You should take internships off your resume when they are no longer relevant to the jobs you’re applying for, or when your resume becomes too crowded. Focus on showcasing your most impactful and recent experiences to make a strong impression on recruiters.
Navigating what to include on your resume can feel like a puzzle, especially when you’re just starting out. Many students and recent graduates wonder about the lifespan of their early internship experiences. It’s a common question: when is the right time to remove those valuable, but perhaps no longer relevant, internships from your resume? This can be a source of stress, but don’t worry! We’ll break down exactly when and how to make these decisions. By the end of this guide, you’ll feel confident about curating a resume that highlights your best qualifications and helps you land your dream job.
Why Removing Older Internships Can Be a Good Idea
Your resume is a dynamic document, meant to evolve with your career journey. Think of it as your professional highlight reel. As you gain more experience, particularly full-time roles or significant projects, older internships might start to take up valuable real estate that could be better used for more impactful information. Here’s why strategically removing internships can be beneficial:
- Keeps your resume concise and focused: Recruiters often spend mere seconds scanning a resume. If your older internships aren’t directly relevant to the job you’re applying for, they can distract from your more recent and pertinent qualifications.
- Highlights your growth and progression: By removing early internships, you naturally draw attention to your more advanced skills and responsibilities gained in later roles. This showcases your career development effectively.
- Improves relevance for specific jobs: As you specialize in a particular field or type of role, internships from vastly different industries or at a very junior level may no longer align with your career goals.
- Prevents an outdated appearance: A resume packed with very old, entry-level experiences can sometimes give the impression that you haven’t progressed significantly in your career, even if that’s not the case.
When It’s Time to Say Goodbye to Past Internships
Deciding when to remove an internship isn’t an exact science, but there are clear indicators that suggest it’s time to make a change. Consider these points:
1. When You Have More Relevant Experience
This is the most common and straightforward reason. If you’ve landed full-time positions, significant project roles, or even more advanced internships that directly relate to the jobs you’re targeting, it’s likely time to let go of older, less impactful internships.
Example: You completed an internship in social media management during college. Now, you have three years of experience as a Digital Marketing Manager, with a proven track record in SEO, content strategy, and paid advertising. In this scenario, the older social media internship might be removed to make space for more detailed descriptions of your current responsibilities and achievements.
2. When the Internship is No Longer Relevant to Your Target Role
Career paths aren’t always linear. You might have interned in a field that you’ve since moved away from. If your current career aspirations lie in a different direction, those unrelated internships can clutter your resume.
Example: You interned at a law firm while exploring a career in law. However, you’ve since discovered a passion for software development and have completed coding bootcamps and personal projects. When applying for software engineering roles, the law firm internship is unlikely to add value and should probably be removed.
3. When Your Resume Exceeds One Page (and You’re Not a Senior Professional)
For most entry-level and early-career professionals, a one-page resume is the standard. If your resume is stretching to two pages, and the older internships are the least impactful content, they are prime candidates for removal.
Writer’s Tip: While a two-page resume can be acceptable for those with extensive experience (typically 10+ years), for most early-career job seekers, brevity is key. Focus on quality over quantity.
4. When the Internship Was Very Short or Unremarkable
If an internship was only a few weeks long, or if you don’t have significant accomplishments to list from it, it might not be worth the space it occupies, especially if newer, more substantial experiences are available.
Example: A two-week volunteer internship where your primary task was filing documents might not add as much value as a three-month internship where you managed a client project. Prioritize the latter.
5. When You Need to Make Space for Key Skills or Projects
Your resume should also highlight crucial skills, certifications, or significant personal projects that demonstrate your capabilities. If older internships are pushing these important elements off the page, it’s time to reassess what’s most important.
Example: You have a section for “Key Projects” showcasing your work on a complex data analysis project. If an old internship description is taking up space that could be used to elaborate on the technologies or methodologies used in your data project, consider removing the internship.
How to Decide Which Internships to Keep
Not all internships are created equal, and not all need to be removed. Here’s how to evaluate and keep the ones that serve you best:
1. Relevance to the Job Description
This is your primary filter. Read the job description carefully. Does the internship experience you’re considering directly relate to the responsibilities, skills, or industry mentioned? If yes, keep it. If not, consider removing it.
