Your Internship Resume

No relevant work experience? Here are some suggestions on how to beef up your resume.

Crafting an internship resume can be challenging, especially for first-time applicants who have no relevant experience under their belts to refer to.

If you’re one, there’s no need to panic – employers who offer internships are generally accepting of candidates who have no prior work experience. After all, we all need to start somewhere!

But this doesn’t mean you should leave your resume empty if you’ve had no experiences. In fact, there are also a couple of things that you can add into your resume apart from work experience to better present yourself as the right candidate for your dream internship. Start by introducing yourself and your professional goals. Briefly describe what you wish to achieve professionally and with the organisation you’re applying for.

Here’s an example of a brief but effective introduction:

By outlining your motivations, employers will be able to see if this position or industry is the right fit for both the applicant and the organisation. It’ll also demonstrate your self-awareness and drive.

Your goals and objectives

Self-motivated journalism student seeking internship opportunities in content writing. Interested in honing creative-writing and criticalthinking skills to contribute to an organisation’s business objectives while gaining valuable experience in the media industry.

Relevant skills Achievements and successes Related projects

While you may not have the relevant work experience, you can always talk about the skills you gained over the years you spent in polytechnic or university.

Start by looking thoroughly at the description of the internship you’re applying for. Look for keywords or points that indicate the relevant skills needed for the task and use them in your favour.

Attract recruiters by stating the relevant skills that you possess. What’s important here is for you to provide evidence that you have these skills, so make sure to demonstrate how you gained these skills through real-life experiences. Remember, the key is to show, not tell!

Skills in teamwork as well as communication are highly sought-after, along with other transferable skills, so be sure to highlight them!

If you’re applying for a more technical internship role, don’t forget to mention the notable technical skills you’ve gained through academic courses and assignments.

Add your experiences to your resume as well. It doesn’t have to be solely related to work, so there’s no need to panic if you have none. Instead, bring attention to experience gained through extracurricular activities and school projects, especially if you excelled in some of them. You can also dedicate a section in your internship resume that lists your achievements. These can include academic awards, scholarships and other recognitions worth mentioning.

If you’ve held – or are still holding – a position in a student club or society in your polytechnic or university, you can include a description of your role and, more importantly, what you’ve done. If you participated in any events or activities, you should also include a brief description of your contribution.

Try to quantify your achievements. For instance, rather than just saying that you helped improve sales during your role as part of a club’s sales and marketing committee, mention that you helped it increase by 30 per cent over the last academic year. Putting a number on it makes your achievement clearer and more persuasive, allowing employers to gauge your abilities better.

However, do be warned – integrity and honesty are two values that’ll take you a long way in both your personal and professional life. If you decide to fabricate details about your achievements, the truth will catch up eventually and can be costly.

Some seasoned recruiters are able to tell from experience whether an applicant is truthful about what they say, especially during the interview process. So the last thing you want to do is make a bad name for yourself when you’re just starting to build your career. Think about the projects and assignments you’ve done and how they reflect your career interests – which should align with the internship you’re applying for. This could be your final year project, or even a blog you started in order to write about issues pertaining to the area of work you’re passionate about.

If you have any noteworthy projects and assignments as well, list and briefly describe them in your resume. This section will demonstrate to recruiters your dedication and interest, along with your knowledge of the industry in question. Moreover, be sure to provide a link to your online portfolio or website, so that they can browse through your best work at their own leisure.

Should you proceed to the interview round in the recruitment process, be prepared to answer questions regarding the projects described. As this section can be a likely source for interview questions, make sure the projects listed in your resume are significant and relevant to the internship position you’re applying for, so that you can link them back to how the experience makes you a suitable candidate.