How To Write A Resume For An Engineering Internship

We’re going to teach you how to write a resume for an engineering internship.

This assumes that you have no prior resume writing experience and also no internship experience.

If you need a more comprehensive industry example, check out how to write a resume for mechanical engineering majors.

February 29, 2024 by Kazu Fujimoto

Engineering Intern Resume Format

If you’re wondering how should you format your resume in 2022, stick to the “standard one” shown above. Clean, simple, and efficient in design. This is the format that will best portray your education, experience, projects, and your skills. Recruiters are conditioned to look at this type of format for the most effective resumes.

Education

The education section of your engineering internship resume will consist of your school, degree, location, date, and if high enough, your GPA. Additionally, if you have specific experience in your schooling that you would like to highlight, add that as a bullet underneath.

Experience

This is where your job experience will go. If you worked as a cashier, driver, server, or any other part time job, you will add your experience here. Use the format shown. Capture the employer, location, position title and date using the standard format I show.

Project Experience

This is the most important section you will have on your resume and will be the key to you getting an engineering internship without experience.

So many engineering students struggle with their resumes, especially the ones with no experience. The age old truth follows – “to get experience, you need experience”

So what is the practical way to get an internship without any experience? Showcase your engineering projects onto your resume.

Example Projects For Engineering Internship Resume

Society of Automotive Engineers – BAJA or Formula Vehicle

Employers love BAJA or Formula SAE on resumes. If you see a recruiter and hand them your resume, they will ask you about your experience in BAJA/Formula. Be prepared to talk about it.

Senior Capstone Project

Your capstone project as an engineering student. 100% put this on your resume if you are lacking internship experience. For some this may overlap with BAJA or Formula. This could even be a research thesis or an individual project.

MATLAB Programming Script

If you’re assigned a basic coding project in MATLAB such as creating a program for a traffic signal based on inputs such as number of cars, put that on your resume.

Additional

Technical Skills

CAD

Include the CAD courses you have taken such as SolidWorks and AutoCAD. These CAD software are the basic ones that are offered in every engineering program at university. If you get the option to, take all CAD classes as electives. Companies love seeing hard skills such as software, as a result, specific software makes an important keyword in resumes.

FEA

In your Introduction to CAD class you will be exposed to FEA as well. FEA is a very practical application that is utilized in the industry. Employers will ask you about your competence in FEA during job interviews, so make sure you learn it.

Some specific things you will want to understand is how to step up boundary conditions and where certain locations will see the highest stresses in your analysis.

Robotics

If you took an elective such as robotics or have experience with robotics through projects using Arduino, go ahead and add it.

Awards

As an engineering student, this is where you will put awards such as dean’s list. Other awards that you are also able to put are placing in competition and even scholarships.

Make sure that you are doing well in school so that you will be considered for engineering internship positions. Try to have at least a 3.5 GPA. 3.7+ GPA is ideal. GPA matters for that first internship or first job out of college, but after that, your job experience carries more weight. That being said, it is still important to focus on your GPA.

You don’t want to get caught off guard where an engineering interviewer will ask for your GPA.

Certifications

As an engineering student, if you live in the US, get your EIT. An EIT is an Engineer In Training License. It is the first step to becoming licensed as an Engineer in the US. If you get your Professional Engineering License, this will open up doors for you.

When you are a student is the best time to take your EIT. The knowledge is still fresh in your head, therefore it does not hurt to take it in your junior or senior year and add it onto your resume.

Memberships

Join Society of Automotive Engineers if you are an engineering student. This will open up numerous internship opportunities for you and give you solid engineering experience in an academic setting.

Want to learn more about best resume practices for engineering?

Check out: The Best Engineering Resume Writer

The Big Picture

It’s difficult to get an engineering internship nowadays due to the supply of engineering students vs. positions available.

US Number of College Students

As a rough unit of measure, there are about 18-20 million college students.

US Job Openings (1000s)

If we look at data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are approximately 12,000,000 job openings in the US.

This data does not look at the smaller picture such as number of engineering jobs vs. grads, but more from a big picture perspective. What’s the big picture?

The supply of applicants will be far greater than the supply of openings.

As a result, applying for jobs will be difficult and competitive.

Also, as an intern, you may want to look into paying someone to write your resume. The upfront cost may hurt, but may save you thousands of dollars by having a job faster.

Want to be successful in your internship so that you can land a job?

Check out: 12 Tips On How To Do Well In An Internship