For the last two months I have been in full intern mode ... well, aspiring-intern mode. I have been working hard to perfect my resume and cover letter in anticipation for available internships that relate to my major and post-grad aspirations. With a little over a month left in the school year, it is crunch time to get those cover letters and resumes to potential summer employers. However, this process is not a cakewalk. It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that goes into crafting these documents. First, take a breath, then follow these steps:

Resumes

1. Create a Google Doc for your resume. According to Hope College’s Career Development Center, your resume should be “tailored to your employment goals, and emphasize relevant accomplishments and goals, while being concise and well-organized.”

2. Look at the Career Development Center’s website for resume style guides.

3. Be prepared for multiple revisions. You need to figure out what information is relevant in your resume and what is better left out. Whenever I apply for an internship or a job, I look through my resume and take out what is not useful to the position.

4. Include "Relevant Work Experience."

5. Corresponding dates should correlate to the jobs you’ve held.

6. If you’re involved in extracurriculars, try adding them and think of how those could relate to responsibilities at the internship you’re applying for. For example, I’m the Voices Editor for "The Anchor," and the Hope College Odyssey chapter Editor in Chief. This is highly related to the magazine internships that I am applying for in many respects.

7. Use action verbs when talking about your duties. Example: "Transcribe interviews for story publication."

8. Add an objective. What kind of internship are you looking for? What are you hoping to get out of it?

9. Make sure your GPA is up-to-date. It’s sometimes hard for employers to gauge an applicant’s competency, so they’ll look at a student’s or recent graduate’s GPA to see how they did in their classes.

10. Do you have Adobe Photoshop experience? Are you an expert in social media? Add those to your special skills, because those are highly employable.

Cover Letters

I’m not going to lie, writing a cover letter is hard. I went through ten revisions for my Cosmopolitan.com cover letter alone. However, when you form a solid cover letter, you can use it as a base for other internships. Warning: Employers can spot a template, so personalize it towards the company.

Disclaimer: when you apply for another internship or job, it is important to add relevant material, which will require revision. After submitting my Cosmopolitan.com materials, I took that cover letter and transformed it into a Revelist.com internship cover letter. Then, I took that cover letter and brought it to the CDC for revision, and they showed me what to cut and how to restructure my paragraphs. From my numerous revisions and handful of meetings with Career Advisers, these are my tips for you:

1. Create a letterhead. Find the name of the person who will read your cover letter. Do some research and feel free to call. You want to make this part personal.

2. In the introduction, explain how you found the position. I found the Cosmopolitan.com internship on Ed2010.com, the mentoring and networking site for print and digital journalism.

3. Use the body paragraphs to argue how your skills, knowledge, passion and experience relate to the position.

4. Try not to reiterate what is in your resume, such as your major, but elaborate on your experiences.

5. Try to use "I" as little as possible. This is not a time for you to say what the company can do for you; you need to explain what you can do for the company.

6. In the closing paragraph, thank the reader for his or her time and consideration. Also, mention how you will be proactive in following up with the one who is receiving your cover letter and resume.

Don’t just take my word for it. Get a second and third opinion at the Career Development Center. Their highly skilled staff is at your disposal and are happy to help you form materials that will help you. For all other questions, make an appointment with the CDC, or attend drop-in hours between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.