Who to write to
The best person is whoever can say yes, or point you to someone who can. That is different at every company, so choose by size.
Who to write to, by company size
| Company | Best first contact | What they care about | A good ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startup under 50 people | A founder or the engineering lead | Whether you can ship and learn fast | Ten minutes, or a small task to try |
| Growth-stage company | An engineering manager on the team you want, or a technical recruiter | A fit with a team, and a real project | Whether the intern role is open, and who to send your resume to |
| Large company | A university or technical recruiter | Dates, eligibility and a clear role | Which programme to apply to, and whether they can look at your application |
If you can't tell which to pick, write to the recruiter. Recruiters expect to be written to, and they route people. Engineers reply when your message is about their work.
The five parts of a message that gets read
- A greeting with their first name. If you don't have a name, a plain "Hi," is fine. Skip "Dear Sir or Madam".
- One line on who you are and what you want. Your year, your school or background, and the specific role and start date: "I'm a third-year CS student looking for a backend internship from June."
- One real thing you built. One sentence with the detail: what it does, what you used, and a number only if it is true. Add one link.
- One true reason for this company or role. A technology in the posting that you use, a product of theirs you have used, a problem they work on. If you have no honest reason, leave the sentence out rather than invent one.
- One small question. Something they can answer in a line: "Is the backend intern role still open, and could I send you my resume?"
Finish with your full name. Put your GitHub or portfolio link under your name instead of in the middle of a paragraph.
A worked example
Subject: Backend intern, built a rate limiter in Go
Hi Dana, I'm a third-year CS student at VIT looking for a backend internship from June. For our campus API I wrote a token-bucket rate limiter in Go that held 4,000 requests a second on one machine (github.com/alexchen/limiter). Your posting mentions Go and Postgres, which is what I work in. Is the Backend Intern role still open, and could I send you my resume? Thanks, Alex Chen
The names and numbers are invented for the example. Use only your own.
Look at what is missing: no compliments about the company, no claim to be passionate, no life story and no attachment. The project does the persuading, and the question is easy to answer.
Subject lines
A subject line has one job: get the email opened by someone who doesn't know you. Be specific and plain. There are 25 subject lines for internship emails in a separate guide. Three that follow the rule:
- Backend intern, built a rate limiter in Go
- Question about the backend intern role
- Student who built a webhook retry service
Length and tone
Aim for 70 to 110 words. Past about 150 words a cold message stops being read and starts being skimmed. Write the way you would speak to a senior colleague you respect: short sentences, plain words, no hype. Cut these:
- Openers such as "I hope this finds you well" and "I am writing to".
- Praise with no reason behind it, like "I love what you are building".
- Self-praise such as hard-working, passionate or quick learner. Show it with the project instead.
- Buzzwords: leverage, synergy, cutting-edge, world-class.
- Strings of exclamation marks and long dashes, which many readers now associate with machine-written text.
Mistakes that sink a cold email
- Sending the same message to a hundred people. Recruiters compare notes, and mail providers notice bulk mail.
- Attaching files to the first email. A link under your name is lighter, and unexpected attachments can send a message to spam.
- Asking for a job instead of a small answer. "Do you have any openings?" is hard to answer. "Is this specific role still open?" is easy.
- Writing about yourself in the abstract. Without a project, nothing separates you from every other applicant.
- Inventing a connection. If you haven't read their blog post, don't mention it.
- Sending a template with a gap still in it. A message that says "[Company]" is worse than no message.
Follow up once or twice
Most people don't answer a first message, and that is normal: inboxes are busy, not hostile. Send a short follow-up in the same thread after about four days. If there is still no reply, send one last note about ten days after the first, and stop.
Subject: Re: Backend intern, built a rate limiter in Go
Hi Dana, Bumping this in case it got buried. If the Backend Intern role is closed, is there someone else on the team I should write to? Thanks, Alex
There is more, with templates, in how to follow up when nobody replies.
Sending it
Send from your own address, and make it a professional one: your name, not a nickname. Open the draft in Gmail or your mail app, read it aloud once more, and check every name, link and date before you press send. Write to one person per company at a time. Keep a list of who you wrote to and when, so your follow-ups go out on time. A spreadsheet works, and so does the InternLaunch pipeline.
If nobody replies
Silence is rarely personal. Recruiters get a lot of mail, hiring plans change, and some roles are filled before you write. Try a different person at the company, apply through the official channel too, and keep your list of companies growing. Treat it as a question of fit and volume, not a verdict on you.
Frequently asked questions
- Should I attach my resume to a cold email?
- Not in the first message. Offer it ("could I send you my resume?") or link to it. Many recruiters will ask for a PDF, and unexpected attachments can push a message into spam. If a job posting asks you to email your resume, attach it.
- Can I email a recruiter if I have already applied online?
- Yes. Say so in one line, with the role and the date you applied, and ask whether there is anything else you should send. It helps them find your application.
- How many cold emails should I send?
- Quality matters more than volume. A handful of carefully matched messages a week to the right people beats mass mailing. Send as many as you can personalise honestly.
- Do cold emails work for internships?
- Sometimes. Many internships are filled through portals and campus drives, but small teams do hire people who write to them with real work to show. No message guarantees a reply, so keep applying through the normal channels as well.
- What if the recruiter's email bounces?
- A bounce means the address doesn't exist or isn't accepting mail. Try the company's usual format for that person, find them on LinkedIn instead, or write to someone else. Don't send the same message to several guessed addresses at once.