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TECHPOINT XTERN CAREER RESOURCES

Beyond the Job Description

How to talk about internships, research, student orgs, and personal projects on your resume — and what to do if you don’t have much experience yet.

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One Page, Please

As a college student, your resume should be one page. Some teams are flexible if it is a little longer. This document is not a template, just full of useful tips.

A Note on AI

AI can be helpful when creating a resume. However, it can incorrectly represent your experiences and make you sound like everyone else. Be sure to edit any AI produced documents for accuracy.

Internships & Co-Ops

Every technical role counts — full-time, part-time, remote, or unpaid. List each one even if it feels small; a two-month internship where you shipped one feature is worth more on paper than it feels in the moment.

  • Lead with structure: Job Title, Company, City/State, and dates. Keep it consistent with the rest of the resume.
  • Write 2–4 bullets per role: action verb + what you built or fixed + the tool/language you used + the result. “Built a Python script to automate weekly reporting, cutting a 3-hour task to 10 minutes” beats “Responsible for reporting.”
  • Quantify when you can: time saved, users affected, tickets closed, test coverage added, performance improved. If you don’t have a number, describe the scope (team size, size of the codebase, number of features).
  • Don’t undersell a smaller company or team: recruiters care about what you did and what you learned, not how well-known the company is.

Research Experience

Academic and lab research is legitimate technical experience — treat it with the same structure as a job.

  • Format it like a role: your title (Undergraduate Research Assistant), the lab or PI’s name, and dates.
  • Name the method, not just the topic: instead of “Researched machine learning,” try “Trained and evaluated a CNN classifier in PyTorch on a 10,000-image dataset, improving accuracy by 8%.” Tools, languages, and techniques are what a recruiter scans for.
  • Include outputs: papers, posters, conference talks, or a GitHub repo of your analysis code. A link adds credibility.
  • REU programs and independent studies count: list them the same way — they show initiative and the ability to work independently on an open-ended problem.

Student Organizations & Hackathons

Membership alone is the weakest thing you can put on a resume. Only include an organization if you can describe something you did, built, led, or organized.

  • Show ownership: “Led a 5-person team to redesign the club’s event registration system” is far stronger than “Member, Computing Club.”
  • Treat hackathons like mini-projects: name the event, your team size, what you built in the time limit, the tech stack, and any award. Judges’ feedback or a demo link is a nice add.
  • Prioritize relevance: if you’re short on space, keep the 1–2 organizations most related to the role you’re applying for and cut the rest.

Personal Projects

Projects are often the strongest section for students early in their career — they’re proof you can build something without being told to.

  • Include the basics: project name, the tech stack, and a link to the live demo or GitHub repo. Make sure the repo has a clear README before you send your resume anywhere.
  • Explain the problem, not just the tech: what were you trying to solve, and why? “Built a Chrome extension that auto-fills recurring form data, saving ~5 minutes per submission” tells a story; “Used JavaScript and HTML” doesn’t.
  • On group or class projects, isolate your contribution: “Owned the backend API and database schema for a 4-person course project” is honest and specific.
  • Quality over quantity: two finished, documented projects beat five abandoned repos. Keep the strongest 2–3 on the resume and link to a portfolio or GitHub profile for the rest.

If You Don’t Have Much Experience Yet

Almost every student feels behind on experience at some point — the fix is usually reframing what already counts, not waiting for the perfect internship.

  • Coursework projects are fair game: a class project where you built a working app, model, or system is real experience. List it under Projects and describe it exactly as you would a personal project.
  • Non-technical jobs still teach transferable skills: a retail or food-service job can show ownership, communication, and problem-solving under pressure — real qualities employers want, even if the tools weren’t technical.
  • Campus roles count: IT help desk, tutoring, TA/grading, or lab monitor positions all demonstrate technical or teaching ability. Describe what you actually did (“Troubleshot hardware and network issues for 200+ students weekly”).
  • Self-taught skills need a receipt: a certification or online course is fine to list, but pair it with a small project that proves you can apply it.
  • A focused half-page beats a padded full page: recruiters notice filler. It’s fine to have fewer, well-described entries than a long list of thin ones.
  • Apply anyway: most internship and entry-level postings list “preferred” or “nice to have” skills, not strict requirements. If you meet most of the core qualifications, it’s worth applying.

QUICK FORMATTING REMINDERS

✓Keep it to one page while you’re a student — save the second page for after a few years of experience.
✓Use consistent formatting for dates, locations, and bullet style throughout.
✓Start every bullet with an action verb; avoid “I” or “my.”
✓Export to PDF before submitting so formatting doesn’t shift on someone else’s computer.
✓Tailor your bullets and skills list to each job posting’s keywords — especially if the employer uses an applicant tracking system (ATS).
✓Proofread out loud, then have one other person read it. Typos are the easiest thing to fix and the easiest thing to get flagged for.

TECHPOINT XTERN CAREER RESOURCES

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