At the time when students are about to initiate internships when in college, it is but natural for them to feel overwhelmed. It is sometimes difficult to know where to start. Internships often have an important role to play in shaping your career. In this blog, we know about Cover Letter for an Internship.
Before starting your internships, two of the most important steps to take are preparing your CV and cover letter. This makes your application stand out.
Odds are high that you are pretty much sure about how your CV needs to be. However you need to write the cover letter as well, just to be sure that the hiring committee takes a second look at your application. This way, you employer is going to be sure about who you are and how you can contribute.
Overall, your cover letter will be a place where you discuss your personality and share your desire to succeed. This will be a demonstration of why you need this internship opportunity.
In this guide, we discuss how to write a cover letter for an internship that stands out. The core discussion areas will be formatting and strategies, and how to avoid the commonly made mistakes.
What is a Cover Letter for an Internship?
An internship cover letter is nothing but a single-page document that you’ll be submitting alongside your CV or Resume. Going through the cover letter will give a better idea to the recruiter about who you are, professionally, and how are you going to contribute to the team.
However, it is noteworthy that when a student applies for an internship, he is unlikely to have much of professional experience. But, through your cover letter, you can express why the position interests you and how is it associated with your background. You can talk about the strengths that you bring to the table.
A cover letter is more of a basic document and does not need to be a stellar essay to be well written. The core demand of a cover letter is to highlight your personal achievements and work experience. Typically, cover letter for an internship will express:
- Your academic coursework that is applicable for the position
- Your relevant leadership or volunteer experiences
- Acquired universal skills, like teamwork and communication
- Your career goals and how does the internship enhance them
- Your motivation towards the internship opportunity
In a nutshell, the cover letter for an internship will talk about your professionalism, initiative, and maturity. Employers are particular about your quick-learning abilities and your interest in the field, which will help you contribute meaningfully. These questions will be answered in your cover letter.
In your cover letter, you can explain, something that you cannot do in your CV. Your CV does show your skills but your cover letter frames these skills to a specific position.
Internship Cover Letter Format
When writing a cover letter for an internship, you need to structure it right. This keeps the hiring manager informed that you can communicate clearly and professionally. Typically, the cover letter structure goes as follows:
Header
- Your name
- Contact information
- Date
- Employer’s name, title, company, and address
Greeting
- Dear (Hiring Manager’s Name),
Opening Paragraph
- Introduce yourself
- State the specific internship position that you are applying for
- Specify how you came to know of the position
- Convey your enthusiasm to participate in the position
Showcase Paragraph(s)
- Talk about the projects and coursework relevant to the position and discuss how they apply
- Discuss the universal skills that you plan to utilize in the position
- Create a link between your skills and the company’s expectations
- Use just a couple of paragraphs, keeping the focus on being clear and concise
- You may want to add in a call to action
Farewell
- Add a closing phrase
- “Best Regards”, or “Sincerely,”
- Your name
General Formatting
- Limit your cover letter to a single page, not more than 250 to 400 words.
- It is best to use a professional font such as Arial or Times New Roman. Font size should be standard, which is 11 or 12 points. The font used for CV and cover letter should be the same.
- Just as in the case of standard college essay, leave a 1-inch margin and align the text leftwards.
- Your letter needs to be provided as a PDF document unless specified otherwise.
In all likelihood, your internship hiring manager will review a large number of applications. Correspondingly, you want to ensure that your letter is clean, easy to read, polished, and consistent.
Starting The Cover Letter For An Internship: The Opening Paragraph
The opening paragraph should be so written that it sets the tone for the rest of the letter. In general, an employer will first approve the qualifications that he sees on your CV and then decides if he wants to go through the cover letter or not. So, the opening paragraph should be used to establish a personal connection with the internship. You should discuss your qualifications in the cover letter, but generally, after the opening paragraph. Do this by:
- Many employers offer multiple internships, so you need to be explicit about the particular internship
- You create a personal connection with the employer when you explain how you came across the opportunity
- Introduce yourself more personally by mentioning your area of focus, year in school, and major
- If you mention something specific about the industry or company, this conveys your authentic excitement regarding the opportunity
This establishes your position as a student and the aspects of the opportunity that attract you the most. Even as you write the cover letter professionally, you should not lose the personal touch.
