How to Write a CV for Students and Internships
Keep it to one page, put your education near the top, and treat your projects and part-time work like real experience. Say exactly when you can start and how many days you can work. For an intern, that detail is often as useful to the employer as your grades.
What the reader wants to know
Whoever hires an intern isn't expecting experience. They want to know three things: can you learn this work, will you turn up, and are you available when they need you? Each section of your CV can help answer one of those.
A layout that suits students
- Name, phone, personal email, city, and a link to your portfolio or profile if you have one
- Two lines on what you study and the internship you want, with dates
- Education
- Projects
- Work and activities
- Skills, languages, certificates
Use a personal email address rather than your university one, as student accounts can close after you graduate.
Say when you are available
Student CVs often leave this out. A reader shouldn't have to guess, so state it plainly near the top. If your course requires an internship, mention the dates it needs.
Before Looking for an internship as soon as possible.
Better Available 4 days a week from 15 June to 15 December 2027 for a required course internship.
Make the most of your education
List your degree, your university, and your expected graduation date. Write “Expected June 2028” so nobody has to work it out from your year of study. Add your grade if it helps, and always include the scale, because scales differ between countries. If your grades aren't strong, leave them out and let your projects speak.
Include two or three relevant courses only when they relate to the job. Don't copy your whole transcript.
Before Courses: Philosophy, Physical Education, Marketing, Statistics, Microeconomics.
Better Relevant courses: Consumer Behaviour (9.0/10), Marketing Research, Applied Statistics.
Write projects so they show real work
Name the project, your part in it, and what came of it. If a project was done in a group, say so, and say which part was yours. An experienced reader will notice when “the team” hides who did what.
Before Final-year group project on mobile apps.
Better Built the login and payment screens for a 4-person food delivery app, tested by 30 students.
Before Member of the university's Business Club.
Better Ran sponsorship for the Business Club's annual fair, signing 5 local sponsors and raising $1,500.
Before Part-time job at a bookshop.
Better Reorganised stock records at a bookshop on weekends, cutting monthly count time from 2 days to 1.
Match the internship, not just the industry
Read the description of what the intern will do, and move your most similar work to the top of the list. A portfolio link can help too. Designers should link to their work, and programmers to their code.
Even for a first application, tailor your CV. Two careful applications are usually a better use of your time than a large number of identical ones.
Small things that matter
- Name the file clearly, for example Linh-Tran-Marketing-Internship-CV.pdf.
- Check any link before you send it. Open it in a private browser window.
- Ask people before you use their names as references. Most intern applications don't need them on the CV.
- If an ad asks for a transcript or a university letter, prepare it early, since those can take time.
- After your first internship, add it at once while the numbers are still fresh.