Writing an internship application letter that gets a reply

Why write one at all

A CV answers "what can you do". A letter answers "why are you writing to us specifically". Without the second answer, don't send one — it only irritates.

What a working letter contains

Four or five sentences:

1. Why this company. One sentence, but a genuine one. Not "I admire your dynamic team" — rather "I use your service and want to understand how it works from the inside".
2. Which of the required skills you already have. Name two or three from the posting that you genuinely know.
3. What backs that up. A link to a project, a repository, a concrete result. One link beats three paragraphs of description.
4. How much time you can give. Particularly important for students.
5. A short close. No "I eagerly await your response".

What shouldn't be there

• The CV retold in prose.
• Apologies for having no experience. They already know.
• Promises to "learn fast and give a hundred per cent". Everyone writes that.
• A template sent to fifty companies. It's obvious, and it rarely gets answered.

A structure that works

"Hello. I'm writing about the backend internship.

I've been writing Python for six months, the last two in a team of three: we built an expense tracker and I handled the database and the queries against it. It works and the code is open: link.

From your requirements list I'm solid on Python and SQL. I haven't worked with message queues yet, but I'll pick them up.

I can give twenty hours a week, weekday afternoons."

That's it. That's enough.

What strengthens the letter

A link to finished work, and a mention of team experience. Employers value the second especially: an internship drops you into a team, and they want to know how you behave in one.

If your part in a project was confirmed by its owner — with a description of what you actually did — that's precisely the kind of argument that doesn't need to be taken on trust.