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Help dd phrase something for her internship resume


katilac
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dd is looking for a summer business internship, hopefully in Canada. Please give input on her objective: 

 

OBJECTIVE  A summer business internship, ideally with an international or French-speaking company, where my hard work can benefit the company while I gain experience. I am strong in analytical and numerical reasoning, and my practical office skills can benefit any department I may work in. I am highly organized and enjoy solving problems.

 
All thoughts and suggestions welcome!  
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Personally, I do not like an "objective" on a resume. I seldom see any that positively contribute to the resume and they take up valuable top line space on the resume.  The information included is usually better suited for a cover letter that can be targeted to the particular position. 

 

If she is going to include "objective", I would suggest being more specific about what she is looking for.  Also any listing of skills should be directly related to the job being pursued.  Something along the lines of:

 

"A summer internship in the corporate finance department of a French company where I can apply my analytical and problem solving skills to international transactions"  

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Personally, I do not like an "objective" on a resume. I seldom see any that positively contribute to the resume and they take up valuable top line space on the resume.  The information included is usually better suited for a cover letter that can be targeted to the particular position. 

 

If she is going to include "objective", I would suggest being more specific about what she is looking for.  Also any listing of skills should be directly related to the job being pursued.  Something along the lines of:

 

"A summer internship in the corporate finance department of a French company where I can apply my analytical and problem solving skills to international transactions"  

 

Thank you! 

 

I agree that "objective" can be a space sucker, but we were told they were good for internship applicants without relevant experience (or much experience at all). Even listing all relevant courses, it's easily a one page resume.  

 

I really like your example, and finance is actually exactly where she'd like to be, lol, but she really wants her internship this summer and wanted to convey that she is open to any department. This isn't an application for a specific internship that already exists, it's being sent to connections of my dh who are open to the idea but don't have an internship "program." 

 

And they're not French companies but Canadian. An internship in French-speaking Canada?

 

If she finds companies with listed internships, definitely we would change that. But what do you think for a more open-ended application? Will they toss it if they don't need someone in finance, or ask her? Should she put "preferably in the corporate finance department" or nah? Or state that she is open?

 

"A summer internship in French-speaking Canada with the corporate finance department of a company where I can apply my analytical and problem solving skills to international transactions. Open to other positions." 

 

Thoughts? jdahlquist, bueller, anyone? 

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Whatever she comes up with, I suggest that it is also en francais immediately below 

Bilingual companies in Canada post everything twice in each language so it would be a sort of expected thing if you're targeting a firm with bilingual capability. 


I think I would play up bilingualism more. There are francophones in Canada who are not fluent in English and v.v, kwim?  French speaking Canada sounds awkward to me because it's a bit unclear whether it's supposed to refer to a geographic area or more a theoretical environment. But int'l cos in Canada are all bilingual not French-speaking, kwim? Plus companies are not actually French speaking at all because companies don't talk ....

But I'm not sure how to phrase it.. something rough:

"A summer internship in Canada where I can use my bilingual French and English skills, as well as apply analytical and problem solving strategies in a corporate finance environment."

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Bilingual companies in Canada post everything twice in each language so it would be a sort of expected thing if you're targeting a firm with bilingual capability. 

 

 

omigosh, that is brilliant! thank you! 

 

I knew that, but it never occurred to me to put it into practice on the resume. 

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dd is looking for a summer business internship, hopefully in Canada. Please give input on her objective:

 

OBJECTIVE A summer business internship, ideally with an international or French-speaking company, where my hard work can benefit the company while I gain experience. I am strong in analytical and numerical reasoning, and my practical office skills can benefit any department I may work in. I am highly organized and enjoy solving problems.

 

All thoughts and suggestions welcome!

Don't use an objective, use an executive summary. Make sure the summary gives them a reason to read the rest of the resume.

 

Executive summary:

 

Fancy University sophomore, bilingual (English-French) mathematics/economics double-major seeking summer internship. Experience with Microsoft and Adobe software, basic accounting skills.

 

Non-informative statements like "my hard work will benefit the company" have no place anywhere on the resume.

 

If you are not a citizen of the country where you are applying, but you have the legal right to work there figured out, highlight that. By working in a foreign country you can be creating immigration law headaches that can get your resume instantly tossed, especially just for a summer job.

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Don't use an objective, use an executive summary. Make sure the summary gives them a reason to read the rest of the resume.

 

Executive summary:

 

Fancy University sophomore, bilingual (English-French) mathematics/economics double-major seeking summer internship. Experience with Microsoft and Adobe software, basic accounting skills.

 

Non-informative statements like "my hard work will benefit the company" have no place anywhere on the resume.

 

If you are not a citizen of the country where you are applying, but you have the legal right to work there figured out, highlight that. By working in a foreign country you can be creating immigration law headaches that can get your resume instantly tossed, especially just for a summer job.

 

Thank you! Would you highlight that on the resume itself? 

 

fwiw, student work abroad program visas are pretty easy to get for foreign kids wanting to come enjoy Canada.  Just take a while to process so start now. 

 

Hopefully the internship director can help with that. She will be home for fall break but returns on Monday, so she can check in with him. 

