How to Write a Business Internship Resume
Most internship resumes are read for well under a minute, often after software has already filtered them. A clear, one-page resume that uses the words from the job posting gets past both.
The structure
- Name and contact details: email, phone, city, and a LinkedIn URL.
- Education: school, degree, major, expected graduation date, and GPA if it helps you. Relevant coursework is optional.
- Experience: jobs, internships, leadership roles and significant projects, newest first.
- Skills and certifications: tools you can actually use (Excel, SQL, Tableau) and certifications with dates.
- Activities: clubs, competitions and volunteering, especially with a leadership role.
Write bullets that show results
Start each bullet with a verb, say what you did, and end with a number or an outcome where you can.
- Weak: Responsible for social media for a student club.
- Better: Grew a student club's Instagram from 400 to 1,100 followers in one semester by planning a weekly content calendar.
- Weak: Helped with bookkeeping at a family business.
- Better: Reconciled monthly bank statements for a family business in QuickBooks, catching $2,300 in duplicate charges.
Use the posting's own words
Copy the important nouns from the job description — tools, skills, tasks — into your resume where they are true. Here are the words employers most often look for, by major.
Accounting
Finance
Business Analytics
Marketing
Management
Supply Chain & Operations
Human Resources
Management Information Systems
Economics
Entrepreneurship
International Business
Risk Management & Insurance
Hospitality & Tourism Management
Real Estate
Common mistakes
- Going past one page.
- Listing duties instead of what you achieved.
- Claiming skills you could not use in an interview.
- Sending the same resume to every posting without adjusting the keywords.
Questions students ask
How long should an internship resume be?
One page. Recruiters spend well under a minute on a first read, and students rarely have enough relevant experience to need more.
Should I include my GPA on an internship resume?
Include it if it is strong or if the posting asks for it; many finance and accounting firms expect it. If you leave it off, some recruiters will assume it is low.
What should I put on a resume with no work experience?
Class projects, leadership roles in student organizations, volunteering, job simulations and certifications. Describe them with the same action-and-result bullets you would use for a job.
Find internships to apply to →
Next: find business internships for your major or compare certifications for business majors.