Internship Letter Samples

Applying for an internship in your field of study at a company you’d potentially like to work for is a critical first step in your career journey. A crucial part of this process is crafting a strong internship letter, which is a cover of sort that complements your resume and drives home the reason you’re the best person for the position.

As you review the free internship letter samples provided, you’ll note that they’re concise, organized, and compelling. Your immediate goal is to use this document to gain the employer’s interest and emphasize how your experience and skills are particularly valuable. That way they’ll eagerly move on to read your attached resume.

For more specific tips on how to accomplish your goal, read on.

As you read the internship letter samples here, you’ll see there’s more than one way to introduce yourself to an employer, and it will become evident how important it is to point out how your background aligns with the internship responsibilities.

No matter how you choose to do the above, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Do your best to find out the name of the person you’re writing to. If all you have is the name of the company, call their main number and ask to whom your internship letter should be addressed. Even if you don’t get an individual’s name, you’ll probably get a job title. Anything is better than “To whom it may concern.”

Mention the internship by name. Tell them how you learned of it (company website, college counselor). If you know someone at the company who said to use their name, it would be good to say, “so-and-so suggested I apply for the internship”.

Don’t repeat what’s in your resume. Since your resume already presents your skills and qualifications in the best light, you should use your cover letter to expand on these points and fill in any gaps your resume may present. Summarize your qualifications and explain why you’d be a good fit to meet the company’s needs.

Keep it to one page. Your cover letter should be made up of roughly four paragraphs, each of which has no more than three sentences.

Let your confidence show, but don’t brag. There’s a big difference between confidence and cockiness. Don’t present yourself as someone with a fresh, young perspective that can turn the place around. Even if that’s true, be mindful of your role as an intern, not a CEO. Be realistically optimistic.

Take a look at the internship letter samples for formatting ideas. When it comes to the overall layout of your cover letter, it should match your resume in font and margins. Otherwise, each paragraph and part of the internship letter, starting with the salutation, has a specific role to play.

If you don’t have the name of an individual for a personal greeting, you can use a reference line above your first paragraph identifying the internship to help the reader focus on the subject of your letter.

Use the first paragraph to introduce yourself, explain your interest in the internship, and how you learned about it.

The body of the letter – one or two short paragraphs – should allow you plenty of time to summarize how your background and education make you an ideal candidate for the internship. Show how your key skills are listed as requirements on the program description.

The last paragraph should wrap it up, restate your interest, provide your contact information, and indicate a future date when you’ll be calling if your haven’t heard back. Always thank the reader for their time.

• Start writing without research. Not only do you need to research the internship and the company offering it, you should take advantage of the many internship letter samples that are available that will help make yours more professional. Do your homework first.
• Not proofreading. As with the writing of all letters, papers, resumes and the like, proofreading is a tedious but necessary task. If there are typos or spelling mistakes, they’ll jump off the page when someone else is reading it and reflect poorly on your abilities.
• Don’t forget your manners. Always say thank you. The individual’s time is valuable, and if they’ve read your letter all the way through, they deserve a thank you.

Read a few of the internship letter samples and then read yours. How does it compare? Did you forget anything, like, what happens now?

You can drive the next move. State clearly when you’ll be contacting the employer to see what the next step in the internship process involves.

Provide your contact information. Even though you’ve promised to call, if they like you and want to contact you, make it easy for them.

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