A Guide on Writing a Motivation Letter for the Internship

A motivation letter or an essay is a very challenging assignment, as it may play an important part in your future and career. With its help, you can express yourself and show that you are a perfect candidate for a particular internship or position.

There may be tens or even hundreds of applicants for the same program and the committee should want to see why you differ from the rest only by reading your CV and motivation letter.

It should be not only catchy and intriguing but also show your skills, knowledge and aspirations, hiding all the possible imperfections.

Some students may also be asked to complete such a letter after finishing their internship, which can be even more challenging than the one you write at the beginning. Such a personal statement should cover the whole time of you being an intern, your personal and academic achievements and much more.

Topics, which you can discuss, may include:

• Describe a situation, where you played the leading part and managed to solve it successfully;
• Express how a particular program corresponds with your personal and academic goals;
• What skills, classes or experience make you the best candidate for the internship?

It doesn’t matter what type of a topic you need to discuss, as they all centered around your personality and achievements, which will contribute to the internship and college you are applying to.

Helpful tips

If you stress out about completing a motivation letter, don’t worry too much and consider it a regular application essay. All you need to do is to give the committee a reason to select you and see that you have qualifications and personal achievements, necessary for the program. Here are a few tips, which will make your motivation essay perfect:

1. Start your letter with a hook. It can be a sentence or even a paragraph, which will catch attention of the reader. The committee should be intrigued and want to learn more about you. Imagine how many essays they are going to read, so try to be interesting and different. You can start with examples, interesting facts or personal achievements, related to the subject;
2. You should not only concentrate on the things, which you will obtain while being an intern but also on the things, which can be useful for the college. Try to explain why choosing you would be a great benefit for the college, university or company;
3. As any other essay, your letter should have a thesis statement. It is very important, as it gives direction for your letter and gives the reader a chance to see what you stand on. Try to compose a sentence or two, describing the key features you possess and the main reasons, which motivated you to apply to the particular internship;
4. Don’t rewrite your CV. You will attach it to your application, so there is no need to mention the same things over and over again. You should better demonstrate your motivation, potential and reasoning, instead of listing brief and boring facts of your bio;
5. Try to avoid common phrases. There are many words, which most of the students use and which already have no value for the reader. For example, ‘I am a motivated team-player’ or ‘I want to gain experience in the field of interest’. It is better to describe more concrete qualities and skills you want to learn from the program;
6. Be serious about the internship. Even if it is a part time program, which doesn’t have any fees, you need to be respectful and prove that you will take it seriously. A great advice is to take it as your job and consider an important step towards your future career;
7. Don’t neglect guidelines. We understand how tempting it may be to show your creativity, trying to stand out from the rest. However, this doesn’t work with formatting and you need to stick to all the requirements about margins, fonts, spacing and so on. Don’t forget about the proper size of the paper. If else is not indicated, it is usually not more than 500 words long.