How to write an internship and graduate CV: length, photo, no-experience and English CVs (2026)

One page for students and new graduates — whether you're a second-year student applying for your mandatory summer internship or a new graduate applying to MT programmes. For someone without several years of experience, a second page usually means repetition and filler.

The reason is reading time: in Ladders' eye-tracking study recruiters spent an average of 7.4 seconds on a CV's first look. What gets read in those seconds is the top half of the page; your strongest experience belongs there.

If it doesn't fit, cut: old jobs unrelated to the posting, high-school details, "references available on request", unproven adjectives and long skill lists.

Common in Turkey, but not required. A practical rule:

• Turkish-language applications to companies in Turkey: a photo is common and causes no problems; if you add one, make it a simple, recent, professional headshot. Leaving it out is also accepted unless the posting asks for one.
• International applications (especially the US, the UK and global programmes of international companies): a photo is mostly not expected; nor are date of birth and marital status.
• For the ATS: the photo isn't something the software reads, but the two-column, boxed designs that often come with photos can make reading harder.

In Proyo, the Profile template offers an optional photo field; the other templates have no photo. You can export the same CV both ways.

1. Contact: full name, phone, email, LinkedIn, city. No full address needed.
2. Summary: 2–3 lines. Covered separately below.
3. Education: university, degree, expected graduation date; GPA if 3.00 or above; exchange semester.
4. Experience: internships, long-term internships, part-time jobs — newest first.
5. Projects: course projects, graduation project, personal projects.
6. Clubs and volunteering: with your role and the result.
7. Skills and languages: tools you use (Excel, SQL, Python, Figma…) and documented language levels.

Harvard's CV guide recommends starting each bullet with an action verb and showing the result: not "Responsible for" but "Prepared, reduced, led, built".

The summary is the most-read and worst-written part of most CVs. Lines like "dynamic, hard-working team player" are on every CV and prove nothing. A good summary gives three things in 2–3 lines: who you are, your strongest evidence, what you're looking for.

The examples are illustrative, written to show the pattern:

• Weak: "I am a dynamic, hard-working industrial engineering student open to learning."
• Strong: "Third-year industrial engineering student. Ran a simulation project that cut modelled canteen waiting time by 18%; looking for a data-focused long-term internship."
• Strong (new graduate): "Business graduate (2026) with two sales internships and a case-competition final; looking for a rotational MT programme in FMCG."

The summary should change with the posting: the same CV has a different summary for a marketing internship than for a data-analysis one.

With no work experience your CV isn't empty; the sections that stand in for experience move up:

• A projects section replaces experience. Describe your graduation project, a course project or a personal project like a job: what was the problem, what did you do, what was the result.
• Club roles: event coordination, sponsorship, social media — all can be written with measurable results.
• Case competitions and hackathons: team, role, ranking.
• Volunteering: your role and its effect.
• Certificates and courses: relevant to the posting, completed and verifiable.

Example (illustrative): "Built a warehouse layout model with a team of four for our graduation project; the proposed layout cut picking distance by 22% in the model." That line says far more than "I know Excel and Python".

More detailed example skeletons are in the CV examples guide.

An English CV isn't a word-for-word translation of a Turkish one; it's the same content written in international conventions:

• Headings: Summary, Education, Experience, Projects, Leadership & Activities, Skills, Languages.
• Photo, date of birth, marital status: left out in most international applications.
• Verbs: past-tense action verbs: Built, Led, Reduced, Analysed, Launched.
• GPA: on a 4-point scale (GPA 3.45/4.00).
• Language level: CEFR (B2, C1) and an exam score if you have one.

Example bullet (illustrative): "Built a Python script that automated weekly inventory reports, saving the team about 3 hours a week."

The rule is simple: the CV is in the posting's language. A posting published in English gets an English CV. Proyo prepares a Turkish or English CV from the same base CV, depending on the posting.

There are many tools for making the document once: Word or Google Docs, Europass, template sites like Canva. The real work is reordering the CV for every application, and template tools don't do that.

Proyo does it for every application: you build your base CV once (by chatting or by uploading your existing CV); when you pick a posting, the AI rearranges your CV for it in 15–20 seconds, writes it in the posting's language and gives you a single-column PDF with selectable text and standard headings. Nothing that isn't in your CV is added. The tools are compared in the free CV builders guide.