The Body of an Internship Cover Letter: The Showcase Paragraphs
In the showcase section, you will share specific and quantifiable examples that poses you as a strong candidate for the opportunity before the employer. Let us take a look at the most important matters that the showcase section should cover:
Highlight Relevant Academic Experience
Figure out the classes or specific academic projects that directly associate with the position. This is how the showcase section should begin.
As an instance, if you are going to do a psychology internship, describe a research project that you conducted associated with it. An employer will be delighted to know how your academic experience translates to the internship opportunity and the skills you bring to the real world.
Showcase Your Skills
In this phase, you want to talk about the universal skills that you learnt in college and could apply in internship settings. They include:
- Communication and writing
- Data analysis and research
- Leadership and teamwork
- Problem-solving
- Time management
If you had earlier taken up some jobs associated with the internship, you may want to mention them as well if they taught you certain skills that you could universally use. As an example, as a front desk worker, you might have learnt some organizational skills.
So, even as the job is not directly associated with your internship, the universal skills learnt are. These skills place you better to succeed in the internship. You might want to share some examples of how these skills are applicable to the current position.
Share Your Knowledge of the Company
Before you write a cover letter, you should be sure about the details of the organization that you are applying for. You may even want to mention the organization’s initiatives, values, and mission. This only goes to show that you have a genuine interest in the company’s values and identity. Mentioning all this is better than writing a generic letter that can be sent to any company.
Connect the Opportunity with Your Goals
If the applicant is driven and ambitious, employers appreciate it. So, in your cover letter, you need to discuss with your employer the career path the internship will help you achieve. This just goes to show that the internship opportunity is valuable for you.
Ending an Internship Cover Letter: Closing Paragraph
In your internship cover letter’s closing paragraph, you need to accomplish three goals:
- Reaffirm your interest in the opportunity
- Thank the employer or hiring manager for his time
- Invite the employer to interact further with you over the matter, if he intends so
Tips for Writing a Successful Internship Cover Letter
Personalize your cover letter
It is a best practice to mention at least one specific detail associated with the organization or company you are applying to in your cover letter.
Use quantifiable evidence
In all cases possible, quantify your achievements. This makes your experiences and skills more credible.
Demonstrate examples
At the time of explaining your skills, share examples that support your claim. When you need to exemplify that you have strong research skills, talk about a project where you demonstrated the same.
Stick to an actionable, professional tone
While you use active verbs to support your statements, it is equally important to be personable, clear, and concise.
Proofread carefully
This is important because you don’t want the cover letter to have any misalignment with your CV or typing errors.
Mistakes to avoid when writing your cover letter
Rewriting your CV
Before the employer goes through your cover letter, he’ll read your CV. So, when looking for an internship, you should try and make sure that the cover letter provides a context. There is no point in again mentioning what is mentioned in your CV.
Being too vague
One of the best practices in this regard is to share examples that support your claims. If you say that you have strong organization skills, you should share an example that demonstrates these skills in a real-world setting.
Sounding casual
Your employer will appreciate accurate and precise communication. It is best to not include slang or wordiness in your letter that does not contribute to its impact.
Using clichés
It is difficult to impress your employer by saying that you are the ideal candidate for the position. Employers frequently come across these claims and they sound insincere. So, you should be using professional and realistic language.
Creating a general cover letter
You should research the company you are applying to for internship before writing your cover letter. This delivers an additional reason for the employer to regard your cover letter.
Not including a call to action
Try and not end your cover letter without inviting a conversation.
Conclusion
In case you have never written an internship cover letter, writing the same could feel intimidating at all stages. However, when you keep the focus on the right tone, content, and structure, things have a high likelihood of turning out right. You can then create a compelling and competitive cover letter.
It is important to understand that decades of experience is not what your employer expects from you. Instead, for them, the focus lies over derive, curiosity, and practical skills. These aspects are exceedingly important to let you succeed in professional settings.
When your CV is written well and you understand how to write a strong cover letter, you will be in a position to clearly and professionally showcase yourself before the employers. This is a matter that calls for some time on your part. The focus needs to lie on authenticity, as you demonstrate what you will accomplish in the professional environment, and who you will be then.