4 Factors for Determining When to Remove Internships from Your Resume
As you progress in your career and gain more professional experience, you may find that you have less space on your resume and need to start removing older or less relevant experiences.
One type of experience that you may consider removing from your resume is internships.
When should you start to remove internship experience from your resume? Here are a few factors to consider:
1. Relevance to your current career goals.
If you are no longer interested in pursuing a career in the field or industry that you interned in, it may be time to remove that experience from your resume.
For example, if you interned in marketing while in college but are now interested in a career in finance, it may be less relevant to include that marketing internship on your resume.
2. Length of time since the internship.
As a general rule, it's a good idea to remove internships from your resume if they were completed more than five to seven years ago.
This is especially true if you have gained a significant amount of professional experience since then that is more relevant to your current career goals.
However, if you are just starting out in your career and have relatively little experience, it may be more beneficial to keep your internships on your resume for a longer period of time.
3. Length of the internship.
If you completed a short-term internship that lasted only a few weeks or months, you may want to consider removing it from your resume once you have gained more substantial experience.
On the other hand, if you completed a longer-term internship that lasted several months or more, it may be worth keeping it on your resume for longer, especially if it was in a field or industry that is relevant to your current career goals.
4. Relevance of the internship to your current job search.
If you are currently looking for a new job and are targeting specific industries or companies, it's important to consider whether your internships are relevant to your job search.
If you are applying for a job in finance, for example, and your only internship experience was in marketing, it may be less relevant to include that experience on your resume.
In Summary
Ultimately, the decision of when to remove internship experience from your resume will depend on your specific career goals and the relevance of the experience to your current job search.
By considering these factors, you can determine when it's time to remove internships from your resume and make room for more relevant and current experience.
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About the AuthorMatt Glodz
Matt Glodz is the Founder and Managing Partner of Resume Pilots and a Certified Professional Resume Writer.
After studying business communication at Cornell University, Matt worked within Fortune 500 companies, where he noted that qualified candidates were frequently denied interview opportunities due to poorly written documents.
At Resume Pilots, Matt combines his business and writing background - which includes prior work for a Chicago Tribune publication - to craft resumes that give his clients the best chance of landing interviews. He works with clients ranging from CEOs to recent graduates and has been writing resumes for over 10 years.
He has been quoted on numerous business and career-related topics in outlets including Business Insider, CNBC, Fortune, Glassdoor, The Ladders, and Thrive Global.