Resume For A Freshman In University

SuMa.Lustre

As the title says, I'm going to need to create a resume soon for a summer internship. I am a freshman in university, with minimal experience (one previous summer internship, random jobs such as afterschool care of elementary school kids for a week) and the feeling that anything I did in High School won't really matter because I'm in university now (not that I did too much in High School anyways besides random small positions in clubs).

Basically I am wondering, what parts should I try to emphasize? Are there little things that you guys would recommend I include?

Deebaser

I would mention the High School honor club bullshit because honestly, what other 'accomplishments' do you have at this point? List your last internship, GPA, what you're doing now, outstanding bullshit from HS, et cetera.

If you're looking for this summer I would hurry up and get it out there by tomorrow at the latest. A lot of shit comes into the companies I've worked with during Winter Recess.

tardcore

Put some stuff saying that you're a fast learner, a self-motivated team player, some of that non-sense. Put what college you are attending and what your focus is.

claypoolfan

Stress your qualifications... Are you good at word? Excel? Powerpoint? Access? Any computer language? Things like that.

Deebaser

Don't be afraid to lie your balls off about shit that isn't immediately verifiable. It's only an internship and most places aren't bothered enough about interns to do a background check.

Crowleston

I wouldn't suggest lying, but it's okay to emphasize. Like if you wrote the specials on a chalkboard at a restaurant, instead say you "organized and designed product displays" or something like that.

Also mention any classes you have taken and skills you have learned through them that have to do with the internship.

Deebaser

Yeah I probably shouldn't have recommended outright lying. Embelish like a champ though. Literally no one cares. The most you're going to do on the corporate track is filing, making coffee, and if you're a real shining star, the most basic of excel tasks.

CrystalMethodist

Honestly, my advice is to start by thinking small. My first internship was at a small business that I found through friends of friends of my parents, and once that was on my resume it was sooooooo much easier to get an internship the next summer. Work experience is huge.

Once I got that second internship, I was pretty much gold. Junior year I worked for a large, well-known company and by the time I graduated I had a really sweet resume with three summers of relevant work experience and one summer at a name-brand firm.

As a side note, nice work on getting this done so early. All my friends got screwed by the economy but having work experience meant that I was getting tons of interviews my senior year.

Spacemilk

DO NOT lie. Jeesh. That's piss terrible advice. Don't even exaggerate. Stick to the facts. Now, you can use wordiness to make something seem much better than it actually was (saying "tutored students in math" maybe doesn't sound as good as "enhanced freshmen math students understanding of complex subjects and theorems, such as YYY Theorem, ZZZ Theorem, and ABC Conjecture"). edit: Crowleston said this, same idea.

Stuff you did in high school isn't going to matter in a few years but right now it's not terrible to put it on there. Just don't expect them to be impressed. And absolutely prioritize putting college stuff on in favor of high school stuff. Think of your high school stuff as the filler that you can add or remove to keep your resume at 1 page.

Also what's your major? I know that if you're an engineer in the U.S., you might have a tough time finding an internship now with a firm. Most companies are through with their hiring cycles already and besides, it can be tough finding an engineering firm willing to take on a freshman. (we don't hire freshmen interns at my company - oil major - for example) That doesn't mean you can't find something; it just might mean you have to get a bit creative!

Deebaser

Spacemilk wrote: »

DO NOT lie. Jeesh. That's piss terrible advice. Don't even exaggerate. Stick to the facts.

As someone who has been an intern, hired interns, and had interns, it really isn't. A lot of firms don't do background checks on interns and rely entirely on the word of the university. Your moralizing is really out of place here. "Sticking to the facts" is a surefire way to the middle of the pile. When you've got a helluva lot more apps than undergrads you want to babysit, the middle of the pile is the exact place you do not want to be.

If your resume isn't outstanding, it should at least be interesting

TechBoy

I'm going to assume you're going for some Computer Science-y related internship because you're a nerd, Lustre :P. If that is the case, I would put what programming languages you are familiar with (C++, Java, Python, etc. etc.) and if you have one, a notable project that you have done. Notable in the sense that someone else besides you has used it and derived value from it (like say a school webpage), or that it solved some issue you or someone you know had. If you can show that you've actually applied something from your field to real life, that'll really help to set you apart from the pack. (If not, no worries because most people don't)

Also, at this stage I would still put high school awards. Especially if you got something on the national level like National Merit or AP Scholar. Something that someone who doesn't go to your school might have heard about.

Lastly, since you provided no details, just as CrystalMethodist said it is very unlikely that some large corporation (like Qualcomm) will choose to hire a freshman as an intern. It does happen, but obviously they lean towards juniors and seniors with more education under their belts. Aim for smaller companies, and ask around with friends and family to see if their companies need interns because if they do you are pretty much guaranteed to be picked up.

SuMa.Lustre

It's not a large corporation, it's just a small tiny little IT section. I interned there last summer through a program, and the person I worked under gave me a lead.

Thanks everyone for your advice, and yes Techboy, I am a computer science major, and I am a big fat nerd

Gdiguy

Deebaser wrote: »

Spacemilk wrote: »

DO NOT lie. Jeesh. That's piss terrible advice. Don't even exaggerate. Stick to the facts.

As someone who has been an intern, hired interns, and had interns, it really isn't. A lot of firms don't do background checks on interns and rely entirely on the word of the university. Your moralizing is really out of place here. "Sticking to the facts" is a surefire way to the middle of the pile. When you've got a helluva lot more apps than undergrads you want to babysit, the middle of the pile is the exact place you do not want to be.

