Reminding students to thank everyone who helped them during their internships

Susan Sandberg

Reminding your students to thank everyone who helped them during their internships benefits you, too, if you want to keep company doors open when it’s time to place new interns.  The competition for those coveted spaces has really grown, so those thank-you letters are important for both your students and your career center. Here’s how to make sure the students follow through:

• Email, typed/computer generated, or hand-written thank-you notes? Students are used to texting, but when it comes to creating thank-you notes, they should take the time to do a hand-written or typed message to the appropriate person. The recipient will be impressed that your student took the time to do a more traditional thank-you. Also, emails are easy to erase while an actual letter is a reminder of the student’s internship, which can benefit the student who wants to maintain contact at the internship company.

• Remember that students are very busy, especially at the end of the summer and may forget about thank-you notes as they prepare for the coming semester. To help them complete their thank-you messages on time, set a deadline a week or two before the internship ends. And remind your students that you’ll be sending your own thank-you letters to the appropriate intern supervisors, too.
• Enclose sample thank-you letters in each student intern’s package of informative materials. Include various versions, ranging from formal letters for internship supervisors to informal notes or even verbal thank-you scripts for other employees who have been helpful during the internship. Encourage your students to customize their messages based on the samples.
• Consider providing your student interns with note cards or letterhead engraved with the school’s name. Then, you can be assured that the student is using appropriate stationery for the thank-you messages. Having the school name in front of the company personnel is also a tangible reminder of the professional relationship that exists between your career center and the company.
• Collaborate with your student interns on the list of people who deserve thank-you messages. Prepare a form for them with three columns—one for names, a second for type of thank-you, and third for dates. Review the list with each student, dividing the names into formal letters, informal notes, and verbal thanks. Then, add due dates beside each name and ask your student to check off each date upon completion.
• Impress upon your students that these seemingly simple courtesies are an important way of networking. For example, the secretary who has been helpful and deserves a thank-you note may have a brother who works in a company where your student intern may want to apply for a job and needs an employee to put in a good word for him/her. If the student perceives a thank-you as a way to continue a relationship that could lead to new opportunities rather than a closure to a former experience, he/she will need few reminders about thanking everyone.