How To Describe Your Internship Experience On Resumes And Cover Letters

By Julia Bianco on February 3, 2014

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Internships can be extremely valuable experiences for college students. They provide real life work experience, important connections, and, sometimes, even a job offer after graduation. Still, internships won’t actually help you unless you learn how to use them to your advantage.

Learning how to describe your internship experience on a resume or cover letter is the key to getting employers to notice you. Here are three easy tips for successfully using your internship experience on your resume or cover letter.

1. Keep it short and sweet.

College students should try to keep their resume under one page, according to Career Builder.

“It is better to write fewer bullets that describe your accomplishments and skills than to make simple lists of your duties,” said Robin Hedges, Associate Director for Career Education at Case Western Reserve University. “You are beginning to answer the question, ‘What do you bring to the table?’”

When adding your internship to your resume, try to keep it to three or four very strong bullet points that use action verbs to describe exactly what it is you learned. Try to make your verbs as descriptive as possible, and be sure to vary which verbs you choose–you don’t want to use the same verb over and over again. If you need a list of good action verbs to use on resumes, check out Adventures in Education and About.com‘s lists.

One of the biggest mistakes that college students make is assuming that longer means better. In the job world, this just isn’t true. Employers aren’t looking to spend an hour looking at your resume, especially when they have dozens of others to look at. You want to make sure to include all of your skills and work experience, but don’t be excessive. Having a crowded resume doesn’t necessarily make you look impressive—employers don’t need to know every single detail of your employment history.

Still, sometimes keeping it to one page can be hard. If you’re struggling with length, try taking off your clubs from high school. Most employers want to focus on what you’re doing now, not what you were doing a few years ago. Also, remember that it is acceptable for resumes to have as small as .5-inch margins and 10-point font.

2. Don’t get caught up in formatting.

The typical resume and cover letter format is easy to find online, but don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.

“Often students sacrifice relevant, interesting content to comply with a particular format,” Hedges said.

“That’s backwards. Strive for meaningful content supported by an attractive and easy-to-read layout.”

Of course, don’t go too crazy with formatting. Readability is extremely important, so don’t use any strange fonts, bright colors, or hard-to-read styles. Present yourself in a creative way, but make sure that the formatting doesn’t outshine the information.

Also, be sure to be consistent with your resume and cover letter. Although the formatting is obviously different in some ways, try to keep your font and margins similar. You want the two documents to seem like they belong together.

3. Describe your skills, not just your actions.

This is probably the most important of the three. A very common mistake that college students make on their resume and cover letter is simply describing what they did instead of marketing their skills, but this isn’t what employers want to hear. They want to hear what you learned and what you can bring to their company.

“Your goal is to quickly grab your reader’s attention and help him or her understand specific actions you took and the significance (often why or how), results achieved, and transferable skills you developed,” Hedges said.

One of the best ways to elaborate on the significance of your experience is in your cover letter. In the second paragraph, or the “meat” of your cover letter, take the time to describe what your past experience can bring to the company. Try to shift the focus from what you can gain for working for them to what they can gain by hiring you.

“For example, instead of writing, ‘helped tutor students’ you could write ‘tutored middle school students one-on-one and in small groups in Algebra, English language and literature, and earth science to facilitate their clear understanding; developed original study tips guide for students,’” Hedges said.

“Your reader knows exactly what you did (tutored; three specific subjects), for whom (middle school students), how (one-on-one and small groups), and an outcome (clear understanding, the guide).”

The most important thing to remember is to make yourself marketable. College students have a habit of underselling themselves, but your resume and cover letter are your opportunity to brag.

Try to come up with something that you learned at your internship that you don’t think the other applicants will have—maybe you learned to use a specific program or how to creatively complete an office task. If you think that your experience could bring something to the company that no one else can, it’s definitely something you want to include.

When you’re done writing, try to look at the resume and cover letter as if you’re a hiring manager–if you don’t want to hire yourself, they won’t either.

Run your own business, get control of your future, make an impact on your life. To learn more about College Pro, click here or call 1-888-277-7962.

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