If your resume isn't outstanding, it should at least be interesting

If this is a throwaway internship then sure, but if you want to actually get a long-term job there, blatant lying on your resume is a great way to screw yourself later. If you don't want to be middle of the pile, you should be doing more to get yourself noticed, not thinking of ways to lie to get yourself noticed.

Going back to the op - high school stuff is definitely fine, my usual feeling is going into detail for one level below your current position is fine, more than that it better be amazing (while you're in early undergrad, high school accomplishments are fine, once you're done with undergrad no-one cares about something from 5 years ago)

Spacemilk

Deebaser wrote: »

Spacemilk wrote: »

DO NOT lie. Jeesh. That's piss terrible advice. Don't even exaggerate. Stick to the facts.

As someone who has been an intern, hired interns, and had interns, it really isn't. A lot of firms don't do background checks on interns and rely entirely on the word of the university. Your moralizing is really out of place here. "Sticking to the facts" is a surefire way to the middle of the pile. When you've got a helluva lot more apps than undergrads you want to babysit, the middle of the pile is the exact place you do not want to be.

If your resume isn't outstanding, it should at least be interesting

As someone who has had internships and full-time jobs, has hired interns and full-timers, and has a full-time job with a top 5 fortune 500 company, it really is. Stop giving piss terrible advice.

If you can't make your resume more interesting than others without sticking to the facts, then you probably don't deserve whatever job you're applying for and you won't be able to keep it anyway.

As Gdiguy said, unless this guy absolutely knows he won't be coming back to whatever companies he's applying to, burning his bridges now by lying is a fucking stupid thing to do.

edit: Several people have already given examples in this thread where you can stick to the truth but make it sound better, without making up details or full-on lying. Do that. It's not hard.

Deebaser

If you can't make your resume more interesting than others without sticking to the facts, then you probably don't deserve whatever job you're applying for and you won't be able to keep it anyway.

See, I think this is horrible advice. It's an internship, they probably aren't going to be trusting you with the missile codes and if they send you home from a summer gig, you seriously fail at life.

As for "deserving" an internship, I'm willing to bet close to 50% of all internships go to the undistinguished kids/nephews of senior management and friends of friends. Saying that he has to play it completely straight with no exaggeration and if he doesn't get it he didn't deserve it is terrible advice, imo.

And for the record, I meant lying about club memberships at college where no one is exactly going to call the club or the roster that isn't even recorded anywhere official, sheesh. That aint hardly something that will DOOM HIM FOR LIFE!!

SuMa.Lustre

I would rather stick to highly embellished truth than lie.

tardcore

So basically tell the truth, but dress it up in its' Sundays best.

romanqwerty

See if you can get some references. From university professors, previous employers etc. This is especially important if you don't have anything else that stands out. Its a little bit of effort on your part, and it will put you ahead of most people that won't bother,

tsmvengy

Definitely put any actual jobs you had in high school - the evidence that you can actually hold a job, period, puts you above people who have absolutely no work experience.

fightinfilipino

Deebaser wrote: »

Spacemilk wrote: »

DO NOT lie. Jeesh. That's piss terrible advice. Don't even exaggerate. Stick to the facts.

As someone who has been an intern, hired interns, and had interns, it really isn't. A lot of firms don't do background checks on interns and rely entirely on the word of the university. Your moralizing is really out of place here. "Sticking to the facts" is a surefire way to the middle of the pile. When you've got a helluva lot more apps than undergrads you want to babysit, the middle of the pile is the exact place you do not want to be.

If your resume isn't outstanding, it should at least be interesting

good lord.

OP, don't listen to this.

DO NOT LIE. not only is it bad for you if you cannot get your own history straight if someone asks you later on, there are very real legal ramifications. even minor things like "lying about club activities" can be seen as willful misrepresentation later on down the line, no matter what country you're in.

not only that, your reputation is everything. so if your place of work does find out that you lied about being on some school newspaper or service club, you won't be able to use that place of work as a reference for later jobs and/or later employers WILL hear about your lying. employers find all sorts of crazy information nowadays, thanks to the internet.

tell the truth. it'll suck starting out, sure. but you are better off with a cabin made out of solid brick than a "mansion" made out of particleboard.

[tiny]wow, that's a clumsy metaphor[/tiny]


i was honestly thinking of reporting your post, Deebaser. what you're recommending can be illegal!

The Crowing One

SuMa, You're a first year university student. You aren't supposed to nor expected to have some sort of amazing resume at this point in your life. In fact, that's the reason you're applying for opportunity to make your resume better.

Honestly, tell the "truth". There's no need to make things up or fabricate your experiences. What is expected is for you to market yourself as best as possible, and that usually means "padding" your resume with things that sound awesome, but weren't necessarily a big deal.

For example, my resume makes somewhat of a big deal out of mediation work I did a while back. In reality, it wasn't more than a day's seminar and some scattered experience over a few years. I still present it in a way where whoever reads the resume will come to their own conclusions.

You want to stay factual with things like job titles, extracurricular experience etc. You usually have a few lines to explain your responsibilities and areas of expertise: This is where you "sell yourself". I've given recommendations, hired, fired, and been hired.

Where someone in your current place as a first year university student the interview is where you need to shine. Believe me, when applying for any sort of job, you either do or do not make the first cut. In many situations if you make the first cut you're in the running with many other people who look about the same on paper as you do. Dazzle them in the interview. Show them your skills and talk about passion for the work and your own goals.

I'll say this once more: You're a first year university student, you aren't expected to have any sort of amazing resume at this point. Just highlight your strengths and "sell yourself" in your subjective explanations. No need to fabricate anything.

kaliyama

Lustre, don't sweat it. Put everything you've done down so far to date, so you don't look like a vegetable, and then post an anonymized copy of it here. What kind of internship are you applying to?