Internship Resume Templates | Complete Guide and Examples

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Resume Help
You’ve found your go-to place for the best internship resume templates! If you’re ready to test the waters with an internship, you’ll need an impressive resume. Our complete guide will help you through every step of the resume-writing process.
Premium Internship Resume Templates
Our premium internship templates are your best option because of their practical yet stylish designs. Customizing these templates to your liking is easier than ever when using our Resume Builder.
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Free Internship Resume Templates
These free downloadable templates have sleek and professional designs perfect for internships in a wide range of industries. Check out the collection below!
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Internship Resume Template 1
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Internship Resume Template 2
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Internship Resume Template 3
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Internship Resume Template 4
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Internship Resume Template 5
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Internship Resume Template 6
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Internship Resume Template 7
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Internship Resume Template 8
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Internship Resume Template 9
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Internship Resume Template 10
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Internship Resume Template 11
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Internship Resume Template 12
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Internship Resume Template 13
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Internship Resume Template 14
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Internship Resume Template 15
What Is an Internship?
An internship is a great opportunity for students or recent graduates to get real work experience in a safe learning environment. Internships last a limited amount of time and usually aren’t remunerated with monetary pay, though some are. However, internships help students get ready to enter the workforce without the added pressure of a real job.
As a student, an internship is your chance to master your professional skills beyond the theory you’ve learned in school. Likewise, being in a work environment will help you develop key communication and collaboration skills.
Think of this as your chance to see for the first time what goes on behind the scenes, what the industry’s culture is and if you truly see yourself enjoying the work.
Since internships don’t guarantee you’ll get a job offer, networking is one of the best things you can get from an internship. Take advantage of the people you meet to connect with potential business partners, mentors or future clients!
How to Write an Internship Resume
This complete guide will teach you how to craft an impressive resume you can use to apply to any internship. As an internship candidate, you’ll most likely be a student or recent graduate, meaning work experience might be limited. One of your advantages will be the new set of skills you’re ready to put into practice. Make sure you highlight these skills in your resume.
Let’s begin!
1. Choose the right format for your internship resume.
The three main resume formats are the chronological, functional and combination formats.
The chronological resume is the most widely known and used resume format. Its most important section is the work history, which is organized in reverse-chronological order. Only internship candidates who have had plenty of previous internships, fellowships or other professional experience should use this format.
If you lack traditional work experience, you should consider using the functional resume format. This format is especially ideal for internship candidates since it allows you to showcase all your valuable skills even if you didn’t learn them through a traditional job.
The combination resume format, as the name suggests, combines the strengths of both the chronological and functional formats. If you have a really impressive set of skills and some limited work experience, seriously consider this format. It balances out the focus between the two so you don’t feel like you’re disregarding one of those assets.
2. Showcase your skills.
The skills section is an essential part of any resume, but particularly so for internship resumes. Skills are your main assets, and nothing is better than having diversified assets, which is why you should always include a mix of soft, hard and technical skills.
Soft skills are innate to you and describe how you work. For example, some soft skills that an intern should have are initiative, teamwork, and the ability to work under pressure
Hard skills consist of abilities you have acquired through education, training or practical experience. Most of your hard skills will pertain to your particular line of work, but a few examples are copywriting, sales skills, data visualization or market research. However, hard skills — like all types of skills — can be transferable
Technical skills have to do with technology and digital tools, for example, expertise in MS Office and proficiency in Adobe software programs. In today’s world, there is rarely a job that doesn’t require you to have some sort of technical skills, and young interns are expected to be savvier than more senior employers.
Transferable skills can be used across industries, no matter the type of job. You could have developed sales skills during a summer job at the mall, but you can transfer that knowledge to your new internship at a construction company when working with clients.
Some common skills an intern could include are:
- Collaboration
- Time management
- Communication skills
- Ability to work under pressure
- Interpersonal skills
- Initiative
- Hardworking
- Problem-solving
- Critical thinking
- Organization
- Research skills
- Analytical skills
- Presentation skills
- Computer skills
- Proficient in spreadsheets
When it comes to formatting your skills section, you’ll need to use your resume format as a guide. On chronological resumes, a bulleted list of skills will suffice.
