An internship is a full-time work experience offered by an organisation for a limited period of time. In Malaysia, internships typically last 3 months or 6 months, with some companies offering 8-week internships as well.
Participants could gain real work experience, skills in a particular field, and develop professional contacts. It also eases participants into the workforce, especially when seeking their first full-time job.
Applying for a full-time internship for the first time? Job Majestic is here to guide you on writing your resume for internship.
How to Write a Resume for Internship
1. Know What Truly Matters
As an undergraduate or fresh graduate, we understand that you may not have extensive working experience. In fact, most employers understand this.
Most of the time, working experience is NOT the main factor when deciding whether you’re the right fit for the company. There are 3 main factors – Your skills, your passion/interest, and your traits.
Skills are categorised into Hard Skills and Soft Skills. Hard skills are abilities that can be measured and are abilities specific to the job and/ or industry that you are applying for. For example, AutoCAD, Photoshopping, Copywriting, and Bookkeeping.
Meanwhile, soft skills are interpersonal skills or personal attitudes that determine your work ethics and how you work with others. For example, Leadership, Critical Thinking, and Creativity.
Employers would also consider your passion/interest in that particular field that you’re looking for. You could be a music student, but possess rich knowledge about Finance & Investment – you stand a higher chance compared to a Finance graduate who has never invested in the stock market.
Once you have identified your strengths and interest, the next step is to put them into your resume for internship.
2. Pick the Right Resume Format
We believe that the Combination Format might be your best bet in writing a resume for internship, but feel free to utilise a different format according to your situation.
This format integrates the chronological and functional formats. Here’s how your resume could be structured:
- Start with your resume contact information at the top.
- Follow up with the resume objective section above the fold.
- Insert your academic qualification(s).
- Next, insert the work experience section.
- Follow up immediately with the skills section.
With these four sections, you will have a basic structure of what your resume for internship looks like. Next up, fill up the details.
3. Time to Sell Yourself
No, not literally selling yourself. When writing your resume objective, it’s time to really sell yourself as the perfect candidate for the applied role.
How to capture employers’ attention and continue reading your resume? You’ll need to stand out from the crowd. Research on the job ad, the company, and their vision. Include relevant keywords to stay – yes you’ve guessed it right, relevant.
Follow up with your academic qualification(s) immediately. When looking for internship opportunities, your education is most likely more crucial than your working experience.
4. Be Uniquely You
Standing out from the crowd is not complicated. Here are some tips for you:
1. Quantify your job scopes
Impress companies with numbers. Have you “increased customer satisfaction by 20%”, or “designed UI for the top 10 companies in SEA”?
2. Highlight your achievements
Have you been praised by your lecturer? Committee members? For what reasons, and how did you do it?
3. Extracurricular activities and hobbies
Aside from excelling in your studies, what else did you do or participate in for personal development? Are they related to the internship position? How can you bring value?
Always customise your resume with the “little things” that matter. However, do not include them for the sake of filling up your resume as working professionals can easily spot that.
5. Readability is Key
Always remember that you only have under 10 seconds to impress companies out there. There is no point in writing a 3-pages long resume. Everything that you want them to know has to be on a single page (2 pages maximum).
Ensure that your resume for internship is easy to read and digest. Use clean & professional designs, the correct formatting and font sizes.
Keywords! As mentioned earlier, keywords are crucial to attracting employers’ attention and positioning yourself as the best candidate. It makes the resume-screening process faster and easier, especially when it comes to the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) process.
6. Proofread x3
You may be a beginner in creating a resume, but it doesn’t mean that you are spared from making amateur & unprofessional mistakes such as grammatical and spelling errors.
Do not risk your first impression. Always proofread your resume for internship to ensure zero errors. It will be worth it.
Final Thoughts
With this resume for internship guide, we hope that you’ll be ready to create your first resume for internship! We highly encourage undergraduates to experience internships even if it’s not required by their tertiary education institution.
An internship can also be a “side door” for you to secure a full-time position in the company. Not a good company for you? Fret not as you are free to explore other job opportunities in Malaysia once the internship period has ended.
Already done your internship and are now ready to take on the world? Here are some of our job-hunting guides for you. From creating your cover letter to preparing for challenging interviews, the No.1 multilingual job site in Malaysia is here for you.
