The cover letter is the biggest challenge in your application for a trainee program: on only one page you have to express your qualifications, your motivation and your personality and thus convince the personnel manager within a maximum of three and a half minutes dedicated to your application. Here you will get tips for the content of your cover letter and learn which formal criteria are elementary for a successful cover letter. You can also download application templates for your cover letter for free.
Sample for your application letter for trainees.
In addition to the application tips for your cover letter, you will find application templates for downloading here, which will serve as an inspiration for you.
Never take over application samples completely, but use them as a Inspiration and adapt it individually. Because if 20 trainee applications cross a recruiter’s desk every day, you can imagine how excited he or she will be to see the same design several times from different applicants.
Are you applying for the long-established traditional company, the pioneering technology group or the hip startup?? Here you will find samples for every industry and every type – whether consultant, computer scientist or marketing manager.
Tips for the job search
What you want your cover letter to do.
The Cover letter is located after the cover page on the second page of your application, before your resume and the rest of your application documents. As prominent as the placement is, it is also important that you convince directly. On a maximum of one Din A4 page you have to provide the answers to the following questions:
- Why do I want to join the company?
- Why am I the perfect candidate for the trainee program??
- What skills do I already have and why do they fit the requirements of the position??
It’s not only important what you say, but also how you say it: your cover letter must be absolutely error-free Be professional in spelling and grammar. to be on the safe side, be sure to have it proofread before you send it out.
Where you apply is of course up to you. Take a look at the following table to get an overview of the most popular trainee industries:
| Banking | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Civil Engineering | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Business Development | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Consulting | Check trainee jobs | Do career check |
| Controlling | Check trainee jobs | Do a career check |
| Purchasing | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Energy industry | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Finance | Check trainee positions | Doing a career check |
| Humanities | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Real Estate | Check trainee jobs | Doing a career check |
| Engineer | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| IT | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Communication | Check trainee positions | Career check |
| Logistics and Transportation | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Management | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Marketing | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| mechanical engineering | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Mathematics | Check trainee positions | Doing a career check |
| Sustainability and environment | Check trainee positions | Career check |
| Natural sciences | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Online Marketing | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Personal | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Care and health management | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Project Management | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Public Relations | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Law and jurisprudence | Check trainee positions | Do a career check |
| Supply Chain Management | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Insurance | Check trainee jobs | Do career check |
| Sales | Check trainee positions | Do career check |
| Business | Check trainee jobs | Do career check |
Header and subject.
In the header of your application letter for a trainee program, besides the current date, you should include your Contact details and those of the company. You enter your name, address, telephone number(s) and e-mail address. It is clever to put your data in the header – on the one hand, because you already set a design element, on the other hand, to save space. If you don’t want to do this, your data will be entered in the first four or more fields. five lines.
Below you write the address of the company you are applying to – in the order of company name, contact person*, address. Below follows the Subject. However, the word is left out, rather you refer here directly to the job advertisement. It can look like this:
- Application for the Sales Trainee Program
- Applying for a job as a trainee in controlling, ref.-No. XYZ
- Unsolicited application as a sales trainee
Salutation and introduction.
Now it’s time for the text. Again, address a specific contact person: "Dear Sir or Madam" screams mass application, while "Dear Mr. Meier" shows that you are applying individually. Stands Contact If you are not listed in the job ad, the company’s homepage or a phone call will help.
Hit the bull’s eye with your introduction. Because
- you have to arouse interest so that the recruiter will read on, and
- the whole thing should be in just three to four lines.
As you can see, space in the cover letter is precious, so stay away from empty phrases in the first sentence! A "I hereby apply as a management trainee" is just as boring as your "great interest" with which you read the job ad. Instead, go the whole hog and create a Connection between you, your skills and the future employer. Also referring to current developments or talking about the company culture shows that you have done your homework and know who you are applying to.