On functional resumes, however, the skills section is expanded with three to four bullet points describing instances that show your skill expertise — much like how you would format a work history section.
Combination resumes showcase more than one skills section and these tend to be located primarily on the first half of the resume.
A straightforward way to write your expanded skills section in a functional or combination resume is to use this formula: Your action + Who benefitted + Measured result. For example, a legal intern could include problem-solving as one of their main skills, and format it as such:
Problem-solving:
- Worked with community to increase local firm’s presence and assisted partners with reputation management and branding.
- Promoted firm’s value and brand, and researched legal market to target 20 new accounts.
- Maintained and grew firm’s local presence within community by organizing events with an increased assistance of 18%.
3. Create a resume objective.
The summary statement or resume objective is your first presentation to your potential employer. Both share a similar purpose but go about it in different ways.
The resume objective, which we recommend for entry-level or less experienced candidates, lets the employer know your career goals in a passive yet clear voice.
The summary statement, on the other hand, is written in an active voice and portrays the candidate’s skills as solutions to the company’s needs.
Although in most cases, we will recommend a summary statement, a career objective is a better tool if you want to convey how you view your career progressing.
A successful resume objective will show employers you have a clear vision and the game plan to achieve it — which is why you’re applying for an internship with them in the first place.
Here’s an example of a summary statement and a resume objective so you can decide which one works better for your particular case.
Resume Objective:
Hardworking Accounting & Finance student with experience in budgeting and accurately correcting discrepancies. Eager to experience working in a fast-paced environment and receive valuable insight from a wide range of finance professionals.
Summary Statement:
Diligent Accounting Intern and Senior student with 4.0 GPA. Skilled in accounting software, knowledgeable of accounting principles, with excellent mathematical skills. Proactive, resourceful and a natural problem-solver.
4. Display your education and training.
If your career history is not as strong as your skills, you can use the education section to give extra support to those skills. Just remember to keep it relevant and brief.
You should include the name and location of your university or educational institution, your major and the type of degree obtained. If you recently graduated, you can add your GPA if it is 3.5 or above.
Feel free to include relevant seminars, workshops and courses if they validate a skill.
Normally, you should include dates in this section, but it is not mandatory. You can leave them out if ageism is a concern.
Here’s an example of an education resume section:
5. Include relevant work experience.
Although it’s understandable for interns not to have any work experience in their field, that doesn’t mean you need to leave this section blank.
Generally, you should include only paid jobs in your work history. However, if you don’t have enough experience, you can add volunteer work or university internships. Adding unpaid work can also help if the activities relate to the job you want.
If you’re working with a functional or combination resume format, you can opt for a reduced work history section, which only includes your job title, company or institution, and the dates of employment. Your most important achievements can be moved to a relevant skills section instead.
However, in a chronological resume, the work history is expanded with bullet points that detail your duties and accomplishments in each experience.
Here’s how a simple work history section would look like for an architecture intern’s functional resume:
6. Be strategic with your contact information.
A modern contact information resume section should be brief and practical. Long gone are the days when you needed to include your full address. You just need to mention the city where you’re based, your phone number and a professional-sounding email address.
Depending on your industry, you can include your professional social media accounts, LinkedIn profile or your portfolio. Remember that you’ll be sending this resume through email, so as a PDF your recruiter will be able to browse your links without issue.
Here’s a contact information example:
Jeremy Mullins
Chicago, IL
My Portfolio
example@example.com
555-555-5555
7. Pick a template.
As an intern, you’re expected to bring a fresh outlook to your work. You want your customizable resume template to convey that you’re a savvy professional that’s in on the current industry trends.
Besides style, your resume should also be practical, so pick a template that you can easily customize to your needs, for example, one where you can include extra sections for your relevant coursework, certifications, association memberships, and more.
If you want to see other templates than the ones on this page, check out our complete resume templates collection.
