Investing your time in internships can prove beneficial for the career you want to build for yourself in the future. However, to land your dream internship, you'll first have to show prospective employers your potential to succeed, especially with limited to no current experience. All you need to achieve this is to start your journey with an impactful entry-level resume.

What's an Entry-Level Resume?

Often known as an internship resume, this document focuses primarily on the candidate's education, skills, and strengths that cover not having extensive work experience to show off yet. It could be challenging to create a resume since many people feel they don't have enough information to include to impress prospective employers.

No need to panic, though. It's completely normal and fairly common for people to find themselves with little to put on their resumes during their student years or if they have just graduated.

However, expert entry-level resume writers believe candidates should use this as an opportunity to reflect on their strengths and aspects that make them unique. Dig up some experiences that helped you develop essential life skills that could be a great addition to any company's team.

You can include volunteer experiences, education, certifications, extracurricular activities, and other areas where you could show exceptional achievement, skills, and creative thinking. If you're looking for ideas, here's how you can go about crafting an attention-grabbing resume from scratch to impress the recruiter right away!

Start By Consulting Your Network

Talk to your family, friends, advisors, professors, or anyone who could help you build a solid plan before looking for relevant internships. Some may give you million-dollar advice, while others might be able to connect you to professionals in the industry or let you use them as a reference.

Discuss with them a few pointers to include in your internship resume. Ask them their opinion regarding your greatest skills and strengths and how you should frame your qualifications or career goals for maximum impact.

Come Up with a Strong Objective Statement

For an objective statement to be impressive, it must take the employer's needs into account. You can read through different internship descriptions of your preferred employers to note the common denominators. You'll likely find certain key phrases, terms, and skills required for the role. Touch down on some key skills and phrases when writing your objective statement.

Ultimately, your goal would be to write up to four sentences creatively describing your major strengths, career goals, and a bit of who you are. Try to summarize your value in memorable and clear terms to leave an impression on the recruiters when they try to get a sense of what you have to offer.

It's good practice to adjust the objective statement for each application being sent out. This kind of attention to detail with customization helps create an impact, especially for applications that don't provide the opportunity of sending a cover letter alongside the resume.

Lead with The Strongest Asset

When structuring your resume, always put the best qualifications first. For recent graduates or students, it's the educational background that will likely set you apart. If you're changing careers, your greatest asset would be the transferrable skills from your current work experience.

For those without a work-related or educational background, unique achievements or volunteer experience might be the keys to standing out. Since there is no hard and fast rule, anything you feel makes you unique as an applicant should be featured at the resume's top, right under the objective statement.

Include Separate Sections for Work Experience and Achievements

Professional entry-level resume writers suggest adding sections for any work experience you might have, including odd jobs or part-time jobs, to show your motivation, strong work ethic, dedication, and ability to work as part of a team.

If you have nothing to include, you can include a detailed section listing your achievements. Here, you can talk about successful projects that make you proud, awards, club associations, and extracurricular activities that could be helpful for the job.

For instance, those who wrote for their school newsletter could add a rough estimate of the number of articles they've written or mention specific ones that, according to them, helped solve problems creatively or overcome unique challenges, helping them learn new skills.

Avoid Filler Words

Employers offering internships don't expect to see candidates with lots of experience. Avoid using complicated sentences and filler words to pad up your resume to make it fuller than it actually is.

Try to keep your resume short and crisp, with a simple format that meets the minimum criteria of Applicant Tracking Systems, often used by employers to chuck out irrelevant candidates.

Complicated formatting, cluttered design, and overwritten qualifications can confuse the system, potentially leading your resume to be screened out even if you met the employer's criteria. It's best to use high-impact words, active language, and tangible accomplishments to make your qualifications sound memorable and clear.

Edit to Refine it Before Sending

Merely dumping everything onto the paper isn't enough. Once you think you've added everything, look over it to ensure it's in the best shape and tailored to the internship you're applying for. Try to fit everything on fewer pages to give it a neater and cleaner look.

Don't forget to give it one last review to fix potential stray errors. Spell check, proofread and ask an acquaintance to read it thoroughly before clicking the send button. Sometimes, a single spelling error or incorrect contact information can cost you the internship.

Employers understand your resume might not yet gleam with robust skills or accomplishments. But they expect your resume to be well-organized—one that demonstrates work ethic shows initiative, and reflects the passion you have for working in your desired industry.

Let professional resume writer at The Resume Store help you curate a kick-ass entry-level resume to convince prospective employers to bring you in for an interview. They also offer services like executive resume writing service, cover letter writing service, government resume writing, LinkedIn profile writing, LinkedIn profile optimization, and much more. Give them a call to learn more.

You can also check out The Get-A-Job Manual by The Resume Store's founder or check out their samples and reviews before contacting their team for a free consultation.

About The Author

Previously an editor, the writer for this piece is an English major who set on a journey to change the world. She's written over 450 articles on various topics, from cool career changers to productivity tips to bad bosses and cover letters, many of which have been featured in reputable publications. Besides being an avid reader and writer, she also loves to dance and try out new cuisines every time she explores a new place.