Sample cover letter for Internship position at McKinsey & Company

November 10, 2012

Summer Insight Program

McKinsey & Company
1200 19th St. NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Dear Summer Insight Program Selection Committee:

I am applying to the Summer Insight Program for PhD candidates at McKinsey & Company, which was posted on the APD website. I am a graduate student in the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins University. My education and experience have prepared me for the Summer Insight program offered by McKinsey.

As a graduate student in a neuroscience laboratory, I have been trained to quickly learn new fields, think through problems in an analytical manner and maintain flexibility within a demanding schedule. My research involved recording sleep in mice, a method that I pioneered at Johns Hopkins. Once the technique was established within the lab, I was responsible for training other area scientists, both academic and industrial, in the technique and analysis.

This skill set also allowed me to participate in collaborations with laboratories at Johns Hopkins and other institutions exploring topics such as Schizophrenia. I have written three primary manuscripts, three review articles and have been given the opportunity to present my work to both scientific and community audiences. These experiences have helped me to develop technical writing skills and the ability to present details of my research to various audiences, therefore preparing me for communication in a business environment.