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In short, an internship cover letter is a one page letter that tells a coordinator what they could hand you, on what terms you can take it, and what you have already finished that resembles the work.
Guide to an internship cover letter
To help, this guide and the corresponding internship cover letter example will cover:
- First, how to structure the letter, paragraph by paragraph
- Next, why the terms of the internship belong in the first paragraph
- What counts as evidence when you have never held the job before
- What to say about pay when the posting does not mention it
- Finally, the openings that close a good file early
How to write an internship cover letter
ParagraphIts jobLength
- OpeningThe posting, the hours you can hold, and whether you need pay or credit2 to 3 sentences
- EvidenceOne scoped piece of work you owned, with a number and a period of time4 to 5 sentences
- FitSomething real about the team, and what you want more of3 to 4 sentences
- CloseThe paperwork, your start date, thank you2 sentences
Put the terms in the first paragraph, not the last
Most internship coordinators are assembling a cohort against a calendar and a budget. Two facts decide whether you fit before anything else is read: how many hours a week you can work in which weeks, and whether you are asking to be paid, to be given academic credit, or both.
Write both in the opening: "I can work 20 hours a week from 12 January to 30 April, and the internship can run as credit through MKT 490." That sentence saves a week of email.
An internship cover letter example you can adapt
Adaptable internship cover letter example
Dear Ms. Halloran,
I am applying for the spring capstone internship with the analytics team at Benefit Street Media. I am a final year marketing student at the University of Rhode Island, I can work 20 hours a week from 12 January to 30 April, and the internship can run as academic credit through MKT 490, which my department signs off in the first two weeks of term.
Two internships stand behind that. At a 20 person agency I owned the weekly email calendar for three client accounts, wrote 22 sends in ten weeks, and built the first place where open and click rates for all three accounts sat together, which the account team still uses in its Monday review. At an ecommerce brand last summer I rebuilt a product feed of 1,400 listings and wrote the weekly report on top of it, which took a four hour reporting job down to forty minutes.
Your team wrote in August about moving three retail clients onto server side tagging, and about the measurement gap that opened while the work was underway. That is the part of this job I want more of, and the feed project is the closest I have come to it: the same problem of a data source that has to keep reporting while it is being rebuilt.
I am asking for credit rather than pay, so the paperwork is one form from my department, and I can start the week the term begins. I would be glad to walk through the feed project in more detail. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Marisol Etxeberria
Openings that work
- Instead of
I am writing to express my interest in your internship program
UseI am applying for the spring capstone internship with the analytics team
- Instead of
I am a hard working student eager to learn
UseI can work 20 hours a week from 12 January to 30 April, as credit through MKT 490
- Instead of
I have always been passionate about marketing
UseLast summer I rebuilt a product feed of 1,400 listings and the weekly report on top of it
- Instead of
I believe I would be a valuable asset to your company
UseYour team wrote in August about moving three retail clients onto server side tagging
What counts as evidence when you have never had the job
After all, nobody expects you to have done the work. However, they do expect you to have finished something.
Kind of evidenceWhat it looks like in a sentence
- A scoped projectRebuilt a product feed of 1,400 listings and the report built on it
- Volume from a campus jobWorked 12 hours a week through a 16 credit load, closing alone 3 nights a week
- CoordinationBuilt the weekly rota for 9 volunteers across 4 sites; missed sessions fell from 7 a month to 1
- Coursework with a clientRan a 41 response survey for a semester project and presented the findings in 10 minutes
- Something you were trusted withClosed the servery unsupervised by the end of the first term
Paid, credit bearing or unpaid: what to say about pay
In practice, say which you are asking for, and say it without apology. If the posting offers pay, you do not need to raise pay at all. When it is silent, ask in one clause, because the answer changes whether you can accept. If it says unpaid and you need credit, name the course number, since credit is the mechanism that makes the arrangement work for both sides.
What the federal test actually asks
Whether an intern at a for profit employer has to be paid is decided by a seven factor primary beneficiary test set out in Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Fact Sheet #71, "Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act", revised January 2018. No single factor decides it; the factors are weighed together.
Three of the seven are about your education: whether the training resembles what an educational environment would give, whether the internship is tied to your formal education program by integrated coursework or academic credit, and whether it accommodates your academic commitments by corresponding to the academic calendar.
The Wage and Hour Division also states that an intern or student who qualifies as an employee under the test "is entitled to both minimum wage and overtime pay under the FLSA". You are not litigating any of this in a letter, but it is why naming the credit arrangement reads as competence: those factors are what the employer looked at before the posting went up.
Do
- Name the posting and the team in the first line.
- Give the hours a week and the weeks you are available.
- Say whether you are asking for pay, for credit, or for both.
- Pick one piece of work and tell it properly, with a number and a period of time.
- Name one real thing the team has published or shipped.
- Close with the paperwork and a start date.
Don’t
- Do not open with how long you have admired the company.
- Do not describe yourself as passionate, motivated or eager to learn, which is what every other letter in the folder says.
- Do not apologize for having no experience; the posting is for an internship, so nobody expected any.
- Do not send the same letter to eight programs with the name swapped.
- Do not promise hours your timetable cannot support.
Length, format and sending it
One page, four paragraphs, 250 to 350 words. PDF unless the portal says otherwise, named for yourself and the post: marisol-etxeberria-analytics-internship-cover-letter.pdf.
Keep the numbers identical to the ones on your resume. Our internship resume example is written with the same figures used here, so the two files agree line for line.
Key takeaways
- To start, open with the posting, the hours you can hold, and the weeks you can hold them.
- Say whether you are asking for pay, for credit, or for both.
- Then tell one scoped piece of work properly, with a number and a time frame.
- Also, name one real thing the team has published, shipped or changed.
- Use the course number if you need credit, because someone has to sign for it.
- Above all, keep it to one page and four paragraphs.
- Match every figure to your resume.
The internship resume example uses the same story, the same numbers and the same header.
Internship cover letter questions, answered
How long should an internship cover letter be?
One page, four paragraphs, 250 to 350 words. Coordinators read these in large batches against a deadline, and a longer letter is not read more carefully, it is read later.
Do I need a cover letter if the application is a form?
Attach one wherever there is a field for it. The form collects the same structured data from everyone. The letter is the only place you can state your hours, your credit arrangement and the one project you want to be asked about.
What do I write if I have never had a job?
Write the thing you have finished. A semester project with a client, a volunteer rota you built, a fundraiser you ran, a tool you taught yourself well enough to ship something with. Give it a scope, a number and a period of time, and write it in the same voice you would use for paid work.
Should I mention that I need the internship to be paid?
Yes, once, plainly, in the opening. Needing wages is a normal constraint, and an employer who reads it as a lack of commitment was not going to be a good placement. If the posting is unpaid and you can only take it with credit, say the course number instead.
How do I write to an organization I know nothing about?
Spend fifteen minutes on their own pages before you write: what they shipped this year, what they write about, what the team's job titles are. One accurate sentence about what they actually do is worth a paragraph of admiration, and it is the sentence that cannot be pasted into the next letter.