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Writing a sensible and attractive resume is the first task you will need to conquer before you even start hunting for internships. Your resume gives employers the first impression of you and your skills and determines if you match their expectations.

 Student Resumes: are prepared if you don’t have prior working experience.   This type of resume highlights education and non-professional experience. 

 Professional Resumes: is appropriate if you have prior working experience in the filed in which you are seeking employment.   This type of resume will showcase your professional experience and convince the employer of your qualifications.   If you are a student with professional work experience, your resume should always present yourself as a professional your field of study.

Although resumes have standard formats, it is important to arrange those elements depending on what kind of jobs you are applying for. The most common formats in a student resume are below:

• Heading: include your name, residence address, email address, phone number, and personal website (if applicable).
• Objective or skills summary (if applicable): This part allows you to be distinguished from other candidates. An objective shapes a specific position you want to pursue, and it should be deleted unless you know exactly what the employer is seeking from you.  The Skills Summary should fit the job description and present your capabilities and qualifications for doing this job.
• Education: include institution name, degree, major, relevant completed course, and year of graduation. Education should be listed chronologically, include your GPA if 3.5 and above. Only include your high school education if this is your first internship during your undergraduate degree. High school degree should be deleted once you have professional experience or you are a graduate student.
• Honors, awards or accomplishments: include Dean’s list, honor associations, and academic awards to demonstrate your academic capabilities and contributions.  
• Courses, case studies and relevant projects: in this part, you should include relevant case studies or projects with brief introductions focusing on results. This section tells the employer that you are interested in these topics and are capable of exploring them. 
• Work experience: include any types of relevant work experience. Include the name of the organization, location, job title, the period of time you were working there, and a summary of your responsibilities. Use bullets, action verbs, and professional terminologies to describe your contributions focusing on the results and numbers.     
• Skills: include computer, language, and other hard skills. List names of the tools and terms.
• Activities and interests: list the clubs, extracurricular activities and volunteer jobs in which you participate, including professional associations, community groups and student organizations. Your interests should imply a positive attitude and life style.

DOs and DON’Ts

• Have your resume revised by an English speaker at least once.
• Be precise and professional. Time is money!
• Do not list your political or religious activities as it might estrange some employers.
• No typos!

Networking makes you more visible to employers and explores the hidden job market for you. Networking is not simply asking people to give you a job, which is rude and unprofessional, but a process to give and to receive information and gradually build up your reputation. 

Peers:  Are people who know you very well. They would be your classmates, co-workers, or friends who are also seeking internship opportunities. Try to share information with your classmates or friends who are also looking for internship opportunities and are sharing information with you. Your friends are your referrals, know your talent, will give you feedback, and will share the latest industry trends with you.  Once you bring a promising team together and form an active job-hunting strategy, the shared connections, resources and spiritual support of your friends benefit you along your path.

Alumni: each university has a powerful alumni pool where you could find unacquainted contacts for professional purposes. The steps to contact alumni:

• Identify why you are contacting her/him. Are you seeking a job inquiry or business deal? Career advice or consulting offer? Specify the contact into industry, company, location, major and year, occupation, etc.
• Find the contact. Search through the alumni search engine. Find the contacts, and call your school to verify the person’s name and contact information.
• Send formally written email to the person. Be polite, precise and error-free.  Introduce yourself, identify the reasons you are writing this email, and politely request an on-site meeting or phone call. Attach your resume on the second email or later ones.

LinkedIn: Create a LinkedIn account and join your school groups and the groups that you are interested or that will possibly expand your network. Fill your profile by simply copying your prepared resume. Make your profile as professional and attractive as possible. 

A resume is always accompanied with a cover letter, conveying the following information to the prospective employers:

• How well do you know the position, organization, and industry
• Why do you want to join the organization and what is your enthusiasm
• Your writing skills

Before writing a cover letter, you should:

• Research the company and the position you are applying (through Google, Wikipedia, etc.), and the persons you will be meeting (through LinkedIn if you have their names)
• Familiarize the job description and qualifications as you are mostly telling the employer what you can do the job in a cover letter

A cover letter commonly consists of 4 paragraphs and is always one page length. The format of a cover letter is exactly the same as a regular letter:

• Salutation: the name of the specific person whom you know will read this cover letter; or  “to whom it may concern”, “Dear hiring manager”, ”Dear Madam/ Sir”.
• First paragraph: include information on what job you are applying for and where you learned about it. Briefly mention the skills that match the job and make you the best candidate. Include a mutual connection if you have one.
• Second paragraph: there are two parts in the paragraph.
  • The first part should demonstrate your ability to do the job. An effective way to write this part is to interpret your resume and experience in a way that matches the job description. Find out the key words in the job description and match them to your skills and experience.  
  • The second part should indicate your motivation. Try to include the company’s mission, culture, products, or any research you did that makes you a perfect match for this job and organization.
• Final paragraph: address your interests for the position and an on-site interview; your contact information; how you will follow up, and do it; thank the reader for their consideration.

The F-1 Visa (Academic Student) allows foreigners to enter the United States as full-time students at an accredited college, university, seminary, conservatory, academic high school, elementary school, or other academic institution or in a language training program. The F-1 visa holders must be enrolled in a program or course of study that culminates in a degree, diploma, or certificate and her/his school must be authorized by the U.S. government to accept international students. F-1 students are required to maintain a permanent residence abroad to which they intend to return upon the completion of their studies in the U.S.

