How to write a cover letter for an internship: paragraph-by-paragraph structure and two full examples (2026)

1. Greeting: by name if possible ("Dear Ms Yılmaz"). If there's no name, "Dear Hiring Team". Avoid "To whom it may concern".
2. Opening (2–3 sentences): the position you're applying for, who you are (degree, year) and your single strongest reason.
3. Why this company (2–3 sentences): a concrete feature of the company, team or programme that draws you. Not "a leader in its sector", but a real detail from the posting or the company's site.
4. Why you (3–5 sentences): pick two or three things the posting asks for and give one example for each: what you did, what the result was. This is the heart of the letter.
5. Close (1–2 sentences): say you're available to talk and thank them.

Harvard's guide to resumes and cover letters also advises that a cover letter put your most relevant experience in context rather than repeat the CV, and be tailored to each application.

The letter below is an example, not a real applicant's, written to show the structure.

Dear Hiring Team,

I am applying for the Production Engineering position in X Automotive's 2027 Summer Internship Programme. I am a third-year Mechanical Engineering student at Y University, and I want to spend my mandatory internship working on efficiency on a production line.

Your posting says interns take part in line-balancing projects. Last term I analysed the bottleneck of an assembly line in my manufacturing methods course, and seeing that work on a real line would be the most valuable part of the internship for me.

I have concrete experience in two areas the posting asks for. With our team, I re-planned the welding sequence for our Formula Student car's chassis and cut assembly time from three weeks to two. I have also modelled more than 40 parts in SolidWorks and prepared their technical drawings. I can analyse data in Excel, and my English is at B2 level.

Thank you for considering my application; I would be glad to talk at a time that suits you.

Kind regards, Name Surname

This is also an illustrative example.

Dear Ms Kaya,

I am applying for Z Foods' Long-Term Marketing Intern position. I am a third-year Business student and can work three days a week during the autumn term.

I followed closely the recyclable-packaging campaign your brand launched last year; building consumer communication together with a product change is exactly what I most want to learn in marketing.

The posting asks for social media content planning and performance tracking. I ran our student club's Instagram account for a year; by setting up a weekly content calendar we grew followers from 1,200 to 3,400, and I tracked every post's engagement in a spreadsheet. In a market research course I designed a 150-person survey and analysed the results in Excel.

Thank you for your time. I am available for an interview whenever suits you.

Kind regards, Name Surname

• The same letter for every company. A template with the company name swapped shows in the first paragraph.
• Repeating the CV. A cover letter should tell the story behind a line on the CV.
• Unproven adjectives. An example instead of "hard-working, dynamic, eager to learn".
• Length. A letter longer than half a page doesn't get read; recruiters spend only seconds on a first look even at a CV.
• Language. If the posting is in English, the cover letter should be too.
• Typos and the wrong company name. The most common and most expensive mistake.

• If the application form has a cover letter field, paste it there.
• If there's a file upload field, upload it as a PDF with a clear file name such as "NameSurname_CoverLetter_Company.pdf".
• If you're applying by email, write the cover letter in the body of the email and attach the CV. Put the position name in the subject line.
• If the posting doesn't ask for one, it isn't required; but filling in an "optional" field is the cheapest way to stand out from applicants sending the same CV.

Writing a new letter for every posting is the job most often put off during application season. In Proyo:

1. You pick the posting you're applying to (from Proyo's feed, from LinkedIn with the Chrome extension, or by pasting the link).
2. Your CV is tailored to that posting in 15–20 seconds.
3. The cover letter is prepared in about 10 seconds by reading the posting and your CV: it refers to details of the company and the posting, gives examples from the real experience in your CV, and is written in the posting's language.
4. You edit it as you like and keep it with your application.

The letter is based on experience that is in your CV; you can also use the structure above to write it yourself.