Written by Lucille Tasker, Director of Data & Technology at Rewriting the Code

Updated May 2025

The 2025 summer internship climate is competitive. You aren’t alone if you didn’t land a summer internship or even lost one. Below are Rewriting the Code’s top recommendations for ways to make sure that your summer is productive. We’ll walk through how we recommend spending your time this summer and share tips on how to highlight the new skills you learn on your resume

Work on A Personal Project

Your biggest summer 2025 priority should be developing a personal project and preparing for interviews. Personal projects are a great way to build new technical and non-technical skills. They are also a great way to demonstrate what you’re passionate about in technology and are great conversation topics during interviews. If you’re an RTC member looking to work on a project with other team members, you can use the #projects channel in the RTC Slack Workspace (request your invite here) to find people who want to work with you. In addition to finding developers for your team, you may want people in Project Management and Product Management roles to help you guide the project (and they can work on their skills, too!). If you don’t have an idea for a project yet but know you want to work on one, we recommend posting in the channel and asking if you can join someone else’s team! If you already have an idea and are looking for teammates, please post a brief description of your project, what skill sets you are looking for from team members, and your timeline for completing the project. If you are not an RTC Member, become one today! 

Make sure to list projects on your resume! Highlight the skills you learned over the summer on your resume clearly and effectively. Rewriting the Code stores lots of resume tips in our Resource Library. You may also want to check out this video with Mayuko (she talks about projects on resumes around 9:00).

Dive Deep Into New Skills

Rewriting the Code has interest groups to help you explore new technical skills and subjects. You can join our #interests-cybersecurity or #interests-data channels to find members who are also interested in building their skill sets. 

Educative has free resources for creating projects. These skill-building activities can help you build a larger project on your own or in a group. You can learn how to do anything from creating an e-commerce store in Rust to building an AI chat bot.

Build Your Portfolio and Prep Your Resume

Are you looking for a guided prep to get your portfolio prepared, assess your skills, and study for interviews? This free GitHub Career Readiness Pack is a great place to start. As for interview prep, get access to Educative – we highly recommend their Algorithms for Coding Interviews course. Educative also offers many great skill-building courses available for free, which may help you create a personal project.

Get To Coding!

Working on your coding interviewing skills over the summer will set you up for success during fall recruiting. If you’re not sure where to get started on that, you can check out our top resources here! 

If you’re an international student in the US and feel like you’re struggling to stand out to recruiters when hiring for roles in the United States, acing your coding interviews and standing out during the resume review process is going to be of the utmost importance. Doing projects is an excellent way to build your resume with new skills. You can also share these projects during interviews as an easy conversation starter! 

Not landing a summer internship doesn’t necessarily mean missing out on opportunities to boost your resume. With the right mindset and approach, you can still have a productive summer that helps you build new skills, gain valuable experience, and make meaningful connections. Whether you decide to work on a personal project, prepare for interviews, or take advantage of scholarship programs and free resources, make sure to make the most of your summer. By focusing on personal growth and skill-building, you’ll be well on your way to success in your future career.

Stay connected with RTC through Instagram and LinkedIn, or join our community of 35,000+ women in tech at rewritingthecode.org/join-us/.