Top Skills To Put On An Internship, Placement Or Graduate CV

Applying for an Internship, Placement or Graduate role can feel difficult if you feel you lack important experience needed to gain top skills for such roles. However, it is worth highlighting that many skills you gain from Part Time jobs are transferable and recruiters are still eager to see your CV and job application. Across your CV, Cover Letter and Interviews, recruiters will want to learn more about you and a part time job is a top and easy way to stand out from the crowd. It really is not the end of the world if you have no direct or relevant experience for a full time position somewhere. Even a short stint in a part time job can help you learn lots and open your eyes to the world of work.

So what are some of the top skills to put on an Internship, Placement or Graduate CV?

Communication

Communication is hugely important in many roles, and chances are in your part time employment you were perfecting your communication skills. Whether it be with customers, or your colleagues, recruiters will be key to assess whether you are a good communicator or not.

Teamwork

Similarly to communication skills, being able to work in a team is key. On a CV, or in a Cover Letter try to highlight how much of a team player you are, but always make sure the focus is on what you did to help the team. Even if you use your school/college/university experience as an example, if you discuss getting a top grade on a group project, brilliant. Now what did YOU do to help get that grade?

Planning and organisation

Things often don't just happen in the workplace. Things need to be planned and being organised can be the difference between fitting well into a team, or causing chaos. In your part time job, can you think of something you’ve done to be organised or plan ahead? Consider what things you did as part of your routine to be a top performer. Are you a fan of lists? Section your day in order of most important tasks? Whatever it is you do, think of a good example you can discuss.

Initiative

Recruiters will love to know that you’re not the sort of character who needs to constantly be told what to do, and are capable of getting things done yourself. This can illustrate that you can work independently, which recruiters love. Or, have you been able to think of new, smarter ways to do things to shorten the time a task takes or improve the overall quality of a job?

Commercial awareness

This is another one which can be hard to think about, but are you able to understand the implications of certain tasks on the success of the business? Or think of opportunities to benefit the company? To put it bluntly, a business operates to make money, and if you understand why things are done in a business, then you will be an attractive prospect.

Problem solving

Recruiters love good problem solvers. Whether it's solving an issue with customers, or a problem with a delivery ‘out back’ at your part time retail job, these are all great examples you can use to highlight you can solve problems.

Hear from an expert Ellie Long, Global Diversity and Inclusion Lead from Rolls-Royce, joined us on our podcast and discussed the skills she loves to see on an undergraduate and graduate CV.

Creativity

This isn't just about being artistic, but looks at new ways of thinking and doing things. Similar to problem solving and commercial awareness, are you able to look at a situation and consider new and better ways something can be done? Have you ever suggested doing something a different way at work which turned out to be a success?

Collaboration

Teamwork and collaboration are closely linked, but consider a closer working relationship. Instead, this does focus on the overall effort of the group, whilst looking at how you were able to put your strengths, and others’, to great work. Whilst working as a team often suggests you worked in your own areas, collaboration often involves working on similar areas/projects simultaneously. Consider things such as group work, sports teams, societies & clubs to demonstrate this.

Resilience

How good are you at sticking with something until the end, or overcoming difficulties? Chances are in your previous experience, you would have had some bad days which were challenging for many different reasons. The pandemic brought on many challenges for students across the UK, so without even realising it, you are resilient in numerous different ways.

Passion

Passion is great. It can help people to work harder in a natural way and can have a positive impact on those around you. So it’s no surprise that Ellie said she loves seeing people demonstrate they have a passion for something. And if you can go one step further and demonstrate your passion for the business you're applying for, then top marks are likely going to awarded to you.

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