Your Ultimate Secret Weapon: Internship Cover Letter
Most soon to be interns may overlook this, but you should take note that your internship cover letter is actually your little secret weapon into getting accepted in that internship program that you are aiming for. Remember, getting in a program would mean competition against other students who want the same position. That is why you should have an edge over them.
How Did It Become Important?
You may be asking yourself, "How can such a simple letter be vital to my application?" Well, it's really easy to understand. You and the other candidates for internship are currently standing on the same ground. All of you lack experience, which is ironically the reason why you're getting into internship. Because of this, the cover letter becomes a huge basis of whether you would get the position or not.
Basically, you and other college students have nothing to put into your résumé's job experience portion other than those burger flipping summer jobs or supermarket checkout bagging positions and the likes. Thus, the only way you can outshine your competition is through making an outstanding cover letter that would impress the HR personnel who's going to read it.
How About Grades?
Yes, you can show-off your grades, or GPA's. However, this kind of data doesn't really give the right information that the HR manager wants to know about you. All this can tell is your academic qualifications. Even though high grades can imply your intelligence and drive for studying, this can't really predict how you would fare up working on a daily basis.
Cover Letter Secrets Revealed
Having a well-written and impressive internship cover letter actually tells a lot of things about you. It can sometimes even go the extra mile of unlocking significant ideas concerning your character. It shows a somewhat overview of what you're like.
Due to such secrets a cover letter may show; obviously, it is a document to be taken seriously. Thus, you should not treat it in a frivolous manner. However, this doesn't mean either that your must make one as if written by a robot.
Your main objective in making this kind of letter is to give your potential manager an impression that you're someone who can independently think and can express himself/herself clearly, in an organized and original manner.
In The HR Manager's Shoes
To understand even more your cover letter's importance, simply try being in an HR manager's shoes. Just think about the challenge you have to face when it's hiring season. You have to sort through hundreds of resumes, which are all fronted by an internship cover letter.
For each letter that you view, your would have to garner some little piece of info that will give your a clue of whether pursuing this candidate, would be a waste of time or not.
If you take into consideration the idea that most of these candidates may have underestimated how powerful their cover letter is, and the possibility that they might have just downloaded a template from the Internet, you can start to see how your original and thoughtfully crafted letter could make a great difference.
The bitter truth is that making a great cover letter can instantly put you to the vital candidate shortlist, while making a badly written one could sink you forever. So, with that being said, try to give enough effort and time in making a well-written cover letter rather than a generic one.
Posted on: 2010-09-19