How to write an internship resume with little or no experience

What employers want from an intern

Prospects, the UK graduate careers service, says employers do not expect previous experience of the working world from interns, but they will ask what experience and skills you have gained through your degree. Your application should show you have the knowledge and motivation to benefit from the internship, and why you want that particular company.

Resume or CV for an internship

The same document under two names. The University of Illinois Career Center lists internships among the applications that ask for a resume in the US; in the UK, Europe and Turkey it is called a CV. The page on CV vs resume explains the difference, which only matters for US academic applications.

What to do in the first minute

Open a blank note and list everything you have done in the last three years under five headings: courses, projects, activities, work of any kind, and awards. Next to each, write one detail you could prove: a grade, a link, a number, a date or a person who saw it. That list is the raw material; the rest of this page is about choosing from it.

If you already have a draft, drop it into the free checker at the top of this page. It runs in your browser with no account, and reports missing contact details, headings and dates, layout a parser may misread, and whether enough of your claim lines carry a number.

What counts as experience when you have no jobs

The University of York's careers service puts it simply: a CV is not just about work experience; the reader wants to see you have the skills and enthusiasm for the job. MIT says experience comes in many forms, including class projects, competitions and personal projects.

Rename the section if it helps

York suggests calling the section Experience, or Experience and achievements, rather than Employment history, and listing positions of responsibility and volunteering there. CMU suggests specific titles such as Technical Experience, so your most relevant work comes first.

Section order on a one-page internship resume

1. Name and contact details: phone, email and LinkedIn URL, plus a portfolio or personal site if relevant (CMU).
2. Education: school, degree, major and minor, expected graduation date; in the US, a GPA of 3.0 or above is worth including (CMU).
3. Relevant coursework: CMU calls it important especially when applying for internships.
4. Projects: name, semester, your role and the result.
5. Experience: part-time jobs, volunteering and positions of responsibility, most recent first.
6. Activities and leadership: clubs and roles, with years.
7. Skills: specific skills only, grouped by type.
8. Honours and awards, most recent first.

Why one page

The University of Illinois says resumes for new grads and early-career professionals should be one page. MIT says to stick to one page unless you have extensive experience or an advanced degree, and CMU says a resume should be one page.

When to move a section up

Harvard's guide says to list headings in order of importance, and CMU puts the most relevant sections near the top. If your strongest evidence is a project, it can sit above a part-time job. The UK's National Careers Service says people early in their career can put education straight after the introduction.

Prove each skill with evidence

A skill listed alone is a claim; a line that shows it in use is evidence. CMU's formula for a bullet is: accomplished [x] as measured by [y] by doing [z]. Harvard asks for language that is specific rather than general, active rather than passive, and fact-based, quantified and qualified.

The right column shows the form, not facts to copy. Write only numbers you can explain in an interview.

The skills section

CMU says to list specific, distinct skills and avoid vague ones such as 'leadership' or 'collaborative'. Group them, for example computer and technical, laboratory, spoken languages, and add a level such as advanced, intermediate or basic so the reader knows your proficiency.

Engineering internship resume: what changes

• Projects carry the weight. CMU says a project or research section can emphasise your technical and teamwork skills; give each one your role, its purpose and the result.
• The skills section matters more for technical positions, CMU says. Name languages, tools and lab techniques, not traits.
• Coursework: list the highest-level courses in your major and any tied to the role (CMU).
• Links: CMU says personal webpages and online portfolios can go in the contact section if they are relevant; a tidy code repository fits there too.
• Competitions and personal projects count as experience, according to MIT.

What to leave out

• On a US resume: a photo, your age or your gender, personal pronouns such as I or We, and a list of references (Harvard).
• On a UK CV: your age, date of birth, marital status or nationality (National Careers Service).
• Vague skills with no example, such as 'leadership' (CMU).
• Anything you could not explain in an interview. TED University warns against false or exaggerated language levels and skills.

Applying in Turkey or elsewhere in Europe, a photo is customary. The page on CV photos covers each country and how a photo affects an applicant tracking system.

The internship cover letter

Prospects says some internships ask for an online application form, an interview or an assessment centre, while for others a CV and cover letter will do. Its advice for a cover letter with no experience: highlight the knowledge and skills you have rather than the experience you lack, start with your degree and relevant modules, and do not copy a template, because the letter has to be tailored to the job.

• Why this company and this internship (Prospects).
• What your degree and relevant modules taught you that the role needs (Prospects).
• One or two examples from projects, part-time work or societies, and the skill each shows.
• One page at most (Harvard).

The page on what a cover letter is covers the format in full.

