How to Put an Internship on Your Resume

Finding a job directly out of college can feel challenging as students compete against others with similar backgrounds and work experience. Completing internships and listing them on a resume can help job-seekers stand out from the competition — if done correctly.

Learn how to highlight skills and knowledge gained through these experiences in a way that catches the attention of hiring managers.

Often, recent graduates lack professional experience to highlight on their resumes, making it difficult for hiring managers to ascertain their preparedness for a role. Internship experience can demonstrate to prospective employers that you are dedicated and eager to learn.

By participating in internships in college, recent grads can signal to employers that they used their time wisely and learned outside the classroom. Whether a student took on a paid or unpaid internship, they still had the opportunity to put their learning into action and gain skills that can transfer to future roles.

Writing a resume as a student or recent grad can feel frustrating — it can be a struggle to create a resume that looks robust. For those early in their careers, adding internships to a resume can demonstrate work ethic and highlight professional experience.

While internships can often bolster credentials, they can sometimes be out of place on a resume. As a general rule, applicants should only include internships related to the position they seek.

For instance, if you interned as a docent at a museum but want to do an engineering internship, you should probably leave off that experience. This also speaks to why students should try to find internships that relate to their future career goals.

In addition to listing recent internships on a resume, job applicants should use their cover letters to expound upon the skills and knowledge they gained while in the role.

As recent graduates acquire more paid experience in their field, they can start removing internships from their resumes. Advice on when to do this varies, but plan to hold at least two different job titles before you take off an internship.

Internships can play a valuable role in securing the first couple of jobs out of college, but once you have enough experience as an employee, internships can start to seem outdated and irrelevant.

Some students feel uncomfortable listing internships on a resume and therefore end up putting them at the bottom. The best practice, however, is to list any relevant internships at the top of your resume under “Work Experience.”

Each internship you participated in should be listed on a separate line and include a formal job title, the name of the company or organization and its location, and how long the internship lasted.

Directly under the header, list the responsibilities you had in the internship and translate those into some of the highlighted responsibilities of the job you’re applying for. For instance, if a role requires experience in administration, you should emphasize any relevant administrative duties from your internship.

Plan to include 2-5 bullet points under each internship title depending on how long it lasted. Longer internships should have more bullet points.

Finally, always clarify each position as an internship. Failing to do so can make hiring managers question forthrightness and honesty.

The following internship resume examples provide guidance on how internships should be formatted on a resume.

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