Cover Letter for Internship: Examples + How to Write

Ready to write your own internship cover letter? In the following video our resident career expert Corissa breaks down how to write a cover letter for an internship, step-by-step:

 

Good internships aren’t easy to land, especially if you’re applying to a well-known company. If you’re a student with little or no relevant experience, it’s challenging to convince employers you’re the person they should choose for the position. That’s where an internship cover letter comes in.

Not only is it a great opportunity to make up for your lack of experience, recent cover letter statistics show that a quarter of hiring managers think cover letters are “very important”. Your cover letter provides space for you to not only communicate your passion for the role, but also to highlight relevant skills and education which might not fit on your resume.

Here are five tips to help you write a cover letter for an internship that showcases your qualifications and convinces employers that you’re the right person for the job.

1. Focus on your motivation and passion

Internships are entry-level positions. So most hiring managers aren’t expecting you to have much formal work experience.

Instead, hiring managers look for interns with enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. These qualities show you’ll take full advantage of the training you’re given.

A resume doesn’t leave much room for communicating passion and motivation. So, it’s essential that your internship cover letter conveys this passion by explaining your motivation for applying.

Here are three ways to communicate your motivation to employers in a cover letter for an internship:

1. Describe your relevant interests. For example, if you’re applying for a beauty internship, talk about how you’ve been giving family and friends makeovers since you were young.
2. Give an example of when you showed initiative. For instance, talk about how you started a campaign for green issues during college.
3. Express interest in the company’s business by citing specific practices or products you’re excited about working with.

Additionally, if you lack relevant work experience, you can focus on other experiences you have that qualify you for the internship.

For example, mention any relevant college coursework, extracurriculars, or volunteer work experience that relates to the industry you want to intern in. This will make you appear eager to build your knowledge and seem more qualified.

List these experiences in bullet points in the body of your letter. Here’s an example of what that looks like in practice:

2. Showcase your ambition

Not all interns make coffee and organize filing cabinets. Many companies give promising interns real projects that affect the company’s bottom line and then offer the best interns jobs once their internship has finished.

Your cover letter should show you’re interested in doing more than just helping full-time employees out. Communicate that you’re both capable of handling the responsibilities of the job and driven to excel.

One of the best ways to emphasize your ambition in your intern cover letter is by adding hard numbers. Hard numbers provide a clearer picture of your specific achievements and show the reader that you can get results.

For example, if you were active in local politics in college and are applying for a political internship, you might include a bullet point like this:

• Organized fundraising event for Congresswoman Harriet Lopez, raising $38,000 for her re-election campaign.

3. Address the hiring manager by name

One of the best ways to impress the hiring manager is simply by using their name when you start your cover letter. Instead of writing “Dear Sir/Madam,” or “To Whom It May Concern,” do some research first to figure out the name of the hiring manager or department head.

If their name isn’t available on the company website or in the job ad, here are a couple of other ways to find the hiring manager’s name:

• Call the company you’re applying to and ask for the relevant person’s name
• Search for the hiring manager’s name by looking through the company’s employees on LinkedIn

Using the hiring manager’s name shows that you’re serious about the internship and willing to take the extra effort to make a personal connection with them. Just by knowing how to address a cover letter properly, you’ve already made your application more impressive.

4. Focus on your education

If you don’t have much work experience yet, use your cover letter to focus on the qualifications you do have. Specifically, you should showcase your education.

For example, if you’re applying for a computer science internship, mention specific classes or relevant coursework you’ve taken in computer science. In particular, draw attention to what you’ve achieved in your classes (e.g., any class projects you’ve finished) to provide real examples of what you can do.

Focusing on your relevant academic qualifications shows employers that you’re already passionate about the field. It indicates that this internship isn’t just about adding  length to your resume —  it’s a way to advance your career and increase your knowledge of an industry you’re interested in.

5. Use the right internship cover letter format

A cover letter for an internship position should follow certain formatting. For instance, your cover letter should be four paragraphs long and use up about one full page (but no more than that).

Although this might sound short, it’s still plenty of space to describe your talents.

Simply follow the template below to learn how to format your cover letter properly:

Internship cover letter format

Paragraph 1

First, formally introduce yourself, and say where you heard about the internship. Add some information about your background and explain why you’re applying.

Paragraph 2

In the second paragraph, sell your skills and the accomplishments you’ve added to your resume. Touch on your passion for the industry, and give examples of when you’ve excelled in a professional or academic capacity.

If you’re writing an internship cover letter with no experience, focus on your academic credentials.

Paragraph 3

Here you can mention anything that makes your application unique. For example, do some research about the company, and describe how you’d personally be a good fit for the company’s culture. Or elaborate on the company’s positive impact on your community (or society at large), and explain why that attracts you to work there.

Paragraph 4

Finish your application with a call to action. Say you’re ready to be interviewed and thank the reader for their time. Finally, close your cover letter with “Sincerely,” followed by your name.