Recruiters often scan a resume in 30-60 seconds. That one fact drives everything else in this guide. Your resume is a marketing document, and its job is to put your skills, education, and relevant experience in front of an employer fast: clear, concise, and tailored to the role, because nobody reads it twice. What follows works across fields (tech, business, science, anything else), based on what employers in North America expect from a university student's resume.
You don't need to design a resume from scratch. A well-vetted template handles the formatting for you. A popular choice among CS students is "Jake's Resume," a LaTeX/Overleaf template known for its clean, straightforward layout. If you don't know LaTeX, you can download the PDF and convert it to a Word document using a free online tool.
Whatever template you pick, the same rules apply:
Keep it to one page. Most undergraduate resumes should be a single page for easy readability, in an 11-12pt professional font (Arial, Calibri) with roughly 1-inch margins.
Stick to a single column with clear section headings. Overly creative templates, multiple text columns, and excessive graphics clutter the page and confuse applicant tracking systems (ATS). Leave enough white space that it's easy to scan.
Be consistent. Use the same format for similar information throughout: bold for section titles, job titles, and school names, and dates and locations aligned the same way (all dates right-justified, for example). Matching fonts, bullet alignment, and punctuation make the whole thing look polished.
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List entries in reverse chronological order within each section, most recent first, with month and year for education and experiences so employers can follow your timeline. Avoid leaving unexplained gaps.
Tailor the resume for each application. Use keywords from the posting and emphasize the experiences and skills that match. Small tweaks, like reordering bullets or adding a relevant project, make your resume feel directly relevant to each position.
Send it as a PDF unless instructed otherwise, with a professional file name like YourName_Resume.pdf. Word files and Google Docs links can display differently on someone else's computer.
Two North America specific notes. Don't include a photo, birthdate, marital status, or other personal data. And skip "References available upon request." It's understood, and it wastes a line.
At the top, put your name in a larger font, then your phone number, professional email address, and location (city, state or province). For example:
JOHN DOE | (604) 123-4567 | john.doe@college.edu | Vancouver, BC, Canada
You can include your LinkedIn URL, and a GitHub or portfolio link if it's relevant to the role. A few details people get wrong here:
Make your name easy to remember: bold or slightly enlarged. If you go by a different name, parentheses or quotes work (Jonathan "Jack" Doe).
Your email and LinkedIn handle should be a variation of your name, not a quirky nickname.
City and state or province are enough. You can omit your full street address for privacy. What employers want to know is whether you're local or would need to relocate.
Update your LinkedIn before you put it on the resume, and only link a personal site, portfolio, or GitHub if it's professional and adds something, like design work or code projects.
Leave off age, gender, ethnicity, headshots, and your SIN or SSN. Keep this section minimal: just the information needed to contact you or find out more about your work.
As a current student, education goes first, immediately below your header. It establishes your academic level and field of study right away. The only exception is if you have extensive relevant work experience, and even then, education is a key credential for an intern.
State your degree, major and minor, university name, location, and expected graduation date:
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, University of ABC, Seattle, WA (Expected May 2026)
If your GPA is strong (generally 3.5/4.0 or higher) or you have a notable academic honor, add it: "GPA: 3.8/4.0, Dean's List." If it's lower or average, it's fine to leave it out.
Relevant coursework is optional. If you lack direct experience, listing 2-4 courses that demonstrate knowledge can help ("Relevant Coursework: Data Structures, Marketing Analytics, Organic Chemistry Lab"). Only include courses that are directly applicable, and consider mentioning class projects or case competitions that used industry skills, either here or in a Projects section. If you built a prototype in an engineering design class or did a consulting project in a business course, that's worth a line.
Scholarships, academic awards, and honor societies can sit under education too ("ABC Scholarship (2023)"), with descriptions kept brief. Same for study abroad or another notable academic program: one line with the institution, location, and date, unless you achieved something significant there.
And drop your high school. Once you're in second year, employers assume the diploma the moment they see a university on the page. The only exception is first-year students with very little college content yet, and even then, the goal is to replace it with university material as soon as you can.
Title this section "Experience" or "Work Experience." You can also break it into groups like "Relevant Experience," "Research Experience," or "Leadership Experience," with the most relevant group first (a CS student might lead with "Technical Experience"). Jobs, internships, research positions, and significant volunteer roles all belong here: anything where you contributed your time and skills.
Each entry lists your title, the organization, location, and dates, in reverse chronological order:
Marketing Intern, XYZ Company, Toronto, ON (May-Aug 2024)
The bullets underneath are where resumes are won or lost. Don't list what you were "responsible for." Show what you achieved or improved. "Managed social media" becomes "Managed social media channels and increased engagement by 30% through targeted content." Quantify whenever possible: customers assisted, percentage improvement, money or time saved. Each bullet should answer two questions: what did you do, and what was the result?
Start each bullet with a verb that denotes action: Developed, Analyzed, Led, Implemented, Improved, Designed, Coordinated. "Responsible for" and "Worked on" are the weakest openers in the genre. For example: "Designed a budgeting spreadsheet that streamlined expense tracking for 5 project teams." Use past tense for past roles, present tense for current ones, and keep each bullet to one or two lines: 2-4 bullets for shorter or less relevant roles, up to 5-6 for the substantial ones.
