How to Write a Cold Email for an Internship (When There's No Posted Opening)

Not every internship worth having gets posted publicly — smaller companies especially often hire interns opportunistically when a genuinely compelling candidate reaches out, rather than through a formal posted process. A well-written cold email is a real, legitimate path in, not a desperate last resort.

Address a real person, not a generic inbox

"To whom it may concern" or a generic careers@ address signals a mass-blasted template before the recipient has read a single further word. A little research to find the actual hiring manager, team lead, or founder's name — even just from the company's own team page or LinkedIn — meaningfully improves the odds the email gets a genuine read.

Lead with something specific about the company, not about yourself

An email that opens with your own qualifications reads as self-focused; one that opens with something specific and genuine about the company (a product you've used, a mission you find compelling, a recent thing they shipped) signals real interest in this company specifically, not a generic email being sent to fifty companies with the name swapped.

Keep it short — genuinely short

A cold email longer than about five sentences competes with everything else in a busy inbox and often doesn't get read in full. State who you are, why this company specifically, and one clear, small ask ("would you be open to a brief call, or could I send my resume for any upcoming opportunities") — save the fuller story for the reply, if you get one.

Attach a resume, but don't rely on the attachment alone

The email body itself should carry the actual pitch — the attachment is supporting material, not a substitute for a compelling few sentences. A recipient who's busy may open the email and decide based on the text alone, before ever opening the attached file.

Follow up once, politely, after a reasonable gap

A single, polite follow-up after one to two weeks of silence is reasonable and often gets a response simply because the first email got buried, not ignored on purpose. More than one follow-up without any response starts to read as pressure rather than genuine, patient interest.

Send it to more than one company, but don't reuse an identical template robotically

Cold outreach is a numbers game to some real degree — not every email will land — but sending an identical, obviously templated message to twenty companies undermines the specific-company research each individual email is meant to signal. Personalizing the specific detail for each company, even while reusing a consistent overall structure, keeps volume and genuine effort both intact.