Student Resume: What to Include and How to Lay It Out

A student resume proves potential through evidence of what you have done so far: coursework and projects, internships and part-time work, leadership in clubs or teams, and skills you can show. Put education at the top, follow it with the strongest relevant work, and keep it to one page. Tailor the order to the role. Employers know you are early in your career and look for initiative, reliability and signs that you learn quickly.

You have fewer jobs to list but often more material than you realise. The task is selection and clear description.

Section order

For most students this works well.

1. Name and contact details, including a professional email address and, if relevant, a portfolio or professional profile link.
2. Education: degree, institution, expected graduation, relevant courses, honours.
3. Experience: internships, part-time jobs, volunteering.
4. Projects: course or personal.
5. Leadership and activities.
6. Skills: tools, languages.

If your projects are stronger than your jobs, move projects above experience. Order by relevance to the target role, not by category.

What to include in each part

Education

Degree and subject, institution, dates, and any of the following if they help: relevant modules, a dissertation title, honours, scholarships. Add GPA only if it is strong and expected. For students at an earlier stage, a high school can be listed until you have a college degree under way or finished.

Experience

Any job counts: retail, hospitality, tutoring, babysitting, delivery. Describe what you did in terms an employer in the new field would care about. A café job can show customer handling, speed under pressure and cash accuracy.

Example: "Served up to 150 customers per shift at a busy campus café, handling cash and card payments and training two new staff."

Projects

Describe course or personal projects like jobs: what you built or studied, with whom, with what and the outcome.

Example: "Group project (team of four): designed a survey of 120 students on study habits, analysed the results in R and presented findings to the module leader."

Leadership and activities

Roles matter more than membership. "Treasurer of the film society, managing a 600 budget" tells a reader more than "Member, film society".

Skills

List tools and languages you can use. Back each one with a project or course elsewhere on the page. See the skills section.

Making a short history look strong

• Use numbers where you have them: group size, audience, budget, hours, number of items.
• Use verbs that show your own action. See action verbs.
• Cut anything that does not help with this application.
• Keep descriptions to one or two lines.

If you have almost no work history, read how to write a resume with no experience for more ideas.

Tailoring for an internship

Internship hiring teams often receive many applications at once, so make the match obvious.

1. Read the posting and note the three most important skills or interests.
2. Find a project, course or activity that shows each.
3. Put those near the top and describe them in matching language where it is accurate.
4. Add a one or two-line summary stating what you are applying for.

See the targeted resume for the method.

Layout tips

• One page, one column, standard headings.
• A readable font at 10 to 11 points. See fonts and margins.
• Consistent dates and bullet style.
• Save as a PDF named with your name, for example "Priya-Shah-Resume.pdf". See PDF or Word.
• Avoid templates with sidebars and graphics, which can scramble when software reads them.

Check before you send

• Is every claim something you can talk about for two minutes?
• Are the dates correct and in the same format?
• Does the email address look professional?
• Has someone else read it? Your university careers service often reviews resumes for free.
• Does it match this role, a specific role?

Run through common resume mistakes and the final checklist before you submit. For what comes after, see how to prepare for an interview.

A sample layout in words

For a second-year computer science student applying for a summer internship:

• Header: name, email, phone, GitHub link.
• Summary: one line stating the internship type and one piece of evidence.
• Education: degree, university, expected year, relevant modules, grade if strong.
• Projects: three entries, each with two bullets and a link.
• Experience: part-time job with two bullets, framed around reliability and customer handling.
• Activities: coding club committee member, hackathon participation.
• Skills: languages and tools, matching the projects.

It is a single column on one page, easy to read in under a minute.

Notes for international students

Employers in a new country may not know your institution or grading scale. Add the country, and if helpful, a short equivalence such as "First class (equivalent to 4.0 GPA)". Check any work authorisation limits for internships, and be ready to state them clearly in the application form. Your university careers service can usually check both points.

Using career fairs and campus services

Many careers services offer free resume reviews, mock interviews and employer events. Bring a printed copy to a career fair, and keep a shorter version with a clear one-line summary at the top. Staff at stands may have a minute to look at it. Ask what they look for in an applicant, and note it for the next draft.