1

I've been applying for internships throughout the year, but I never get any interviews, much less responses. This makes me think that I'm missing something very basic.

One of the things that is suspect to me is listing an previous internship on my resume. The reason I think this is bad is because I know that many companies hire interns as a trial before on-boarding them to full positions upon graduation. If a company sees a previous internship on there, especially as a college student, my assumption is that the company will see that as competition, and not waste their effort and resources for a chance at on-boarding a member.

Am I correct in my guess that listing a previous internship on my resume while applying for another one (as a college student) may not be the best idea?

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    Are you working through an internship or careers program at your school? Are you blindly sending applications to companies, or working with a recruiter or via some other channel? Not directly relevant to your question perhaps, but there may be other things you can do to increase your "hit rate" at getting interviews. I agree with Steve-O's answer that you including the past internship is almost certainly not a bad thing, and not the reason why you're not getting interviews.
    – dwizum
    Commented May 10, 2018 at 15:31
  • @dwizum i appreciate the advice. there's certainly some factors to consider.
    – user53861
    Commented May 10, 2018 at 15:37
  • My point is, it's often not the content of the resume that makes the difference, it's the when/where/how/who sees it.
    – dwizum
    Commented May 10, 2018 at 15:40

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

Am I correct in my guess that listing a previous internship on my resume while applying for another one (as a college student) may not be the best idea?

Simply put: no, you're not.

No company in its right mind is going to say "well, he might get hired elsewhere, so we won't bother interviewing him ourselves." That's like refusing to even go on a date unless you're sure the other person is your soul mate - if you don't try to get to know them, how will you ever figure out if they're your soul mate (or not)?

Every time a company is hiring for an open position, they understand that applicants are also looking elsewhere. They understand there's competition and that some other company might hire a given applicant first if they don't act quickly. That's true whether it's an internship or not.

That said, having more experience on your resume is never a bad thing. Unless maybe it's experience that's not relevant to the job you're applying for. But if you're fresh out of school (or still in school) and probably don't have all that much job history to start with, I'd absolutely put it all down.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.