Create a Cover Letter for Your Internship
An excellent way to boost your chances of getting that internship is by writing a cover letter. A cover letter is used to share your professional capabilities in a more personal manner.
For an intern candidate, a cover letter is a way to communicate how you’ve developed yourself throughout your education, extracurricular activities and even hobbies. For example, you could describe your contribution to any school projects or your participation in intercollegiate academic competitions.
Writing a full page of content might seem like a lot of work, but that’s why we created Hloom’s Cover Letter Builder. It facilitates the cover letter writing process by taking your information, desired role and working style to craft a personalized letter. All you have to do is edit it to include your specific achievements and experiences.
How to Find Internship Opportunities
Applying to internships is a highly competitive process. Being successful will require you to apply to multiple intern opportunities. Finding the right internships is no easy task, but we’ve compiled some tips that will help you find your dream internship:
Get in touch with your college career services center.
Most colleges will have an office where students can connect with internships or job opportunities. Your counselors will take into account your degree, years of education and personal interests to accurately match you with an employer. These career services centers also offer free resources such as resume reviews and workshops for tackling the application and interview processes.
Network constantly.
These days networking is the name of the game. Creating organic individual connections with potential employers is much more impactful than submitting a standard job application. Browse LinkedIn and social media to connect with professionals with trajectories you want to emulate. Websites like Internships.com, InternMatch.io and WayUp are great places to research for internships all over the U.S. and abroad.
Contact businesses related to your field.
An excellent way to get an internship is by directly messaging businesses in your area where you can develop your professional skills. Send an email to your local business! Every town will most likely have a legal or financial firm, an advertising agency or a construction company, for example. Craft a well-written message offering to be their intern. Include your resume and cover letter — that initiative is sure to get you some callbacks.
Attend online career fairs.
Despite face-to-face career fairs no longer being a viable option during the coronavirus pandemic, employers have moved toward virtual hiring events. Platforms like Handshake and KForce, and universities are offering a virtual space to connect employers and students with internship opportunities.
You should prepare yourself for these fairs much as you would an in-person recruitment event. Dress sharp, have your resume ready to send, and do your research and background checks on the companies that will be attending so you’re ready to impress.
Start your search early.
A lot of internships follow universities’ schedules because the bulk of their candidates will be studying simultaneously. Just like applying for college, you need to be ahead of the deadline by up to six months. If you know you want to intern during a particular semester, be sure to start searching and applying beforehand. Otherwise, their limited spots will fill out and you’ll be left without an internship until the next semester.
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FAQ
How do I put an internship experience on my resume?
You can include internships in your resume in your work history section just like you would do a regular job. Include the name of the position, the company where you interned and its location, add the dates of the internship’s duration, and you’re good to go. If you already have a work history section that’s pretty extensive and exclusively includes paying jobs, you should instead add a custom section where you include all your internship experiences.
How do I write a resume for an internship with no experience?
If you have no experience and you’re writing a resume for an internship, it’s crucial you use a resume format that highlights your skills, like a functional or a combination resume format. You will follow all the same steps in this how-to guide, but be extra diligent in incorporating skills throughout your resume sections: work history, summary statement or resume objective and multiple skills sections. Writing a resume with no experience doesn’t have to be a daunting task, it only takes a small shift of perspective to make your resume shine.
What do employers look for in an intern?
What employers look for in an intern is primarily the enthusiasm to learn and the motivation to tackle any challenge that comes your way. You definitely want to have the right education, a good GPA and extracurriculars that show you’re prepared for the job. However, passion and dedication are qualities that can’t be precisely conveyed through a resume. Employers want their interns to have great work ethic, have flexibility, be dependable, and be able to work independently. These are the skills and qualities that make an ideal intern, which is someone who’s first and foremost open and eager to learn.
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Gabriela Barcenas
Gaby is Hloom’s resident writer, a certified professional resume writer (CPRW), and a baking enthusiast. She likes to defend the use of the functional resume to her friends in HR. She graduated from the University of San Francisco with a B.A. in English and Creative Writing and wrote about career growth, tech startups, education, fashion, travel and lifestyle culture throughout her career.
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