Never a Lack of Ideas

This is my third of three posts on creative ways to land a marketing internship. Read the first . Read the second . It's Simple This is the easiest of my three suggestions for how to get a marketing internship: write an amazing cover letter. I've read hundreds (thousands?) of marketing internship cover letters, and only a few still stand out in my mind. Your letter must include the following three components, in this order: State that you really want to work at the company and why you want to work there -- be sure to mention how you feel the internship fits into your career goals. Be enthusiastic. Describe why you are the best qualified for the job. Keep it short and to the point. State that no task is too small for you and that you will have a positive attitude no matter what you are asked to do. Do not start your cover letter describing how you are qualified for the job. It's not about you at first – it's about the company and its needs. And the company's most ...

This is my second of three posts on creative ways to land a marketing internship. Read the first. Friending Your Marketing Internship Taking out a Facebook advertisement is an easy, effective way to get the attention of a marketing internship coordinator. Here’s what you should do: 1. Create a web page that includes a message to your potential employer about why you want to become an intern at that place and what makes you qualified. This is going to be the page to which your Facebook advertisement points when clicked. Add a photo of yourself and start with something like, “Hi, I’m Nick, and I want to be an intern at [company] really badly.” If you aren’t able to create your own web page, do the above steps to the extent you are able on LinkedIn or a free blogs site (like the one I’m using here). Make sure that your page lists your email address so that page viewers can contact you. Most importantly, ask up front for the person reading your page to put you into contact with (or forw...

This is my first of three posts on creative ways to land a marketing internship. Parts for Sale When I was a junior in college, I spent my entire spring break applying for inter nships. I thought I'd share my most creative internship application with you. I hope this inspires you: I was applying to an ad agency (I don't remember which one) and the application process simply said, "sell yourself to us." So, I took that literally and created a catalog that I called Nick's Knacks. In the catalog, I offered my body parts for sale (it sounds weird, but it wasn't — click on the images on the right to see spreads from my catalog). In the catalog, I included photos of different body parts like my hands, feet, and head, and I used descriptions of my parts to write about how those parts made me the perfect candidate for the internship. I then sent the catalog to the hiring manager with a cover letter. Here's the description that I used to sell my feet: Nick's f...