This article is going to discuss how to go about writing resumes for college internships. But first it's worth mentioning that working with a college intern is an absolutely wonderful experience. We've worked with several interns over the years, and interacted with many more.
It's a positively win-win situation, because the intern gets some very valuable work experience, and the hiring company gets a college-educated individual at bargain prices. Internships also allow companies, and college students, to evaluate each other. The company gets to figure out if they might want to hire the intern after graduation, and the intern gets to figure out their likes and dislikes in the working world.
Resume Formats for Internships
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The structure of an intern's resume is very much like that of a college student. In fact, that particular article is used as the basis for this one. It would be unusual that someone looking for a job as an intern would have a lot of work experience. This lack of experience really places a limit on the type of resume that will highlight the strengths of the candidate while not exposing a weakness.
There are three resume styles in use today: chronological, functional, and combination. Both the chronological and combination styles feature a listing of former job titles and places of employment. In most situations, these two resume formats are not effective for an intern.
Functional Style
From this point forward, the assumption is going to be an intern doesn't have a lot of significant work experience. Under these circumstances, the functional resume format is the most effective style to use. If, for some reason, an intern has a great deal of experience, take a look at the two alternative resume formats previously mentioned.
A functional resume emphasizes the job candidate's skills and achievements, which can include college coursework. It also deemphasizes where the candidate has worked in the past. Generally, that's the combination that an intern, or a college student, is looking for when writing a resume.
Example Resume for Interns
Everyone starts in the same place. That is to say, everyone has a first job or very little experience to write about at one time in their career. Nearly every hiring manager has been through exactly what an intern is going through, so they can empathize. This fact can be used to an advantage by letting the written document emphasize what has been learned along the way.
It's also important to stay connected to the school's career center. Think of it this way. A student goes to college to get a better job when they graduate. That's the primary benefit of attending school. It only makes sense that colleges are very interested in placing their students in permanent positions and internships.
It's also important to stay tapped into friends and family and use networking skills. Whenever we hired an intern, it was either through a personal recommendation or by working with a local college's career center.
Sample Resume
While background information is useful to understand, an example can illustrate the strength of this approach. The following is a link to a downloadable Word document in the functional format: Sample Resume for Internships.
Resume Writing Resources
The sample provided communicates the most critical information in a very simple manner. The functional resume allows even inexperienced workers to present their skills and knowledge in a professional and organized fashion.
For anyone looking to learn more about this topic, this website also contains a number of resume writing resources on subjects such as how to write a resume as well as additional resume writing samples.
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