Possible introductory sentences are:
Your job posting appealed to me very much, as I have already gained deep insights into the pharmaceutical industry during my PhD and am eager to finally put this expertise into practice. Pharma AG not only offers the ideal basic conditions for this through its commitment to cancer research, but also a unique opportunity for me to learn and build on my strengths.
You are looking for someone with innovative ideas, a great willingness to learn and a soft spot for numbers to reinforce your finance team. I can offer you all this – and much more. Therefore, I would like to introduce myself to you and show you how my passion for complex processes and long Excel spreadsheets, as well as my personality, can make a lasting contribution to the success of your company.
You can also ask questions that address requirements from the job ad, for example:
You are looking for a committed team player who is eager to further expand his knowledge on the topic of search engine optimization? I am looking for a challenging career start with a renowned online marketing expert – and I am convinced that I have found it at Muster AG. Let’s increase the conversion rate together and break new ground in e-commerce!
To the point: Your introduction should be short, crisp, and individual – then every reader will be curious to see what happens in the main body of the paper.
The main part.
In the Main part Your application will give you more space to present yourself. Here, however, you don’t just pray your resume down, but show why your professional skills, previous practical experience, and soft skills are a perfect fit for the job. Here is self-marketing is required – and a great deal of credible motivation. A special feature of an application for a trainee program is that you should appear particularly willing to learn and career-minded. After all, companies use trainee programs to recruit their Management trainee training, so you can expect a lot of further education.
In the main part of the application letter, you talk about hard skills and soft skills that you have learned over time – in your studies as well as in internships or other jobs. Also private things like hobbies or travel finds place in your application. It is important that you can prove everything – that is, you do not just write:
I am a real team player and very inquisitive.
I have already proven that I am a team player, not only as coach of the C-youth of my handball club, but also in the student council of my university. When organizing project XY, I not only pulled together with my colleagues, but also enjoyed learning a lot myself.
Another negative example is:
I speak English fluently and enjoy communicating in other languages.
Much better:
During my nine-month self-organized trip from San Francisco to Tierra del Fuego, I perfected my English skills and finally learned Spanish, which allowed me to experience Latin American culture from a completely different perspective. I would like to use my communication talent and my language skills in international sales as well.
If you want to explain your previous experience, don’t just list that you did internships at companies X, Y and Z during your studies, but also what your Assignments there were. Of course, you filter and do not list all activities, but pick out those that are relevant for the trainee program.
An example of a trainee engineer’s application:
During my internship at CARMOBIL AG, I successfully worked on project XY, which resulted in the series production of a particularly energy-saving vehicle lighting system. In the process, I improved my project management skills as well as practiced my presentation skills by presenting our results to the company.
The final part.
If the main body of your cover letter fills about half a page, you can go to the Conclusion come. This should be no longer than one to three sentences, depending on what else you have to say. It is important not to use the subjunctive mood here: Instead of the subjunctive mood, use the subjunctive mood
I would be pleased to hear from you.
you say confidently:
I look forward to meeting you in person and to convincing you personally of my qualifications.
You can also conclude by pointing out that you and the company are an unbeatable combination:
I would be happy to convince you in a personal interview at the Berlin location what contribution I can make to your company.
Are you willing to pull together and give me the chance to develop personally and professionally at Muster AG and to find a long-term perspective?? Then I look forward to a personal conversation!
Then you close with the obligatory "Yours sincerely" and your name, but be careful – there is no comma after "Yours sincerely". No must, but very professional: For a personal touch you also put your (scanned) Signature underneath.
The design.
The Design Your cover letter should be coordinated with your cover page and resume. Depending on where you are applying, you can make your application for the trainee program more modern or more classical. The following applies: Just don’t overload! Even if you prefer a creative design, you should always make sure that it remains clear and does not distract from the essential information – your qualifications and motivation. This also includes the fact that in your cover letter, you only have to mention one Font, for example Arial, Helvetica or Calibri. Hands off squiggly fonts! The font size in the cover letter should ideally be 10 to 12 points, so that it is easy to read.
You have not yet found a trainee program that suits you? Then check out these programs: