Crafting an Impressive FBI Internship Cover Letter
Are you eager to serve your country in one of the world's most prestigious agencies? Do you possess the qualities of fidelity, bravery, and integrity? If so, an FBI internship might be the perfect opportunity for you. Your journey begins with a well-crafted cover letter that demonstrates your potential and sets you apart from the competition. This article will guide you through creating an effective FBI internship cover letter that captures the attention of recruiters and showcases your unique qualifications.
Understanding the Importance of a Cover Letter
Cover letters remain a vital component of job applications, despite the notion that they are an art form in decline. Before writing one, determine if it is required. If a cover letter is needed, understand what employers seek. Recruiters have limited time and may review your application alongside many others.
While some believe the content of a cover letter is unimportant, it is your chance to bring your resume to life and showcase who you are beyond your qualifications. Every cover letter should tell a story, answering why you are interested in the field, the job, and the company, and why you would excel there. Tailor the letter to the specific role or company, tweaking it to explain why you are interested in that role and align your experience with the job requirements.
Essential Elements of an FBI Internship Cover Letter
1. Header and Salutation
Begin your cover letter with a professional header, including your name, contact information, and the date. Follow this with the recipient's name, title, and the FBI office address. If you know the hiring manager or recruiter's name, address them directly (e.g., "Dear Mr. Smith" or "Dear Special Agent Johnson").
2. Introduction: Expressing Your Passion
Start with a strong opening paragraph that expresses your enthusiasm for the FBI and the specific internship role. Highlight your passion for justice, love for the United States, and any relevant experience. A strong opening paragraph is a great place to tie in your enthusiasm with the responsibilities required for a role in the FBI and set yourself apart from other applicants.
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Explain why you are applying, mentioning your lifelong dream, desire to serve the nation, or commitment to upholding the law. Ensure your purpose aligns with the FBI's values and goals.
Example:
"I am excited to apply for the [Specific Internship Title] with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in [City, State]. I have long admired the FBI's commitment to protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution, and I am eager to contribute my skills and dedication to this important mission."
3. Highlighting Relevant Skills and Experiences
The body of your cover letter should focus on showcasing your skills and experiences that align with the FBI's requirements. The FBI hiring process is rigorous and multi-staged, designed to identify candidates who possess the skills, integrity, and dedication required for this critical role. Draw attention to skills and experiences that directly relate to the FBI position you’re applying for. Show that you understand and align with the FBI’s core values and mission.
Mention your educational background, work experience, and any relevant training or certifications. Provide specific examples of your accomplishments and quantify them whenever possible.
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FBI agents need intelligence, training, and physical fitness to succeed in the role. A bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, law, criminology, political science, or a similar field is required.
You also need to prove you have 3 years of related work experience before joining the FBI. Showcase your work history and education by describing your hard and soft skills.
Hard Skills:
- Collecting and analyzing data
- Legal knowledge
- Scientific knowledge
- Military experience
- Excellent physical fitness
- Mentally fit
- Use of weapons
- Computer skills
- Language skills
- Questioning and interviewing techniques
- Accounting and finance
Soft Skills:
- Logic
- Lateral thinking
- Organizational skills
- Observation
- Empathy
- Communication skills
- Stress management
- Leadership skills
- Persistence
- Decision making
- Negotiation
- Integrity
- Dependability
- Discipline
Examples:
- "During my work as a security officer, I worked closely with 5+ top American celebrities, keeping them safe both in our country and abroad. I ensured their safety on a daily basis by monitoring security cameras and examining the area on day and night shift patrols."
- "In my role as a Jail Screener in Salt Lake City, I conducted 300+ inmate interviews and analyzed 250+ sentences using careful deliberation and knowledge of updated court procedures."
- "After graduation, I worked as a Criminal Profiler for 2 years. In this position, I analyzed 125+ different criminal profiles using my educational background and through collaborating with my team, with 95% criminal matching accuracy."
- "In one instance, my analysis of intercepted communications led to the prevention of a potential terrorist attack, showcasing my ability to work under pressure and make critical decisions."
4. Demonstrating Alignment with FBI Values
The FBI’s motto is “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity,” and their mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.
Emphasize your commitment to the FBI's core values - Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity. Provide examples of how you have demonstrated these values in your past experiences. Highlight your dedication to public service, ethical conduct, and upholding the law.
