Internship CV example

Spring weeks and summer internships are different

Big employers in finance, law, consulting, consumer goods and technology usually run two kinds of short programme for students, and it helps to know which one you are applying for. A spring week, sometimes called an insight programme, is a short introduction to the firm, commonly aimed at first-year students, with talks, workshops and shadowing. A summer internship is a proper stint of work, often several weeks long, usually aimed at students in their penultimate year. At many firms it doubles as the main route onto the graduate scheme.

Your CV has to be pitched differently for each. For a spring week you are showing curiosity and potential: good grades, activities, and a clear reason to be interested in the sector. For a summer internship you need more evidence that you can do useful work in ten weeks, so projects, part-time jobs and positions of responsibility carry more weight. A year-long placement as part of your degree is different again, and our student and graduate CV examples cover that.

How large employers screen internship CVs

Popular schemes get far more applications than they have places, so the process is built to filter quickly. Expect an online form, usually with a CV upload, a few questions about why you want the firm, and online tests or a recorded video interview. The CV is often parsed by an applicant tracking system before a person sees it, and a recruiter may spend very little time on it if it gets through.

Two practical points follow from that. First, apply early. Many large firms open applications in the autumn for the following summer and review them as they arrive, so places can go before the stated closing date. Second, keep the format simple: one column or a clean two-column layout, standard headings such as Education and Experience, and no text in images or boxes, so the system can read every line.

Lead with education, and give real detail

At this stage your degree is your strongest credential, so it goes first. Give the full degree title, the university, the expected end date, and your average or predicted classification if it helps you. Then list three or four modules that relate to the internship, with marks. A marketing student applying for a marketing scheme lists digital marketing and consumer behaviour. The same student applying to a bank would pick statistics or finance modules instead.

Include A levels or equivalent, with grades. Some schemes set minimum grades, and a recruiter will look for them. If you took a gap year, did an international baccalaureate or studied abroad, give the qualification in full. Your GCSEs can usually be summed up in one line.

Societies, projects and part-time jobs are your experience

Nobody expects a penultimate-year student to have worked in marketing, audit or investment banking. They expect you to have done things that show the same skills: organising, persuading, analysing, working to a deadline in a team. Committee roles, society events, case competitions, student consultancy projects, volunteering and part-time jobs all count if you write them as achievements.

Do not drop your part-time job to make room. Retail, hospitality and call centre work show that you can handle customers, turn up and cope with pressure, which internship recruiters value. Keep it to one or two bullets and pick the parts that connect to the scheme, such as an idea you suggested that a manager adopted.

Tailor it for each firm

Recruiters on internship schemes read a lot of CVs that could have been sent anywhere. Tailoring does not mean rewriting everything. It means changing three things for each firm: the headline and profile, which should name the type of role and sector; the order of your bullets, so the most relevant evidence comes first; and the wording, so the skills in the advert appear on your CV in words the firm uses. If the scheme description asks for "commercial awareness" and "data-driven thinking", make sure a line of your CV shows each one.

Keep a master CV with everything on it, and cut it down for each application. It saves time, and you can check what you sent before an interview.

What internship recruiters look for

Each scheme publishes its own criteria, and those are what you are scored against, so read them first. They tend to cover the same ground: a genuine reason for choosing this sector and firm, evidence of teamwork and leadership, a sense of how the business makes money, and the ability to work with numbers and write clearly. Your CV cannot prove all of that on its own, but it should give the interviewer something to ask about for each one.

Mistakes that cost interviews

• A profile full of adjectives ("passionate, driven, motivated") and no evidence.
• Two pages. At this stage, one full page is expected.
• The same CV for a bank, a charity and a tech firm.
• Every module you have ever taken, with no marks.
• Percentages you cannot explain, such as "increased engagement by 25%" with no idea what was measured.
• A photo, date of birth or full address. UK employers do not need them.
• Spelling mistakes in the firm's name.

Should an internship be paid?

GOV.UK says an intern who counts as a worker is entitled to the National Minimum Wage, and an employer cannot avoid that by simply stating it does not apply. There are exceptions: students who must do an internship of under a year as part of a UK further or higher education course, internships that are only shadowing with no work carried out, and voluntary work for a charity or similar organisation. Summer internships at large firms are usually paid. If an advert for a full summer of real work offers expenses only, it is worth checking the rules before you accept.