Recommendation Letter for Interns and Trainees

What a good one includes

• A clear statement of your professional relationship, including your job title, how long you supervised the intern, and the specific department they worked in.
• A detailed description of one or two key projects the intern owned, highlighting the tangible outcomes or data-driven results they achieved.
• An explicit list of the technical skills, tools, software, or industry-specific methodologies they mastered during their tenure.
• Specific examples of their soft skills, such as adaptability, proactive communication, teamwork, and how constructively they responded to feedback.
• A strong, definitive statement of endorsement that contextualizes their performance compared to other interns or peers you have managed.
• Your active contact information and a warm invitation for future employers to reach out for a follow-up conversation.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Using a generic template that lacks personal anecdotes, which makes the recommendation feel insincere and fails to help the candidate stand out.
• Exaggerating the intern's responsibilities to a degree that feels unrealistic for an entry-level role, which quickly damages the letter's credibility.
• Listing the intern's basic daily duties instead of focusing on the tangible impact, value, and initiative they brought to those tasks.
• Allowing typos, grammatical errors, or incorrect company names to slip through, which reflects poorly on both your professionalism and the candidate.

Frequently asked questions