Last updated: July 30, 2026
It was 2022. I had just finished my second year at university and desperately needed somewhere to do my SIWES. A family friend had given me a contact at a mid-sized engineering firm in Abuja. I spent two days “composing” what I thought was a professional email. I wrote things like “I am humbly bringing this letter to your esteemed organization…” I addressed it “Dear Sir/Ma.” I attached a CV that was basically a Word document with my name in bold at the top and very little else.
Nobody replied. Not even to reject me.
I did not get a response for three weeks. Eventually my mother called the family friend, who called someone at the firm, who told him that the HR person had read my email and could not figure out what I was actually asking for.
That was the moment I realized something that changed how I write every professional email since: most Nigerian students are taught to write formal letters, not professional emails. These are two different things. A letter and an email have completely different rhythms, different expectations, and different rules. Nobody explicitly teaches students this gap, so they fall into it, again and again.
If you have been sending internship emails and hearing nothing back, I want to show you exactly where things are going wrong, and how to fix it.
Why Your Emails Are Being Ignored (And It Is Not What You Think)
Most students assume their emails are ignored because the company is not hiring, or because their GPA is too low, or because they do not have connections. Sometimes those things are true. But more often, the email itself is the problem.
HR staff at Nigerian companies, especially the bigger ones in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Abuja, receive dozens of internship emails every week. Many of those emails look and read identically. They all say “I am a student of [university] writing to express my interest in an internship position.” They all attach a CV without explaining anything in the body. Most of them have vague subject lines like “Internship Application” or, worse, no subject at all.
When someone reads the same opening line seventeen times in a day, they stop reading. Your email needs to make them stop scrolling within the first two sentences.
What a Good Internship Application Email Actually Looks Like
Before the template, understand the logic behind it.
Your email should do four things and nothing else. It should tell them who you are in one line. It should tell them exactly what you want (not “an opportunity to learn and grow,” but specifically which department and for how long). It should give them one or two reasons to take you seriously. Then it should make it easy for them to say yes by telling them what to do next.
That is it. The whole email should be five to eight short paragraphs and should take no more than forty-five seconds to read.
Here is a real example based on an email I helped a 300-level Mass Communication student from UNILAG write last year. She sent it to four media companies. Two replied within 72 hours. She ended up at TVC Communications for her SIWES.
Subject: SIWES Internship Request – Mass Communication, UNILAG (Available July–September)
Good morning [Name or HR Team],
My name is Adaeze Okonkwo, a 300-level Mass Communication student at the University of Lagos. I am writing to request a SIWES internship placement in your news or digital content department for the July to September 2024 period.
I have been following TVC’s coverage of the Lagos state elections this cycle and was particularly impressed by your behind-the-scenes social media content. I have been running a student radio segment at the UNILAG campus station for the past year where I produce two short-form audio features weekly, and I believe the skills I have built there would let me contribute meaningfully from week one.
I have attached my CV and my ITF Student Industrial Training letter for your review. I am available for a brief call or interview at your convenience and can be flexible around your team’s schedule.
Thank you for your time.
Adaeze Okonkwo 08XXXXXXXXX adaeze.okonkwo@student.unilag.edu.ng
Study that email. Notice she did not say she was “humbly seeking.” She did not say she “looks forward to contributing to the growth of your organization.” She said something specific about TVC that showed she actually knew who they were. She mentioned a real thing she had done. She kept it clean and short.
That is the template. Adjust for your name, school, department of interest, and one specific thing you know or like about the company.
How to Research a Company Before Emailing Them
This is the part most people skip, and it is the part that makes the biggest difference.
Before you write a single word of your email, spend fifteen minutes on the company’s website and LinkedIn page. Look at what they have been doing recently. Did they launch a new product? Win an award? Post a job that is related to your field? Any of these can become the sentence that proves you are not just copy-pasting to fifty companies at once.
You do not need to write an essay about their history. One sentence of genuine observation is enough. “I saw that your firm recently won the CIBN innovation award” or “I noticed your team has been expanding into digital banking” does more work than three paragraphs of general praise.
If you cannot find a specific person’s name and email address, call the company’s front desk and ask who handles internship applications. Sending to a named person almost always performs better than sending to a generic info@ or hr@ address.
The Attachment Problem Nobody Warns You About
A lot of internship emails fail at the attachment stage, not the writing stage.
Your CV should be a PDF, not a Word document. Word documents can look different on different computers and sometimes refuse to open entirely on phones, which is where many HR staff check emails first. A PDF looks the same everywhere.
Name your file properly. “CV.pdf” tells them nothing. “AdaezeOkonkwo_CV_MassCom_2024.pdf” is searchable, professional, and shows you understand how to organize documents.
If your SIWES requires you to attach your ITF student placement letter, include it as a separate attachment and mention both attachments by name in the email body. Do not make someone open your email and wonder what they are looking at.
Also, speaking of SIWES: if you are still figuring out your logbook alongside your placement search, this guide on how to fill your SIWES logbook correctly will save you a serious headache later.
What Nobody Tells You About Following Up
Sending one email and waiting is not a strategy. It is hope.
If you have not heard back in five to seven working days, send a follow-up. One short follow-up. Not “I am just checking in” (which says nothing) but something like: “I sent an internship request on [date] and wanted to confirm it reached the right person. I remain available and happy to provide any additional information.”
That single follow-up has gotten more placements for students I have mentored than the original email. People get busy. Inboxes get messy. A polite nudge at the right moment is not annoying; it is competence.
Do not follow up after two days. Do not follow up three times in a week. One follow-up, one week after the original email. If they still do not reply after that, move to the next company.
The Honest Truth About Internship Emails in Nigeria
Here is what most career blogs will not say plainly.
Some companies in Nigeria have no structured internship process at all. They accept interns based on who calls first, whose uncle works there, or which student showed enough persistence to call back. This is not fair, and it is not how things should work. But it is real.
This means your email is sometimes competing not against other emails but against phone calls and personal referrals. This is why I always tell students to use every channel available. Send the email. Then call to confirm they received it. Then send a polite LinkedIn connection request to someone in the department if you can find them. Do not be desperate or aggressive. Be persistent and professional. Those are different things.
Your email gets you in the room. Your follow-through gets you the placement.
Your Action Plan From Here
Start by picking five companies in your field and writing company-specific emails for each one, not the same email sent five times. Use the subject line format: [Your Course] Internship Request + [University] + [Dates Available]. Attach a PDF CV named with your full name and year. Send between 8am and 10am on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday (these days consistently get higher open rates in professional email). Follow up exactly seven working days later if you hear nothing. Keep a simple spreadsheet tracking who you emailed, when, and what happened.
Fifty applications taught me that the students who get placements are rarely the most qualified. They are the ones who communicate the clearest and follow up the most consistently.
Your email is not a prayer. It is a pitch. Write it like one.
If this helped you or if you have a story about an internship email that worked or flopped spectacularly, I want to hear it. Drop it in the comments. Someone else reading this needs to know they are not alone.
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