Internship & College Student
Cover Letter Sample

If you adhere to these three tips when writing your cover letter, you’ll be getting interview requests in no time. If the process still seems foggy, our comprehensive writing guide can help get you started.

1. Do your homework.

Get online and begin digging — why exactly is your target company looking for interns? What are their short-term and longterm goals? Are they involved in any charities? Do they play a role in your local community? Are their products great? What about eco-friendly? If their website yields little information, try sites like linkedin.com, or even Facebook and look to see if you have any friends (or friends of friends) working at your target company. Get acquainted and find some answers!

If you’re able to track down some of this info, you’ll be in good shape when you start writing. Hiring managers want to see that you’re interested in their specific company. If your cover letter is 100% self-promotional and stuffed with generic content, you’re doing something wrong.

Ask yourself: How can I fit within the framework of this particular company? What niche can I fill?

Don’t ask yourself: How can I write one awesome cover letter so I don’t need to make more than one?

Although it may feel tedious, make sure you research each individual company and write a letter tailored to them. This will boost your chances of moving to the interview stage, so put in the time and make it happen! This brings me to my next point —

2. Select keywords from the job advertisement and use them.

This is another subtle way to show that you’re paying attention to the needs of the hiring manager. Avoid lying, but you should definitely make sure to use some of the posting’s keywords to describe yourself and your abilities. If not, it might be time to re-evaluate what internship you’re applying for!

Another thing to keep in mind is the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). If your cover letter gets run through a company’s ATS (which according to some experts, it most likely will), keyword use will help you survive the robotic purge. ATS software hunts for applications that correlate with the needs of a company, and unfortunately lack the human touch of a hiring manager. If yours doesn’t reach the relevance threshold, it’ll get tossed before anyone lays eyes on it. Since it’s now necessary to appease these automated overlords, do what you need to do and strategically place keywords throughout your cover letter.

3. Use at least one example of experience that’s relevant to the job.

Experience doesn’t necessarily have to be the professional type. Academic experiences, extra-curricular activities, and even times when you volunteered are all available to draw from. In the cover letter sample, our candidate states that:

• “As a student, I’ve already had success coordinating a marketing campaign that encouraged people to shop more at local businesses. I managed the budget, helped design advertisements, and used social media platforms to get our message out, and it resulted in a 13% revenue increase for local stores in the College Station area.”

This is a very solid piece of evidence in favor of the applicant because:

1. It highlights her abilities. In two sentences, she shows that she’s an experienced leader, can handle money, design ads, and is capable with social media.
2. It includes the project outcome using numbers. If you are able to quantify your experiences, you’re already a huge step ahead of many applicants. Being able to conclusively state that your work had an effect on the outcome of a project is great proof that you’re competent. Hiring managers are on the lookout for these numbers, so make sure to put them in there if you can.

Even if you don’t have an experience as concrete as the one above, don’t worry! Just make sure to include numbers. If you helped hand out soup to the needy, note the rough number of how many people you served. If you worked on a project at school, describe how many team members you had, what you accomplished, and how long you worked on it.

Our lives are filled with experiences and numbers. If you can organize these effectively and connect them to the job listing, you’re well on your way to getting an interview and finding a solid internship. Or even better, an online job that’s very flexible!

If you still need help creating the perfect cover letter, let our free cover letter builder help you!