Tailor the content to each role, and swap bullets in and out between applications. If the posting asks for "project management" and you led a project, that bullet had better be visible. This helps with both ATS scans and the human reading afterward.
A job doesn't have to be in your field to earn its place. Retail and food service demonstrate teamwork, customer service, time management, and leadership if you trained new people. Experience is experience. What matters is how you frame it: "Trained 3 new employees in cash handling and customer service procedures" describes a professional skill, full stop.
Treat significant volunteer roles and student organization positions like jobs. If you were Treasurer of a club and managed a budget, or organized an event attended by 200 students, list it and lead with the outcome. Recruiters read leadership and initiative as indicators of potential.
Two formatting notes for the software and the humans alike. Keep the organization name and your role title on the same line or clearly separated so parsing systems can identify them, and if you held multiple roles at one organization, list it once with the role titles and dates indented beneath. Simple section headings ("Experience," "Volunteer Experience") help ATS systems find your work history.
Finally, no standalone fluff. "Team player" and "Hard-working" as bullets convince no one. Demonstrate the quality instead: "Presented project results to an audience of 50+ people, earning commendation for clarity" proves communication skill through action.
If you've done class projects, research, or personal side projects relevant to the internships you're targeting, give them a Projects section. It's especially useful for students in tech, engineering, or science, and for anyone with a senior capstone, a research thesis, or a personal initiative like an app you developed or a business you started. Projects demonstrate hands-on skills and initiative even if you haven't held many jobs, and they're the standard way to bridge that gap early on. A strong project can demonstrate your abilities just as well as employment.
Format each one like an experience entry: a title, optionally the context in parentheses, the time frame, and the class or organization if it applies:
Then add 1-3 bullets on what you did and what came of it. Projects are your chance to name specific tools, technologies, and methodologies. "Developed a mobile app in Java and Kotlin that helps track recycling habits; achieved 100+ downloads" shows the technical skill and the impact in one line, and if the internship is technical, listing relevant tech (Python, CAD, lab techniques) immediately signals you've used those tools.
If it was a group project, name your role: "Led a team of 3 students" or "Managed the project timeline and coordinated tasks among 5 team members." Teamwork, leadership, and project management are exactly what employers hope interns arrive with.
Keep descriptions outcome-focused, same as work experience. "Analyzed 10,000 data points in R to identify key factors in disease spread, informing a published research paper." For an engineering build: "Designed and built a drone prototype that can autonomously navigate; received an A and praise from project sponsor for innovative design." Quantify when you can, even if it's just "completed two weeks ahead of deadline" or "improved performance by 15%."
Choose the projects that best showcase the skills the internship wants, rather than listing every project you've ever done. Quality over quantity. And rotate the list as you go: retire older academic projects when newer or more relevant ones arrive, and once you land related work experience, lean on that instead. Projects matter most for recent students and career changers.
Give your technical hard skills a dedicated section, typically a bullet or comma-separated list: software, programming languages, tools, lab techniques, and languages you speak.
Skills: Python, C++, SQL; Adobe Creative Suite; SolidWorks; PCR & Gel Electrophoresis; Fluent in Spanish
Tailor the list to the internships you want. If the posting names software or skills you have, they should appear here (or in your experience bullets). Organize them in logical groups (programming languages, tools, certifications, languages) so they're easy to navigate, and keep the section short, because both ATS and recruiters mostly skim it for keywords. When a skill is central to the role, show it in context inside an experience bullet too.
Two honesty rules. First, only list skills you'd be comfortable being asked about in an interview. A programming language you've toyed with once, or a language you're barely conversational in, doesn't belong. Second, skip the skills employers assume by default: "Microsoft Word" and "Google Search" tell them nothing. Focus on skills that add value or are specifically requested.
Relevant certifications can live here or in their own section: AWS Cloud Practitioner, CPA, First Aid Certified, a Google Analytics certification for marketing roles, Red Cross CPR for healthcare. Include the certifying body and year if applicable.
Soft skills don't go in the skills section. "Teamwork" and "communication" as standalone items convince no one, and employers prefer to see them demonstrated in your experience bullets, so let your leadership roles and project teamwork do the talking. The exception is language proficiency, which is worth listing plainly. If you want to flag levels, do it briefly in words ("French (conversational), Java (advanced), SQL (basic)") and never with graphical proficiency bars or subjective ratings.
Internships often go to candidates who pair the technical skills with initiative, leadership, and teamwork outside the classroom. An Extracurricular Activities or Leadership section covers clubs, student government, volunteer work, competitions, hackathons, and athletics. These entries paint a fuller picture of you and tend to spark interview conversation.
If you held a position (Club President, Team Captain, Event Coordinator), make that clear and treat it like a job: "As Treasurer of ABC Club, managed a $5,000 annual budget and coordinated fundraising events raising $2,000 for charity." Responsibility and results, even though it wasn't paid.
