous hospital visits, family medical history, and insurance information for the leading physician.
  • Assist physicians with logistical tasks such as restocking supplies, pulling up radiology images, and preparing patient files.
  • Organize emergency patients in order of severity.
  • Follow up on outstanding patient accounts.
  • Accompany medical personnel during hospital rounds.
  • Show families into the family waiting room while patients are in surgery.

4. Accomplishments

Many people believe that they can simply copy and paste their accomplishments section from one resume to the next for each job they apply for. This is something we strongly recommended that you do not fall victim to. This will merely prove to the potential employer that you have not taken the time and effort to read through the job description and result in your resume being overlooked.

Once you have read through the job description, your goal should be to figure out how you can stand out from other applicants. Think about your most impressive accomplishments and achievements that make you proud.
Examples:

  • Flat, Simple Duty: Updated the client database.
  • Accomplishment Statement: Updated the database of 6000 clients using MS Access. Categorize d the data following client demographics.

Quantifying Your Resume

Above we showed you an example of how important it is to quantify your accomplishments. It does not end at your accomplishments; you need to quantify every statement you make throughout your resume. If you find it tricky to add numbers (quantify) your information, simply ask yourself if your statements can answer the following questions: “How often?” or “How long?”. See the examples below:

  • How many internship gigs have you done?
  • What was the duration of your internships?
  • “Part of a group of interns at the communications office for the Miami Counties Healthcare Association. Influential in facilitating the weekly Q&A session between management, employees and members of the association and handled all  correspondence before and following these events.”
  • “Developed three new websites for the California State University's marketing, engineering, and medical faculties within a period of three months.
  • Coordinated weekly schedules for a childcare center with more than 60 employees and close to 400 children.
  • Researched and evaluated the implementation of 35 housing policies and interpreted zoning code regulations for all jurisdictions in the nine regions.

5. Education Section

You likely have some work experience but very little experience in the field you wish to work in. Relax, this is not totally the end of the world; employers understand this and pay more attention to your education section.

We recommend that you put your education section above your experience section. This will allow the reader to view the more impressive information first.

When listing your academic qualifications, mention projects and coursework you did relate to the field you wish to work in.

Furthermore, remember to include information that the job description is looking for.

Most students applying for an internship have not yet finished their studies. Below we have shown you how to list your qualifications, despite not having completed them yet:

Examples:

2015-2017 – Bachelor of Business Management & Administration, Texas State University, TX

2014 – Ridgefield High School, High School Diploma Ridgefield, NJ

2014 – Certificate in Microsoft Office, Udemy Online

6. Skills

When writing a resume for an Internship position, your technical skills and soft skills are equally as important to employers. Your technical skills refer to the physical duties you can do. Your soft skills refer to your personality traits and the interpersonal skills you have to offer.

The job description will outline certain technical and soft skills that the company requires of its Interns. Integrate these key skills throughout your resume to tailor it to what the reader is looking for.

Technical Aptitude:

  • Today, Interns need to be digitally savvy. Ensure that you include all the IT programs you can work with. Furthermore, mention any calendar apps, project management tools, and collaboration apps, such as Slack and Asana, you are competent with.
  • When including your skills, keep the type of internship that you are applying for in mind. For example, if you write columns in the school newspaper, mention your ability to write well and your competency with different writing platforms.

Soft Skill Examples

Social OrientationTeam PlayerReliable
HardworkingCommunicationIndependent
Stress ToleranceMultitaskingEnthusiastic
DiplomaticAccountableDeadline Driven
EnergeticCollaborativeCooperative

7. Qualifications & Certifications associated with Interns

BachelorMasters
Doctorate DegreesCertificates
DiplomasAssociate

Action Verbs for your Internship Resume

CoordinatingSchedulingAssisting
CheckingProblem SolvingImproving
OrganizingPreparingLearning
CommunicatingListeningPrioritizing

Optional Extras for Internship Resumes:

In a last attempt to stand out, include an optional extras section where you can include additional information about yourself. Include areas such as:

  1. Volunteer Work – These experiences may seem irrelevant, but outreach into the poorer communities is an attractive work to employers.
  2. Certifications – This will make your education section even more attractive and help make you stand out from the competition.
  3. Languages – The ability to communicate well in another language gives you a huge advantage over other applicants.
  4. Hobbies, Activities, & Interests – Including relevant activities and interests allows the reader to see your leadership qualities and further gauge the type of person you are.

Professional information of Interns

Sectors: Various
Career Type: Functional, Clerical, Administrative
Person type:  Worker, Helper, Assistant
Education levels: Bachelor’s Degree and upwards
Salary indication: Average of $39 219 per annum (Glassdoor)
Labor market: Totally dependent on industries
Organizations: Various, Unlimited

Download our Intern Resume for free