Internship Cover Letter: 3 UK Examples, With Notes on Why They Work
The three letters on this page were written for specific internship adverts by students with fairly ordinary CVs. What makes them work comes down to a few simple choices: they start with the employer, they give concrete evidence, and they make the dates clear at the end.
Read them for the method. The companies are fictional, and every sentence needs rewriting around your own experience.
Example 1: Summer Internship at a Market Research Agency
Jordan is a second-year Economics student applying for a ten-week summer research internship at an agency in Manchester.
Why This Letter Works
The letter opens with a line from the advert and shows Jordan understood what the job actually involves. The coursework example has a number, an audience and a lesson learned, which is far more persuasive than a list of modules.
Jordan links the supermarket job to consumer behaviour, which is what a research agency sells, instead of leaving it out as irrelevant. Dates and location come last, where the person hiring expects them.
Example 2: Industrial Placement Year in Engineering
Priya is a second-year Mechanical Engineering student applying for a 12-month placement in the maintenance team of a rail engineering company.
Why This Letter Works
Priya connects the placement to her own project in the first paragraph, so the employer sees a student who'll arrive already curious about the work. The Formula Student story shows a setback and how she dealt with it, which tells an engineering manager more than a list of software skills would.
The line about trains back in service by six the next morning shows she understands the pressure the team works under. Practical details are short and settled: start date, paperwork, interview format.
Example 3: Marketing Internship After a Master's
Tom has just finished an MSc in Marketing and is applying for a three-month internship at a small clothing brand, without a named contact.
Why This Letter Works
Tom is a customer of the brand, and he uses that to say something specific about the product rather than praising the company in general terms. His dissertation finding is directly useful for the repair service launch, so the letter makes a case for what he'd bring as well as what he wants to learn.
The customer service year shows up in one sentence and earns its place because it's about writing, the core of a marketing internship. Without a name to address, "Dear Hiring Manager" with "Kind regards" is a safe, current choice.
Why an Example Isn't Enough
These three letters work because each one starts from a specific advert and one person's own background. Copied under your name, Jordan's letter still describes Jordan: the housing charity survey, the supermarket shifts, the fourteen charts. Published examples get read by a lot of applicants, and anyone hiring interns ends up recognising the same phrases.
Tailoring a letter means rebuilding it around two things no example knows about. First the advert: the tasks, its exact wording, what the company does and what it's looking for. If it says "competitor analysis", don't write "market research". Then your profile: your own evidence, picked because it answers that advert, and what you want to learn on that particular internship. Keep the four-paragraph plan and change everything else.
That's what our cover letter generator does: it starts from your CV and the job advert you paste in, and writes a letter for that advert.
Your Letter, Written for the Job You Want
Create a free account, add your CV, answer a few questions about what you're after, then paste the job ad, and we'll write the letter from your background and what the employer is asking for. On your first application the cover letter is free, download included.
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How to Structure an Internship Cover Letter
All three examples follow the same four-paragraph plan. The first starts from the employer: a task in the advert, a current project, or a detail you've noticed. The second gives one or two pieces of evidence of what you can do, taken from your modules, a project, part-time work or a society, with a number wherever you can. The third says what you want to learn, tied to the work described. The last gives your dates, where you can work, and when you're free for an interview.
One page is plenty, and a letter of 250 to 300 words gets read in full. Longer than that, and the person hiring skims, which usually means the paragraph that mattered gets missed.
Mistakes That Sink an Internship Cover Letter
- Opening with "I am currently a second-year student at…". Your course is already on your CV, and the first sentence decides whether the rest gets read.
- Listing modules instead of showing what you did with them.
- Praise that could apply to any company, like "a leading firm in its sector".
- Leaving out your dates, or burying them in the middle of the letter.
- Sending the same letter to ten employers with only the name changed. Anyone reading a pile of applications spots it straight away.
Cover Letter or Email?
If the advert asks for a cover letter, attach it as a PDF and write a short email of three or four lines saying which internship you're applying for and when you're available. If you're applying by email and no letter is requested, the body of the email can carry the first two paragraphs of your letter, opening with "Dear Ms Okafor" and signing off with "Kind regards".
No Work Experience Yet?
For a first internship, coursework, summer jobs and volunteering all count as evidence. Our guide to writing a cover letter with no experience shows how to present them, and the one on how to address a cover letter without a name settles the greeting.