First email to intern manager
Hi Taro community,
I will be starting my Meta internship next month. I have just received my team assignment as well as the name/email of my intern manager. I am thinking of sending an introduction email to my IM to ask more info about the team as well as recommendations for learning the team's tech stack.
I was thinking of sending something along the lines of the following. I would gladly appreciate any advice on how one can make this email even better. My goal is to make a good first impression to my IM.
Dear [Manager name],
I hope you are doing well! My name is [insert name], and I’m very excited to be joining [Team name] this summer as a Software Engineering Intern. I was recently assigned to your team, and I’m really looking forward to learning and growing from you throughout the internship.
As I begin preparing, I would love to learn more about the team’s focus and, if available, any details you can share about the intern project I’ll be working on. If possible, could you also share what technologies the team primarily works with, and any resources you’d recommend I review beforehand? I’d love to get up to speed so I can contribute effectively from day one.
Thank you so much for your help! I’m truly excited to be joining the team and learning from you this summer.
Some specific questions I had:
- Is it appropriate to ask for more details about the intern project at this stage, or should my ask be limited to just the team's overall focus and what they do?
- Is the length of the email appropriate, or could it be made more concise?
- Do you see any glaring issues with the overall wording or tone of the message?
Discussion
(8 comments)- 1
19 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroThis email feels too fluffy and is asking for too much IMHO. I would tweak everything after the 2nd paragraph to look more like this:
I'll cut straight to the chase: I want to be as impactful as possible for your team and hit the ground running. I understand that Meta's technology is largely custom and internal, but if there's anything I can do to prepare for my internship, please let me know.
Thank you for your time, and I'm excited to build cool stuff with you!
When it comes to all communication overall, you should always be thinking about incentives. Intern managers get rewarded the more productive their interns are, and I think the above messaging cuts straight to that in a more plain + efficient way.
I'll talk more about incentive alignment in my upcoming networking course. Deep empathy solves many problems 😄
- 1
19 days agoHelpful TarodactylTaro CommunityThank you both for the amazing feedback! I really appreciate it.
I like the point about keeping the communication concise and focused. Love the ending about "building cool stuff."
Would something like this sound better for the second paragraph:
If possible, could you share what technologies the team primarily works with? I understand that Meta’s technology is largely custom and internal, but if there is anything I can do to prepare for my internship, please let me know. - 019 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
If possible, could you share what technologies the team primarily works with? I understand that Meta’s technology is largely custom and internal, but if there is anything I can do to prepare for my internship, please let me know.
You could, but adding more specifics just increases the cognitive load of your message and it just makes it more awkward as the IM is now worried about accidentally leaking something. I think you should just keep it simple.
Don't overthink this, and keep expectations low.
- 119 days agoHelpful TarodactylTaro Community
Great point! Maybe just keep the message short and simple like this?
I want to be as impactful as possible for your team and hit the ground running. If there is anything I can do to prepare for my internship, please let me know. - 019 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
Maybe just keep the message short and simple...
Yep! The more general message still opens up room for them to share specifics if they're comfortable while not prying for them directly.
Meta is very paranoid about leaks and is going more and more towards a culture of secrecy nowadays.
- 119 days agoHelpful TarodactylTaro Community
Sounds cool! Thank you for providing insight on Meta's culture - this is very helpful to know.
- 119 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
Is it appropriate to ask for more details about the intern project at this stage, or should my ask be limited to just the team's overall focus and what they do?
No, you don't work at the company yet, so it's risky for anybody to share anything internal with you. It's possible that you will reneg on the intern offer - Nothing is certain until you actually start working at the company. It's very unlikely you can specifically prepare for the intern project anyways as it's almost certainly going to be niche and specific to Meta.
The best outcome you can get here is "Maybe go through this generic TypeScript tutorial to sharpen your fundamentals".
- 119 days agoMid-Level Software Engineer at Walmart
@Alex's answer makes total sense.
One slight tangent
- I think you should ask for specific project info. I have a feeling the worst that could happen is your manager telling you they can't tell you anything yet. At the very least, they'd be happy you're enthusiastic.
- LGTM
- I like the 'building cool stuff' part!
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