8 Ways to Translate an Internship onto Your Resume
You’ve had a great internship and now want to add the experience to your resume. Here are some important tips to make sure you make the most of your experience on paper.
- During your internship, keep a list of everything you do. When you update your resume, this list will help you make sure you don’t forget to add all of your skills and accomplishments.
- Put your most recent internship experience first on your resume under the work experience section (reverse chronological order).
- The heading for this entry should include the company/organization name, your position title, the location of the company/organization, and the date range you worked as an intern.
- Highlight relevant experience and major responsibilities.
- Include three or four bullet points for each experience describing in detail any specific duties/opportunities, not forgetting to showcase responsibilities and achievements.
- Include action/key words that highlight your skills/accomplishments/responsibilities. Skip using the passive voice. You did some great work, so make it shine with verbs like oversaw, managed, coordinated, and maintained. Did you meet specific goals? Share them as well.
- Focus on the duties that are most relevant to the position you are interested in now. You could write the description in a paragraph or outline your experience with a bullet list. If you create a bullet list, arrange the duties in order of relevance.
- Create a section below your work experience that describes skills you might have gained from the internship. These could include language proficiency, specialty software or database training, knowledge of a particular protocol or process, familiarity with government policy or regulation in your career field. These descriptions show how you made the most of your experience and help potential employers determine the kind of training you may need should you be hired.
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