How to make menial tasks sound impressive on your resume

You know those internships where the supervisor doesn’t really have enough work to give you, so you wind up filing or shredding papers all day? Not only are you bored to tears, but when you go to write your resume, you feel like you have no job responsibilities worth listing!

The good news is, there is a way to use your experience to show that you do have valuable skills and that you learned something (without lying). If all you did was file during an internship, that’s ok, but you’ll have to find a way to phrase it better. Think about the overall purpose of filing -- you were probably helping the department stay organized in some way. “Created an organizational system for tracking projects” or “Oversaw office organization and handled sensitive documents” sounds a whole lot better than “Filed papers.”
​
Filing may seem like a silly administrative task, but if you can use it to prove that you are organized (an essential skill for any employee), it can give your resume a boost instead of holding you back. The same is true for simple assignments like making office runs as a PA or handling company mail as an assistant. If you think big about these minor responsibilities, your resume will sound much more impressive.

---

-- Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan