<p>I'm going to be a college freshman this upcoming Fall semester and I've been doing a lot of research on summer internships for next year. I found one internship program that I definitely want to apply for that's open to undergrad students entering their sophomore, junior, or senior year. I want to apply for it next summer because I think it would be a really good first experience and a resume builder in itself.
But how should I go about building my resume for this program during my freshman year? Like is there anything I should really highlight on, or should I include any achievements from high school? I know hiring managers don't really expect college freshmen to have 'beefy' resumes, but I would still like to know how I can build a substantial resume that's worth considering.</p>
<p>Want to build your resume? Get a job. Seriously, research and such are good for grad school, but for an actual resume, you want a job or paid experience.</p>
<p>Yeah, seconding that. People usually include whatever random stuff they can find on their resumes as a freshman, but in the “real world” nobody really cares about anything execept relevant education and work experience.</p>
<p>Agreeing with the other posters here. Job experience is the most important thing for resume building. Work study jobs are usually crappy, but they’re flexible and are located on campus. </p>
<p>Other things you could do: get leadership experience, join organizations centered around your area of study and that you’re passionate about, go to seminars and workshops related to your field.</p>
<p>Research would be nice, but you’re unlikely to get that opportunity as a freshman, as positions like that usually come about after you’ve built relationships within departments or with specific professors. For example, as a freshman, my friend took a higher level geography course and got to know the prof, who was impressed with her work. Then, sophomore year, she took another class with the same professor. At the end of this last semester, the prof took her to Norway to do research. So just try to work on building relationships with professors your admire and want to work with.</p>
<p>Find one or two things that you really enjoy and become extremely involved in them. Get to know professors in your classes who can write good recommendations for you. I’ll nod to having an actual job. Doesn’t really matter what it is… Just the fact that you can say “I’m dependable because I’ve had a paying job where I did x, y, and z.” Any job experience is good experience. A job at McDonald’s? You can say that you have great communication skills and have experience working with all types of people. You’re also not afraid to get your hands dirty. An office job? You can answer phones, sort mail, etc.</p>
<p>The research program at my school is open to literally anyone who wants it, so check at your school. I had to do a research project on a school resource for my U101 class first semester, and ironically I ended up doing my research project on the Research Center.</p>