Applying in Turkey: the Ulusal Staj Programı

Turkey's National Internship Programme (Ulusal Staj Programı) has run since 2020. From 2026, İŞKUR, the Turkish Employment Agency, runs it under the patronage of the Presidency. Applications for 2026 ran from 6 January to 16 March 2026 at ulusalstajprogrami.iskur.gov.tr. It offers internships, job shadowing and training programmes with public bodies and private employers.

How selection works

The application has two stages. First, identity, contact, school and exam details come from e-Devlet. Second, you declare academic, social, artistic and sporting achievements and upload documents where needed; İŞKUR and university career centres check them. Approved information is scored with a weighted total standard score (ATSP). Employers see candidates without their identity and send offers by score. You can pick up to 10 workplaces and 3 to 5 provinces.

What this means for your CV

The İŞKUR documents we read describe a form and a score, not a CV upload. For the programme, what counts is what you declare and can document, so keep certificates for clubs, competitions, languages and courses ready. A CV still matters for internships that companies post themselves.

When to apply

• UK summer internships: Prospects advises applying at least six months ahead, between September and December of the previous year.
• Ulusal Staj Programı: the 2026 round ran from 6 January to 16 March. Employers can generally reach the intern pool from May to the end of December, and İŞKUR suggests internships of at least 20 working days. The pages we read on 5 October 2026 gave no 2027 dates.
• Avoid unexplained gaps: Harvard's guide warns against information gaps such as a missing summer.

Proof: sources and the date we read them

Every claim above comes from one of these pages, all read on 5 October 2026. Links are under Sources.

Building it with CitedCV

CitedCV writes a CV only from the facts you give it, through a form, an uploaded CV or interview answers, and each line carries the ids of the facts it was written from. A section with nothing in it is left out, so with no jobs on file there is no Experience heading; education and projects lead. When you have no roles on file, or your level is student or junior, its follow-up questions can include one about which project, thesis or internship task is closest to the job you want and what you personally built, analysed or wrote.

• A new account gets 6 free credits, enough for one quick draft of a general CV (6 credits).
• The free checker at the top of this page needs no account and no credits.
• Cover letters open once you buy any credit pack and cost 4 credits; prices are on the pricing page.
• Exports to PDF, DOCX and TXT are free.

Limits to know

Sections follow the region you choose, not your stage: for the US and UK, Experience comes before Education when you have both, while Turkey puts Education first. No region has a separate Volunteering or Awards heading, so check where those lines land on the review page.

Who this page is not for

• PhD students applying for research fellowships or academic posts. You need an academic CV; MIT's CV page lists its sections.
• Experienced people changing careers. The one-page student layout will undersell years of work.
• Medicine, teaching and dentistry students hoping to use the Ulusal Staj Programı. Those departments are excluded.

Other ways to build it

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Prospects, Internshipswww.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/work-experience-and-internships/internships/
2. Prospects, Cover letter for a jobseeker with no experiencewww.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/cover-letters/cover-letter-for-a-jobseeker-with-no-experience/
3. Carnegie Mellon University Career and Professional Development Center, Resume essentialswww.cmu.edu/career/documents/quick-tips/resume.pdf
4. MIT Career Advising & Professional Development, Resumescapd.mit.edu/resources/resumes/
5. MIT Career Advising & Professional Development, Curricula vitae (CVs)capd.mit.edu/resources/cvs/
6. University of Illinois Career Center, Resume vs. Curriculum Vitae (CV)careercenter.illinois.edu/cvresume
7. Harvard Mignone Center for Career Success, Create a strong resumecareerservices.fas.harvard.edu/resources/create-a-strong-resume/
8. University of York, Writing a CV with little or no experiencewww.york.ac.uk/students/work-volunteering-careers/apply-interview/cv/little-experience/
9. National Careers Service, CV sectionsnationalcareers.service.gov.uk/careers-advice/cv-sections
10. İŞKUR, Ulusal Staj Programı student brochurestaj.iskur.gov.tr/assets/images/iskur/usp-ogrenci-brosur.pdf
11. İŞKUR, Ulusal Staj Programı information note (published by the Turkish Consulate General in Urmia)urumiye-bk.mfa.gov.tr/Content/assets/consulate/images/localCache/12/b2baa23c-f0a5-41b5-ad83-a6d9442b0fcf.pdf
12. İŞKUR, What internship opportunities does İŞKUR offer?www.iskur.gov.tr/sikca-sorulan-sorular/is-ve-meslek-danismanligi/iskur-un-sundugu-staj-firsatlari-nelerdir-nasil-yararlanabilirim/
13. TED Üniversitesi Kariyer Merkezi, Özgeçmiş (CV) hazırlamacareer.tedu.edu.tr/sites/default/files/docs/staj_kitapcik_0-1_1.pdf
14. Europass, About Europasseuropass.europa.eu/en/about-europass