5 Things To Note While Writing An Internship Cover Letter

Getting an internship is a vital step towards one’s career. For higher education students, an internship is like a jackpot—mind you, I am saying this about not just any internship, but good ones. An internship is an opportunity to work in an organized environment, apply your knowledge in the real world, learn more, and impress the supervisors to get a job offer in the future.

Of course, there are rules and methods to be adopted in order to secure a good internship. Well, a good academic and extra-curricular record will help you climb up the ladder, but a nicely written cover letter would give you a more steady push towards the top. Yes, you may not agree but a cover letter is not an ancillary aspect of applying for an internship; in fact, the way you write it can cause you a rejection.

If you do not want to miss an internship opportunity over a poorly written cover letter, then you must read this article very carefully. From my own experience, I can tell that if you followed the tips mentioned below you can increase the chances of securing an internship. So, let us take a look at 5 tips for writing a fabulous internship cover letter.

1. Be Specific About the role
   Even if you are applying for the position of an intern, there can be many types of work which the internship may be offering. For example, you are applying to a law firm practicing in Competition Law and Bankruptcy Law. Now, you cannot write a cover letter without specifying in which area you want an internship.
   An added advantage of being specific about the role is that it shows that you have actually invested your energy into writing the cover letter and not sent over a general cover letter which could be found online and used for all applications.
2. Know What Words To Use
   Your cover letter highlights why you are best for the role applied for. Thus, your job is to attract the attention of the reader by using the right words which pertain to the job profile and buttress your claims.
   Let me illustrate with an example. Suppose the job profile you are applying for requires skills in a certain programming language, time management, ability to work extra hours, etc, then you must include necessary keywords which highlight that you have these qualities. You should also consider giving examples where you have showcased these qualities.
3. Be Very Specific About Your Skills
   You may have dozens of skills, but you cannot and should not write all of them down in your cover letter. Your cover letter is specific to a very specific company advertising a very specific job profile. Hence, you must identify that set of skills which will actually be useful in carrying out the work expected out of a particular job.
   You may be a fabulous ballerina, but the job of an intern editor at a magazine company would not get much help from your moves. So, do not go overboard in terms of your skills.
4. Describe Aptly Your Gain
   One of the things you must mention is the reason why you are applying for the role of an intern at a particular organization. To put it simply, you must tell what you will gain out of it.
   The purpose of an internship program is to educate and train students about the workings of a professional environment. You must draft your reasons along these lines as well. Of course, you are expecting a job offer at the end of your internship (who doesn’t?) but you cannot be too bold about the same. You must show that your first priority is learning and adapting to the needs of professional life.
   You should research extensively about the organization you are applying to and use its achievements and contribution as a tool to maneuver the reader into believing that you look up to the organization and want to gain from its experience.
5. Proofread
   The final tip is the most important because any recklessness with proofreading and all your hard work will go in vain.
   Irrespective of how strong your command on the language is, you must do the spell check and have the cover letter read by someone else. You can use online tools which run grammar check such as Grammarly to make sure that your grammar is on point.

I am asking you to take proofreading really seriously because poor grammar can sink your ship!

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