Temple University
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Career Services | Resources
ResumeS & Cover Letters
Resume Review Sessions
Jan. 27 (Tue), 3-4pm, Bio-Life Building, Lobby 1st Floor
Resume Samples
Cover Letters
Suggestions for making your cover letter relevant
1. It’s not all about you. Browse the company's website and find the projects, products, divisions, or people in which you are most interested. Most students can write endlessly about themselves, but Merck wants to hear about Merck. Tie in your interests with issues that are likely to be relevant to the Internship Coordinator.
2. Save their time. Read the candidate requirements. Write about how you meet them, with specific and concise examples. The cover letter is not your résumé in narrative form. One and a half page, with 1-inch margins all around, enough room for salutation and signature, that’s all you should need.
3. Stand out. How will they remember you, out of the hundreds of applicants? Maybe one of your friends did this internship last summer, and it has been all you could think about, all year long. Maybe you had an interesting and successful research project, maybe your reason for pursuing this internship is laudable, or maybe your credentials are truly outstanding. If you do not believe in yourself, why should anyone else? Without crossing the border into over-confidence, help them see how selecting you would be to their advantage.
Most importantly: your needing the money is absolutely no incentive for them to hire you. Do not even mention it, ok?
Finally, pay attention to formatting, spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. You may not be an English major, but employers expect you to be articulate about things that matter to you.
To have your cover letter or resume reviewed, send Word copies to careers.cst@temple.edu and specify the internship(s) or job(s) to which you intend to apply.