Chapter 5 Motivation Letter

A good motivation letter explains why you should be considered for a certain position. It conveys your directly relevant qualities and your interest in the position.

When you apply somewhere, you usually send a motivation letter and a resume. The resume is just an attachment that lists your qualifications, education and work experience. Your motivation letter is how you try to convince the reader to consider a follow-up conversation with you.

Whether you are going to pursue a career in academics or not, almost everywhere you apply, you will include a motivation letter. Even if it is not explicitly asked for, your first email to a potential employer should essentially be a motivation letter.

5.1 Professionalism

  • Address a specific person, not a group. You may not know who to address your motivation letter to, but that is unfortunately how it works. You’ll just have to research it. If you send your letter to a group or institute, chances are it will be sent to HR, where your chances are almost zero compared to sending your letter to someone specific.
  • Use a proper opening. You may be used to addressing people informally, but when you contact someone for an internship or job opportunity, it is better to err on the side of formality. If your email is addressed to an institute, rather than a specific person, write “Dear [Institute Name]”. Motivation letters that say “Dear reader, …” or even worse, just “Dear, …” do not look like they were written for this specific position.
  • Be polite. You may have had a long, unfruitful experience searching for a job or internship so far, but you are still asking someone a favor. Any frustration you might have should not show in a motivation letter.
  • Avoid spelling/grammar errors. Always let someone proofread. If you know you are dyslexic, take extra care to have one or several people proofread;
  • Don’t know someone’s title? Look it up. Some care more about their title than others, but when in doubt, address people with title (e.g. Dr., Prof.). For academics, you can usually look up how their names are listed on their institute site.
  • Use proper closing lines. For instance: “Thank you for your consideration.”

These may seem obvious, but still every year, we get emails from students (including requests for internships) that look like they were addressed to a friend, start literally with “Dear Sir/Madam,” or are otherwise unconvincing. You only get one chance at a first impression!

5.2 Content

After reading only your motivation letter, 3 things should be clear to the reader:

  • Who are you (and what is your current role at Leiden University);
  • Why do you apply for this specific position (how does it align with your interests);
  • Why should you be considered (what is your relevant experience)?

Lastly, keep in mind that it is a motivation letter. Convey your enthusiasm!

5.3 Structure

While there are no strict rules about what constitutes a great motivation letter, here are some guidelines:

  1. Use first paragraph to introduce yourself. Briefly explain your affinities and your interests. Try to keep the first paragraph short, so the reader can quickly move on to your question;
  2. Use the second paragraph to explain why you are interested in this position in particular. Do not use general terms here, but try to explain what specifically aligns with your interests (see the example below). If this is a motivation letter for an internship, read some papers by the person or group you want to join to get a good idea of what to write here;
  3. Use the third paragraph to quickly summarize practical information. How many EC/hours should the project be? When can you start? When is it due? Can you stay longer? If you haven’t already, I also recommend to mention that you would like to elaborate in a follow-up conversation;
  4. Use an informative title as the subject (e.g. BSc internship application March–July 2022);
  5. Include a resume (CV).

Example of explaining how your interests align:

  • Good: During my studies, I was particularly interested in the ecology of soil organisms. I really enjoy trying to understand how different species compete for nutrients. When I looked at your profile page on the university website, I saw that your research group studies the soil microbiome, which is exactly what peaks my interest;
  • Poor: I lean more towards macrobiology over microbiology and I would like to do something with evolutionary research.
  • Poor: I read your paper on microbiome sequencing and thought it was interesting.

(The first example is specific, and conveys how your interests align with their research. The second example is too broad, and the third example only contains their research, but not why it interests you.)

Assignment 5

In this assignment you are going to write a motivation letter for a (hypothetical) Bachelor internship position. Of course, if you already have an idea of a research group you would like to do your internship at, then by all means, use that research group as the fictive recipient! We will try our best to provide you with feedback after the deadline.

You and over a hundred biology students at Leiden University are following the same education. Why should you be considered for an internship position, why are you interested in this position, and what do you know of the group you are applying to? These are elements that should be present in your motivation letter.

You may think that this assignment is quite early, but keep in mind that if you want to do an internship abroad, you have until 1 December (outside Europe) or 1 February (within Europe) to apply, and you will most likely also require a motivation letter. Furthermore, having written one motivation letter will make it much easier to adapt it for another opportunity.

  1. Choose a research institute, group, or professor you would potentially be interested in doing research with (starting points: commonly chosen institutes, research themes at the IBL, scientists at the IBL). You may choose any scientist or research group you can find online, which you find interesting;
  2. Write a motivation letter according to the guidelines shown here. There is no minimum number of words, as long as every aspect is clearly mentioned.

Upload your motivation letter to Brightspace. Do not forget your full name and student number. Deadline: 30 April 23:59