Actionable Tip: Create a master resume that includes all your internships and experiences. Then, tailor your resume for each job application, including only the most relevant internships.
2. Impact and Accomplishments
Focus on internships where you achieved tangible results. Did you increase efficiency, save costs, improve a process, or contribute to a successful project? Quantifiable achievements make an internship experience stand out, even if it’s older.
Example: Instead of “Assisted with social media posts,” use “Increased social media engagement by 15% over three months by developing and implementing a new content calendar.”
3. Duration and Depth of Experience
Longer internships or those where you had significant responsibility generally hold more weight than shorter, more administrative ones. If an internship provided substantial learning and hands-on experience, it might be worth keeping longer.
4. Your Career Stage
Students and Recent Graduates: Your internships are often your most significant professional experiences. Keep all relevant internships, especially if they showcase skills applicable to your target roles. You might even keep slightly less relevant ones if they demonstrate soft skills like teamwork or communication.
Early to Mid-Career Professionals: As you build your professional career, internships become less critical unless they are highly specialized or directly relevant to a career pivot. Focus on your paid roles and significant projects.
Career Changers: If an internship aligns with your new career path, even if it’s older, keep it! It demonstrates your early interest and exploration of the new field. You might need to reframe its description to highlight transferable skills.
Structuring Your Resume: Where to Put Internships
The placement of your internship experience on your resume depends on its significance and your career stage.
1. As Part of “Experience” or “Work History”
If the internship provided substantial experience and accomplishments, list it chronologically within your “Experience” or “Work History” section, just like a paid job. Include the company name, your title (e.g., “Marketing Intern”), dates of employment, and bullet points detailing your responsibilities and achievements.
2. In a Dedicated “Internship” Section
For students or recent graduates with multiple internships that are crucial to their early career development but perhaps less extensive than full-time roles, a dedicated “Internships” section can be effective. This section would typically appear after your “Education” and before or alongside your “Experience” section.
3. Within “Projects” or “Relevant Experience”
If an internship was project-focused and you want to highlight specific skills or outcomes, you could potentially list it under a “Projects” section, especially if you’re in a field like tech or design where project portfolios are common. Alternatively, if you have a “Relevant Experience” section for volunteer work or freelance gigs, an internship might fit there if it’s not your primary professional experience.
Examples of Internship Descriptions to Keep or Remove
Let’s look at some scenarios:
Scenario 1: The Highly Relevant, Impactful Internship
Job Target: Junior Data Analyst
Internship: Data Analytics Intern at Tech Solutions Inc. (Summer 2022)
- Analyzed customer behavior data using SQL and Python, identifying key trends that informed marketing campaign adjustments.
- Developed interactive dashboards in Tableau to visualize sales performance, leading to a 10% improvement in data-driven decision-making for the sales team.
- Collaborated with senior analysts to clean and preprocess datasets, ensuring data integrity for reporting.
Decision: KEEP. This is highly relevant, showcases specific technical skills (SQL, Python, Tableau), and includes quantifiable achievements. It should be a prominent part of your resume.
Scenario 2: The Older, Less Relevant Internship
Job Target: Software Engineer
Internship: Marketing Intern at Local Retail Store (Summer 2019)
- Assisted with social media content creation and scheduling.
- Helped organize in-store promotional events.
- Provided customer service on the sales floor.
Decision: REMOVE (likely). Unless the retail store internship somehow involved data analysis or project management that directly applies to software engineering (which is unlikely), this experience is probably not adding value for a software engineering role and should be removed to make space for technical projects or more relevant experience.
Scenario 3: The Career Pivot Internship
Job Target: UX Designer
Internship: Graphic Design Intern at Creative Agency (Summer 2021)
- Created visual assets for client websites and social media campaigns.
- Collaborated with a design team on branding projects.
- Learned to use Adobe Creative Suite for various design tasks.
Decision: KEEP and REFRAME. While not directly UX, graphic design involves visual principles relevant to UX. Reframe the bullet points to emphasize transferable skills like visual hierarchy, user-centered design thinking (even if implicit), and collaboration. You might also add a UX-specific project or certification to bridge the gap.
