Internship Cover Letter
In this post, we are sharing some useful insights into how you can craft an effective internship cover letter to ace your call for interviews and avoid red flags. A well-written internship cover letter should be context specific so as to present you as an asset. When a company is in need of an intern, they are basically looking to fill a skill gap. Your ability to demonstrate that your credentials in your internship cover letter make you the best fit n your internship cover letter is what will get you the internship offer. Your CV is the best tool which systematically captures such credentials. However, one weakness of a CV is that it is not quite flexible enough to contain unstructured and informal information as compared to a cover letter. When done well, your internship cover letter will not only boost your CV’s open rate but it will equally lure the reader to look at your CV.
Generally, an internship cover letter follows the structure below;
1. Date The first item on your cover letter is the date of your application. In Ghana, the preferred method is Day/Month/Year. 2. Information of Hiring Manager You will have to provide the recipient address. It is “cool” to use the Hiring Manager or Human Resource Manager. However, knowing the name of the hiring manager can further make your internship cover letter stand out. You may present your recipient’s address in the form: Full name of Human Resource Manager Human Resource Manager Company Name City, Country 3. Salutation Generally, you can use “Dear Sir” or “Dear Madam.” As stated earlier, if you know the hiring manager’s name, you can use “Dear” followed by the first name of the hiring manager. 4. Heading Your heading should reflect your career objective as an intern. What exactly are you looking for in an agency? Please state your heading in the form:
Application for Consideration as [ Internship name ] will not be a bad idea.
5. Opening Paragraph Your opening paragraph should be able to re-emphasis your title and provide a value proposition. For instance:
Please accept my application for an Accounts Intern at Sobiaonline. You will benefit from [insert benefits the employer stand to gain by engaging you]
6. Main body In the main body, showcase your academic qualifications, work experience, and personal traits relevant to the job at hand. You can also use the last paragraph of this section to demonstrate your knowledge of the challenges the company is facing and how your engagement will help in resolving the problem. 7. Closing paragraphs Use the closing paragraph to discuss your availability for discussions and, as well, your availability for engagement. You can also demonstrate what the job will mean to you. This aspect is very important for internship openings as employers always want to know whether you are committed or not. Closure and Signature The last part of your letter entails the closure of the letter and then adding your personal addresses. This can take the format below:
Yours Sincerely, Signed Full Name Email address Mobile phone number LinkedIn URL
How to Write an Internship Cover Letter
How do you tell the employer that you are the best fit for the position? With these suggestions below, we believe that you would be able to highlight your relevant skills and experiences that make you the best fit for the role. 1. Be Specific About the Position You are Applying for Applying for an internship without a well-defined role indicates poor preparation. Starting your letter with a specific role will set a good context for your application and prove that you have taken time to learn what the position entails before applying. 2. Make Use of Good Keywords. Identify what the job entails by reading the job description. Identify all the necessary keywords and make sure they are included in your CV. 3. Demonstrate that you are the right candidate. Utilize your hard skills, soft skills, and work experience to demonstrate that you are the right fit for the role. If you are a recent graduate without much experience, you can list your coursework that is relevant to the role. You can also highlight leadership roles you have occupied whilst at school. 4. Demonstrate Why You Are Applying for an Internship and Not a Paid Job. You need the right industry-specific skills, experience, and networks to help you kick-start your career successfully. Employers would want to know if this is the case. You can use your cover letter to communicate exactly what your career objective is and how it will help you and the company you intend to intern for.
5. Proofreading and Peer Reviews
Our final advice is that you would need to proofread your cover letter again and again to make sure that it is error-free. You can also encourage peer review from friends and loved ones.
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