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Examples:
- "It would be an honor to uphold our nation’s values of safety and integrity, and I hope to provide my best to the FBI as a Special Agent."
- "Being a Criminal Profiler and watching the teams around me work so cohesively have furthered my passion for serving justice and helping communities that are affected by crimes."
5. Addressing Weaknesses (If Necessary)
If you have any weaknesses or shortcomings, such as a low GPA, address them proactively in your cover letter. Explain the circumstances and highlight how you have overcome these challenges. Emphasize your resilience, determination, and willingness to learn.
Example:
"Let's address the elephant in the room: my GPA. Despite these challenges, my passion for engineering has never wavered. And even with my various courses and odd jobs, I've tried my best to apply engineering principles wherever possible."
6. Conclusion: Call to Action
In your conclusion, reiterate your interest in the internship and express your enthusiasm for the opportunity to contribute to the FBI's mission. Ask for an interview and provide your contact information.
Examples:
- "I’d love to have the chance to speak with you regarding my candidacy in an interview. Thank you for your time and consideration in reading this letter."
- "I am deeply committed to public service and believe that my skills, experiences, and dedication to justice make me an ideal candidate for the FBI. I welcome the opportunity to further discuss how I can contribute to the Bureau’s important work."
7. Closing and Signature
End your cover letter with a professional closing, such as "Sincerely" or "Respectfully," followed by your full name.
Formatting Your FBI Internship Cover Letter
FBI agent job applications have strict requirements and require accuracy and attention to detail. Study the FBI’s job description closely and follow its specific instructions. In addition, use proper cover letter formatting:
- Save your cover letter as a PDF. Using a PDF keeps your original formatting and ensures that your cover letter won’t get filtered out by the FBI’s applicant tracking systems (ATS) - software that picks up on job specific keywords.
- You should also adjust your cover letter margins to 1”-1.5” and left-align your text to make sure your cover letter has enough white spacing and is easy to follow. Adjusting the margins slightly is acceptable, but avoid making any large adjustments, or else your cover letter will look too packed with information or - alternatively - full of empty space.
- Next, make sure you set your font size at 10.5 to 12 points so hiring managers can effortlessly scan your cover letter, and choose an appropriate cover letter font like Times New Roman or Arial to set a professional tone. Fancy fonts appear unprofessional and won’t be understood by ATS software.
- Finally, keep your cover letter between 250 and 400 words, or between three and four paragraphs. Using proper cover letter length shows employers that you can convey essential information while writing concisely, indicating you have superb communication skills.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using a generic, one-size-fits-all approach
- Including irrelevant personal information
- Making grammatical or spelling errors
- Failing to demonstrate knowledge of the FBI’s mission and values
- Addressing the letter to the wrong employer
- Submitting a hastily put-together cover letter
Additional Tips for Success
- Research the FBI: Familiarize yourself with the FBI's mission, values, and recent activities.
- Tailor your cover letter: Customize your cover letter for each specific internship opportunity.
- Proofread carefully: Ensure your cover letter is free of errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
- Seek feedback: Ask a trusted friend, family member, or career advisor to review your cover letter.
- Follow up: After submitting your application, follow up with the hiring manager to express your continued interest.
Beyond the Cover Letter: Preparing for the FBI Application Process
Resume Tips for Federal Internships
Not all resumes are created equal - at least when it comes to those for the federal government. Applicants applying to a government internship might feel inclined to copy and paste the same resume that has been submitted to other positions outside the federal government. But there are some key differences and tips to know when submitting a resume to Uncle Sam.
For one, while private sector hiring managers prefer resumes that do not exceed one page, federal job applications do not adhere to this standard. Government jobs actually prefer multiple-page long resumes that list experience, education, job titles and descriptions, salaries, employment dates for timeline comparisons, successes made during previous employment and how an applicants skills and abilities apply to the job description, according to USAJobs.
USAJobs, the premiere job board for agencies looking to hire, offers a template that helps create a uniform, succinct resume tailored to government work. That’s a good place to start, but experts interviewed by Federal Times offered additional tips to help applicants submit the best resume and cover letter possible, prepare for an interview and complete an application properly.