F-1 students may not work off-campus during the first academic year, but may accept on-campus employment subject to certain conditions and restrictions. There are various programs available for F-1 students to seek off-campus employment, after the first academic year. F-1 students may engage in three types of off-campus employment, after they have been studying for one academic year. These three types of employment are:

• Curricular Practical Training (CPT)
• Optional Practical Training (OPT) (pre-completion or post-completion)
• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Optional Practical Training Extension (OPT)
• CPT, OPT, and OPT Extension 

CPT: students are eligible to obtain CPT authorization only when they have valid F-1 status and before the completion of their course of study. CPT is authorized by educational institutions for F-1 students to participate in curricular-related employment to enhance their academic study. Common types of CPT are internship, cooperative education, and practicum.

In general the student and their school will determine if the position is eligible for the CPT program and prepare required paperwork. The student will request a new I-20 Form stating the employment information including employer, time period, and on part-time/full-time basis as recorded in the institution.

OPT: F-1 students are permitted to work by United State Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the US without acquiring work visa (H-1B) sponsorship for a maximum of 12 months after graduation from their program. During the period of OPT, students can be employed in different types of positions, including internship, part-time, full-time, temporary or volunteer jobs. It is the responsibility of the student, USCIS, and the school to process all the documents that demonstrate the students eligibility to work in a specific position. Lastly, the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) authorized by USCIS indicates the starting and ending dates of employment.

OPT STEM Extension: F-1 students engaged in Optional Practical Training (OPT) who are in certain STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields to apply for an additional 17 months of OPT authorization beyond their initial 12 months of OPT (for a total of 29 months). Students must be already engaged in authorized OPT based on graduation from a program in an acceptable STEM field to be eligible.

J-1

J-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa issued by the United States to exchange visitors participating in programs that promote cultural exchange, especially to obtain medical or business training within the U.S. All applicants must meet eligibility criteria and be sponsored either by a private sector or government program.

Academic Training (AT)

J-1 students may participate in off-campus training that is directly related to their major field of study. AT may take place both during study and after completion of studies. However, there are time limitations as to when AT may begin and how long it may last.

Career Service Center: Most colleges and universities have their own Career Service Centers, which are free to students. The functions of the Career Service Center include career decision-making, resume and cover letter writing, interview preparation, job placement and graduate school advising. Students should utilize the free resources and keep basic touch with career counselors.

Career Events: provide face to face networking opportunities with employers can provide an advantage over other candidates.  

• Sell yourself to hiring managers during these events.
• Networking with other job seekers can introduce you to people who may know companies that are hiring people with your skill set.
• Speak with employers about your career path and brand yourself to potential employers.
• A free resource to interact with employers who are hiring in your field. 

Prepare By:

• Reviewing the list of employers attending and find those who are hiring in your major then target and research those selected employers.
• Developing an “Elevator Speech” to briefly introduce and brand yourself when you meet hiring managers at the fair.

Online Sources:

• Job search engines: there are a large number of job search engines that will meet most of your needs for internships and jobs. (see Job Hunting Resources).  Create an alert to notify you by email when new jobs match your criteria.  
• LinkedIn: Job postings are available on LinkedIn job search engine, group page, and group discussion boards.
• Organization’s official website: most companies have their own career pages and internal job search engines. Apply for more than one job that you are capable of doing, and create a job search alert for new openings.

Association and Volunteering: join the professional associations in your field, keep current in your field regardless if you are employed or not. Volunteer for professional associations, clubs, events, or other organizations you have an interest in to gain experience and to expand your network.

Interviewing is the best opportunity for the employer and you to get to know each other. The best interview is a reciprocal conversation that examines whether both parties meet each other’s needs.

• Research the organization and the job :
  • Find anyone who is connected with the company, through your social network and online social websites, and ask for their advice; research the organization and try to obtain as much information as possible, including their products, business strategy, recent developments, competitors and other information, through the official website, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
  • Review the job description before you go to the interview and apply key details from your experience in your interview. Be able to explain all the details on your resume logically. 
• Dress professionally: you can never dress professional enough, wear a proper suit and tie. If you don’t know what to wear, black suits, shoes and a white shirt can never go wrong. Make yourself look as professional as possible. Do not overdo your hair or use to much perfume/culogne.
• What to bring
  • More than one copy of your resume
  • A small notebook and a pen
    • Write down the key aspects of your qualifications.
    • Questions preparation, prepare how to answer those most frequently asked questions and write down important notes that you don’t want to miss out.
    • Take notes on the questions generated during the interview, on the employers’ answers that you want to review after the interview, and on anything that you want to record.
    • Do not take too many notes because you won’t find them immediately when you need them, and that makes the employers think you are unorganized.
• Practice, practice, practice. List all possible questions that interviewer may ask, and practice what you are going to say when asked “tell me a little bit about yourself”. Anything you say should be professional and job related. Ask your friend to mimic an interview session with you and request feedback.

There’s a wide variety of job and internship search engines on the internet. We have listed a few of the most reliable job serach engines below howerver this list doesn't contain all of the job search engines available and we encourage you to do your own research on this topic.