When to Keep Even “Older” Internships
There are specific situations where an internship, even if a few years old, might still be valuable:
- Demonstrating a Career Pivot: As mentioned, if an older internship shows your early interest or foundational skills in a field you’re now transitioning into, it’s a great asset.
- Highlighting Unique Skills or Industry Exposure: Did you intern in a niche industry or use a very specific technology that is still in demand? This unique exposure can be a differentiator.
- Filling Gaps in Employment: If you have employment gaps, relevant internships can help demonstrate your commitment to working and learning.
- If it’s Your Only Experience in a Key Area: If you lack formal work experience in a critical area for your target job, a relevant internship, even if older, might be necessary to include.
What to Do When You Remove Internships
Once you’ve decided to remove an internship, here’s what you can do:
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Update Your Master Resume: Make sure to remove it from your comprehensive master resume. This keeps your master document clean and up-to-date.
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Create a “Projects” or “Volunteer” Section: If the internship involved specific projects or significant responsibilities that you want to preserve, consider creating a “Projects” or “Volunteer Experience” section. This allows you to showcase these achievements without presenting them as formal employment.
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Focus on Skills: Ensure that the skills you gained during that internship are reflected in your “Skills” section or within the descriptions of your more recent, relevant experiences.
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Leverage for Networking: Even if removed from your resume, the contacts you made during an internship can still be valuable for networking. Keep in touch with former supervisors or colleagues.
Table: Internship Decision Checklist
Use this quick checklist to help you decide if an internship should stay or go:
| Criteria | Keep Internship? | Consider Removing? | Notes |
| Highly relevant to target job? | ✅ | Prioritize relevance. | |
| Showcases key skills/achievements? | ✅ | Quantifiable results are best. | |
| More relevant experience exists? | ✅ | Make space for newer roles. | |
| Internship is very old & irrelevant? | ✅ | Focus on career progression. | |
| Resume is over one page? | ✅ | Conciseness is key. | |
| Internship was very short/minor? | ✅ | Prioritize impactful experiences. | |
| Demonstrates career pivot? | ✅ | Valuable for career changers. |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What if I only have internships and no paid work experience?
If your primary experience consists of internships, absolutely keep them! They are your most valuable assets. Focus on detailing your responsibilities and achievements in each internship to showcase your skills and work ethic. Your resume might even have a dedicated “Internships” section.
How long should I keep an internship on my resume?
There’s no strict time limit. The key is relevance and impact. Keep internships as long as they are relevant to the jobs you’re applying for, showcase important skills, or demonstrate your career progression. Once you have more substantial, related experience, older or less relevant internships can be removed.
Should I remove an internship if it was unpaid?
No, the fact that an internship was unpaid doesn’t automatically mean you should remove it. What matters is the experience gained, the skills developed, and the relevance to the jobs you’re seeking. Many valuable internships are unpaid, especially in fields like non-profits or certain creative industries.
Can I list multiple internships from the same company?
Yes, if you had distinct roles or responsibilities during each internship at the same company, you can list them separately. Ensure each entry clearly states your title and the timeframe. If the roles were very similar, you might consider consolidating them or focusing on the most recent/impactful one.
What if the internship was in a completely different field?
If an internship is in a field unrelated to your current job search, it’s generally best to remove it, especially if your resume is getting crowded. However, if it helped you develop transferable skills (like communication, problem-solving, or project management) that are relevant to your target role, you could keep it and reframe the description to highlight those transferable skills.
Is it okay to remove an internship I did just a year ago?
Yes, it’s perfectly fine to remove an internship from even a year ago if you have more relevant or impactful experiences to showcase. The goal is to present the strongest, most relevant picture of your qualifications for each specific job application. If a newer role or project better demonstrates your suitability, prioritize that.
How do I make sure my resume doesn’t look too junior if I remove internships?
Focus on the depth and impact of your current experiences. Use strong action verbs, quantify your achievements, and highlight advanced skills and responsibilities in your full-time roles or significant projects. If you’re transitioning from internships to a professional career, ensure your resume