Finding Federal Internship Opportunities
Before an applicant can even get to the stage of applying, one must find the internship itself. Sadly, there is no exhaustive list of every available federal internship. However, USAJobs and the Pathways Program are both popular options that list many federal internship opportunities across agencies.
Pathways recently proposed changes to expand its eligibility and provide internship opportunities for individuals without a college degree.
Strict Deadlines
After finding job listings that look promising, note the deadlines of the position as many federal positions have strict deadlines and due to the lengthy application process and security clearances, can come up sooner than expected. This means starting the process early and noting all deadlines before even beginning to fill out forms.
“Work on it early, especially if you are a university student,” said Brian Rowe, director of experiential education at American University’s career center. “Start to plan a path of exploration because internships can be exploratory. You don’t have to start an internship the very first minute you get to college, but start the process of evaluating what you’d like to explore, what you’d like to do and see how it fits into a path … Sometimes you have to get the ball rolling really quickly because of security clearances.”
Keywords
Many federal internships use technology to sift out applications that do not satisfy their requirements, so make sure when applying to federal internships, buzzwords from the job listing are sprinkled throughout the resume.
“Try to use as many of the keywords that are in the job description in your resume,” said Kira Carney, a former National Park Services intern. “I’m pretty sure this internship had an electronic scanner that your resume is processed first electronically and weeded out, for federal jobs that’s definitely true. So using keywords is a great way to bolster and tie your resume as much as you can to the position.”
For agencies that do use an automated application process to sort through resume’s, the machine is not the only one doing the work. Applications that correctly fit the job application will be sent on to a human representative who will give them a more in-depth review.
So, when building a resume for a federal internship, focus on keeping the font neutral and readable and make sure the formatting is not confusing. Don’t try to be fancy, but highlight qualifications and let the work speak for itself.
Many federal internships are not expecting every applicant to have lots of previous employment, so experience like volunteer work, relevant in-depth projects, topical academic work and research are all relevant.
Standing Out from the Crowd
“To stand out, you want to take that job description and apply it [to your resume] because federal job descriptions are very clear,” Rowe said. “They aren’t ambiguous. Look at what it is saying. What is it asking for? What are the action verbs? What are the tasks? What are the skills that are required? And reflect that back in context for your experiences.”
An excellent cover letter also speaks volumes, Rowe acknowledged. The cover letter lets the hiring manager know why they should hire an applicant over anyone else. Use the opportunity a cover letter presents to tell a story.
“It’s a short way to give a narrative and focus on the skills and experience that the internship is looking for,” Rowe said. “Sometimes people describe their resume as the “what,” like what are my skills, what is my knowledge, what’s my training - academic or otherwise - and the cover letter can be a little more of the “why,” what’s my motivation, why am I applying for this, why am I really motivated to come in and do a great job?”
It’s also good to specify the federal agency’s name in the cover letter and mention something about it to show interest.
“I found it fascinating when applicants could mention the agency and the mission,” said Carol Wilkerson, former Press Director at the Small Business Administration and a former recruiter for the Peace Corps. “Those who mention the agency or the mission or something that was recent in the news relating to the internship position they are vying for, that helped me put that applicant at the top and that person got additional points pertaining to the interview level.”
It’s also important to keep in mind who the audience is. While it may not be apparent who exactly is reviewing each resume, knowing what hiring managers are looking for is important. On top of the job description, employers are looking for demonstrated commitment.
“When I’m sifting through those resumes, I would always look at their scholarly achievements, where they are in their career goals or what they have done community service-wise and any volunteer activities that can show me that that person is committed and dedicated to this particular assignment,” Wilkerson said. “And she actually told me that I was one of very few who followed up, so that’s why I got an interview because there were over 100 [applicants] and they started with people who took the initiative to follow up.”
Preparing for the Interview
Once an applicant has been selected for an interview, it is important to prepare for the interview. Do mock interviews, think of ways to answer popular questions, like the star method, research the agency’s missions and look for advice from trusted sources who might have experience in similar realms.
“I had jobs in high school and the beginning of college, but those were all server jobs, kind of your basic restaurant jobs,” said Katie Gray, a former intern at the Federal Bureau of Investigations. “They weren’t super serious, so this was my first real job interview so I talked to my parents for advice. I talked to a family friend who had been in the military for several years and had knew what to expect from government interviews.
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