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CorporateOctober 2026
Cover letter for a work placement
For a placement, you don't yet have a career to write about, and nobody expects that. A placement supervisor wants to know what you're hoping to learn, what you can already do from your studies and what appeals to you about this particular placement. Below is a letter that shows this, followed by four tips and answers to the questions students ask most often.
Example of a cover letter for a work placement
Dear Tim,
I'm Sanne Bakker, a third-year Communication student at Hogeschool Utrecht, and from February I'm looking for a twenty-week work placement. At my course's placement fair, someone from your team told me about life at the agency, and I then read your vacancy for a content marketing placement student. Writing for online channels and measuring whether it works: that's the direction I chose this year.
Over the past year, I wrote our student association's newsletter every two weeks, for 600 members. At first, fewer than a third of members opened it. I started testing subject lines, wrote shorter pieces and put the most important message at the top. Within six months, the open rate rose from 31 to 44 per cent. That moment, when a small change makes a visible difference, is what I enjoy most about this field.
Your vacancy mentions that placement students work on real client projects. That's where I want to learn how a content strategy takes shape, how you decide what to measure and how you explain that to a client. I'll bring my experience running the Instagram account for my sports club. There, I learned that posting every week delivers more than the occasional great post: follower numbers grew from 400 to 1,100 in a year.
I'd be happy to show you a few of my newsletters and tell you what I'd like to achieve in twenty weeks. My CV and some samples of my work are attached, so you can already see how I write.
Yours sincerely,
Sanne Bakker
The names, the agency and the figures in this example are fictional. The letter you have written here will use your own studies and the actual placement vacancy.
How to approach a placement cover letter
- Explain in your opening who you are, what you're studying and what kind of placement you're looking for: when, how long, and what type. A supervisor plans months ahead and can immediately see whether it's a fit.
- Say what you want to learn, not just what you can already do. A placement is a learning opportunity, and showing that stands out positively.
- Turn your studies into experience: a project, a part-time job or a role at a society. Tell it as a short story, with a figure included.
- Respond to something that's actually in the vacancy, such as working on client projects. That says more than a paragraph of compliments about the company.
Frequently asked questions about a cover letter for a work placement
- How long should a placement cover letter be?
- One page, three to four paragraphs. A supervisor reads dozens of letters; those who make clear in ten lines what they're coming to do stand out.
- I don't have any work experience yet. What do I put in my letter?
- Your education, projects, a part-time job, volunteering or a committee role. The point is to show how you work: on time, independently, with results. Even a part-time job at a supermarket can show that.
- Should I mention my grades?
- Only if they're notably good or if the job advert asks for them. A concrete project with an outcome tells a supervisor more than an average grade.
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