What should you do if the notable internship you completed isn’t getting the response you’re looking for from employers? One of our readers asked this very question, and this is our answer.
Question
My work history section contains exactly one item: an allegedly impressive, prestigious, highly competitive internship with a major firm in my city. I thought that if I mentioned this internship, potential employers would drool. I was told that with an internship like this under my belt, they would be fighting to sign me on. Guess what? They’re not. Nine CV submissions out of ten are bringing no response at all, and every tenth submission results in an interview or phone call from an employer who asks about my internship programme as if he’s never heard of it before. I feel like a fool. I worked all summer for no pay, just the promise that this opportunity would launch my career. What now?
Answer
Well, you can’t get your summer back. All you can do at this point is move forward. You can also adjust the way you present this experience on your CV by following these four tips.
- Don’t just mention the title of the programme you completed. This programme isn’t creating the gasps of recognition that you imagined, so you need to be specific. State the title and describe the programme in one line, as in, Internship, Dooley Bartle, Inc. A three month on-site training programme for college graduates demonstrating academic merit in accounting and finance.
- Break your programme down into specific skill sets or branches of experience. Create a subheading for leadership training, technical training, professional exposure, and so on.
- Under each subheading, add bullet points that summarise what the programme taught you within that category of experience. If your internship included a tour of city hall, list that under professional exposure. If you spent an entire week filing folders, list that under organisational skill development.
- Above all, highlight any special accomplishments that took place during your internship. Any awards you won and any projects you completed (on your own or with a team) deserve special mention.
In this case, it looks like your potential employers don’t really care who you know they’re more interested in what you can do. Make all these changes easily with our quick and simple CV maker. The improvements in your internship CV should get you more positive results in your job search.