Pick a couple of meaningful activities over a long list with no context. Volunteering at a science museum every week, or leading a marketing case competition team, says more than a one-time campus event appearance. Activities related to your target field are the best kind (a computer science student in a programming club, a business student in an investment club, an environmental science student on a conservation project), but unrelated ones like varsity sports or music still demonstrate dedication, discipline, and time management, and those are worth flagging briefly.
Volunteer work and community involvement carry real weight with employers, especially if it's regular or you took on a key role:
Volunteer Tutor, Local Community Center (2019-Present): Teach math and science to middle school students weekly, improving test scores by an average of 15%.
That shows altruism, and also teaching, communication, and reliability.
Keep entries tight: 1-2 bullets each, or none at all when the title explains itself. "Member, University Coding Club, 2023-Present" doesn't need elaboration unless you did something significant in that role.
A few smaller sections can round out the page, if they earn their space.
Awards and achievements not already mentioned can get a short section: academic honors (Dean's List, honor societies), competition placements (2nd place in a hackathon or case competition), scholarships, and other prizes. List the name, year, and a very brief descriptor if it's not obvious:
ABC Innovation Challenge, 1st Place (2024): Won university-wide competition for best sustainable business idea.
Certifications get their own section if you have several. Keep them current and relevant: technical certs (IT, software, lab safety), language certifications (the JLPT for Japanese), or industry-specific ones, with the certifying authority and date where applicable:
Google Analytics Certified (2025)
Interests are optional, and only worth it if you have the space and want to personalize the resume a bit. List 2-4 personal interests that could be talking points or show a unique side of you:
Interests: Marathon running, Digital illustration, Chess (competitive)
Skip extremely common hobbies (reading, travel: almost everyone could say these) and anything controversial or trivial. The goal is something an interviewer might connect with or that reflects well on you. Competitive sports imply discipline, an instrument implies dedication. Keep it to a small footnote at the end.
Languages deserve a line if you speak more than one, either here or under Skills. State the language and proficiency: Spanish (fluent), French (conversational), English (native). Being bilingual is a plus for many North American roles, so don't overlook it.
Publications are mostly for research-oriented internships and students with published work. If that's you, list the paper title, venue, and date (a smaller font is fine). For most undergrads, a thesis or research project fits better under Projects or Experience.
One warning across all of these: don't pile on sections. A cluttered resume dilutes its own impact. If a category has only one or two items, fold them into an existing section, like a single award under Education or Experience if it's related.
Every bullet on the page should follow the same basic shape: action verb, what you did, and the outcome. The CAR or STAR framing helps you check yourself, by making sure each bullet covers the Challenge or Situation, the Action, and the Result: "Identified inefficient process in lab scheduling (challenge), created a new booking system in Excel (action), which reduced scheduling conflicts by 50% (result)." A mini story with a number at the end.
The same formula works for softer material: "Developed interpersonal skills by facilitating cross-cultural team meetings (how) and resolving 5+ conflicts within the project team (outcome)." Each bullet should put a skill or quality you want noticed on display.
Quantify and qualify wherever you can: how many, how much, how often, how big. "Managed a team of 4." "Increased sales by 15%." "Served 50+ customers daily." "Completed project 2 weeks early." "Handled $10K budget." Numbers draw the eye and turn claims into evidence. Estimates and ranges are fine if you don't have exact figures, as long as you can back them up in an interview.
Resume language drops "I" entirely. Start with the verb, cut filler words, and keep the phrasing positive and specific: "improved" rather than "tried to improve," "collaborated with team" rather than "worked with team." A resume also never explains why you left a job, only what you achieved while you were there.
Match the tone to the industry, within reason. Creative fields tolerate a little flair in the wording, technical roles want technical specifics, and everything in between wants plain, professional language that anyone scanning can grasp quickly. No slang, no jargon that isn't widely understood, nothing flowery.
Then proofread like it matters, because it does. A single typo can undercut an otherwise strong resume by signaling a lack of attention to detail. Check spelling, verb tenses, alignment of dates, and consistency in things like "B.S." versus "BS" (pick one). Reading it aloud helps, and so does another set of eyes. You want zero errors.
One page, clear section headings, consistent fonts, spacing, and bullets, and easy to skim in 30 seconds or less
Name, phone, professional email, and location at the top, with every link (LinkedIn, portfolio) working
Education complete: degree, school, location, grad date, relevant honors, and no high school past first year
Experience bullets highlight achievements with action verbs and results, not just duties, quantified where possible
Resume tailored to this internship, with relevant projects, courses, and experience emphasized and keywords from the job description
Every listed skill is one the employer is seeking and you actually possess, with no filler
Language clear, concise, and free of first-person pronouns and slang, with acronyms either explained or widely recognized in your field
Formatting polished: bullets, dates, and dashes aligned, readable font size, enough white space, and consistent styling (if one job title is in italics, all of them are)
Spell-checked and proofread, ideally by a friend or advisor as well
Exported to PDF and named appropriately (YourName_Resume.pdf), printed on clean white paper if you're handing it over, and all sections and dates making sense chronologically with no glaring gaps
A resume that clears this list won't get you the job by itself. It gets you the interview, and that's its whole job. If the application also asks for a cover letter, we wrote a guide for that too.