 

So many details! 

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Thank you! 

 

I agree that "objective" can be a space sucker, but we were told they were good for internship applicants without relevant experience (or much experience at all). Even listing all relevant courses, it's easily a one page resume.  

 

I really like your example, and finance is actually exactly where she'd like to be, lol, but she really wants her internship this summer and wanted to convey that she is open to any department. This isn't an application for a specific internship that already exists, it's being sent to connections of my dh who are open to the idea but don't have an internship "program." 

 

And they're not French companies but Canadian. An internship in French-speaking Canada?

 

If she finds companies with listed internships, definitely we would change that. But what do you think for a more open-ended application? Will they toss it if they don't need someone in finance, or ask her? Should she put "preferably in the corporate finance department" or nah? Or state that she is open?

 

"A summer internship in French-speaking Canada with the corporate finance department of a company where I can apply my analytical and problem solving skills to international transactions. Open to other positions." 

 

Thoughts? jdahlquist, bueller, anyone? 

 

If she is just looking for any internship, then having an objective that is "looking for an internship" doesn't add anything particular to the resume--which is one of the reasons why I don't like "objective" listed on the resume--isn't it obvious what the objective of a resume is???  I also think it looks presumptive for a college student to be telling a prospective employer "Here is what I want..." rather than "here is what I can do for you..."  

 

If she has not had any finance coursework yet, it is going to be difficult to be specific.  There are many corporate finance jobs that don't deal with international transactions.  (so that is a limiting statement, also).  I was throwing that in to show the types of specifics that make an objective specific and meaningful.  I find that they work better for students who have a niche market that they have special skills for and interest in.

 

Would something along the lines of "A summer internship to explore career possibilities and gain practical corporate experience while applying my analytical and problem solving skills."

 

Does her university require an internship?  Or, will she receive college credit for it (if so there may be something there to weave into the objective) 

 

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If she is just looking for any internship, then having an objective that is "looking for an internship" doesn't add anything particular to the resume--which is one of the reasons why I don't like "objective" listed on the resume--isn't it obvious what the objective of a resume is???  I also think it looks presumptive for a college student to be telling a prospective employer "Here is what I want..." rather than "here is what I can do for you..."  

 

If she has not had any finance coursework yet, it is going to be difficult to be specific.  There are many corporate finance jobs that don't deal with international transactions.  (so that is a limiting statement, also).  I was throwing that in to show the types of specifics that make an objective specific and meaningful.  I find that they work better for students who have a niche market that they have special skills for and interest in.

 

Would something along the lines of "A summer internship to explore career possibilities and gain practical corporate experience while applying my analytical and problem solving skills."

 

Does her university require an internship?  Or, will she receive college credit for it (if so there may be something there to weave into the objective) 

 

 

I figured that the reason an objective is sometimes recommended for internship resume is because the objective is somewhat less obvious (she is not looking for long-term work or even a summer job, it has to be an internship specifically). That simpler phrasing definitely might work. 

 

Yes, an internship is required, and she will receive credit for it. And pay a lot for it, le sigh. 

 

I personally would do a generic resume (without on objective) and tailor each cover letter for the situation she is applying for.

 

This is what we will do for specific internships, but dh is also talking to some colleagues who think they can connect her with their Canadian locations, ones that do not have a formal internship program but are willing to consider taking her on for the summer. There really isn't a specific situation to tailor it for, kwim? 

 

They want to have a resume at hand to get that relevant person in Canada to say, okay, this might work, I will talk to her. They are telling us, get me a resume, I will talk to so-and-so, and I bet we can figure something out. 

 

It really needs to be a summer internship in order for other things to line up correctly, so she is taking every opportunity to at least try. If she is going out-of-country, Canada would be ideal, because we do know some people a heck of a lot closer to there than we are. 

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If she is doing it for course credit, then I might mention something about that in the objective, like "summer internship to explore career opportunities ... and to meet the requirements of XYZ course (or XYZ degree program) at ABC Univ"  

 

I don't know what the summer for her school is versus what is traditionally summer in Canada.  DD was looking for a summer internship in Europe.  Her university is out at close to the beginning of May but she has to be back by mid-August for fall semester.   Many of the Europeans would think July through beginning of September for internships.  If there is likely to be a time mismatch, she might want to be specific about the time period like a "six week internship in June and July..."  rather than simply summer internship  

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If she is doing it for course credit, then I might mention something about that in the objective, like "summer internship to explore career opportunities ... and to meet the requirements of XYZ course (or XYZ degree program) at ABC Univ"  

 

I don't know what the summer for her school is versus what is traditionally summer in Canada.  DD was looking for a summer internship in Europe.  Her university is out at close to the beginning of May but she has to be back by mid-August for fall semester.   Many of the Europeans would think July through beginning of September for internships.  If there is likely to be a time mismatch, she might want to be specific about the time period like a "six week internship in June and July..."  rather than simply summer internship  

 

More helpful suggestions, thank you. It didn't even occur to us that the "summer" might be so mismatched. 

 

Y'all are helping so much! Thanks to everyone. 

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