How To Make Your Internship Experience Sound Like A Real Job

Editor’s Note: The following article was written by Andrea Landis, appeared on the Fast Company and Levo.

Don't undersell yourself—but don't get carried away, either.

I distinctly remember one question that my biggest-internship-turned-first-job-out-of-college boss asked me as I sat across from her in a gray wool suit in my initial interview. It went something like:

How can you manage to be the executive director of a nonprofit as a college student?

I don’t remember how I answered, but I will never forget what that question taught me—that words are powerful.

The executive director role I’d placed prominently on my resume was like the role of a president in many other on-campus clubs at my university, yet it was obvious the title carried greater weight in the mind of my boss-to-be.

Beyond the impressive title, that extracurricular also gave me leadership experience with real world application: event planning; budget management; presentations and public speaking; even training and supervising the volunteer work of other young women in the organization.

Though the role was unpaid, it was still strategic, results-oriented, and extensive. And it very much shaped and prepared me for the internship the gray-wool-suit interview would grant me, the full-time job at the same organization that came after that and all those that followed.

My now seven years experience writing effective resumes that land interviews for both myself and my A. Jayne Writes clients—as well as coaching them in successful interview tactics that seal the deal—has revealed to me three simple steps for turning internship and volunteer experience into career fuel.

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