[Help!] Cover letter help for summer internship in HongKong

Hi everyone

I know that I can get some good and specific advice from this forum, cause I have a dream to enter the finance industry for a long time, and now I am a grad student in Dartmouth, my undergrad college is the best (no "one of") in China, majored in EE, but I barely have any persuasive related internship experience in the last 4 years(I have regret about that now), the only opportunity for me is to have a internship in a large investment bank, Hong Kong may be an easier choice but it is also fiercely competitive.

So the cover letter attached below is a complement to resume, which basically states the past experience of mine, including a summer internship in a middle-sized software company, some lab work in Tsinghua, also a summer short internship in which I lead a 10-people group to a Top 500 corp. to study (or apprenticeship). So I decided the only way I can write in the cover letter is to state the process I came to know the financial industry and how passionate (perhaps you cannot sense that from the cover letter I wrote due to my limited awareness of the industry) I am about the investment banking (Trading was also one of my favorite divisions).

try to state my advantage in a modest way, my strength is also obvious: smart(undoubtedly I am confident that I am among one of the smartest groups in China), strong analytical skill(solid engineering background, I am confident but don't know how to demonstrate it from the first glance of the resume or cover letter), sensitive to information( I always keep up with the current event in Asia and also global news), good communication skill, and dual fluency in Chinese and English, while I can also speak Cantonese but somehow I doubt if it is preferred, passion(I changed my major from EE to finance simply because I always have a dream to be a financier and keep studying EE make me sick.), and pursue of the best.

About the Career path:

my first choice of career path would be working in a IBD(M&A is exciting) or Trading(get to know the global market to cultivate my international vision), then I may pursue a MBA after 3 or 4 years. I know that being a intern they don't require you to be expertise in financial knowledge, but certainly I know that my experience is not the best of all the candidate, maybe even weak in some aspects. I just want to hear some advice about my COVER LETTER, and also your path when you choose finance as your career, how would I impress the reader of my cover letter and offer me an interview?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ADVICE TO A GUY THAT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW!

---------------------------------------------------Cover Letter-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To whom it may concern:

After learning about the information of the summer analyst program at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, I feel that I am suitable and qualified for this job, based on my skills, experiences and passion for the Investment Banking industry and especially Morgan Stanley.
Being highly sensitive to numbers and current events, I graduated with considerable academic performance from the Department of Electronic Engineering in Tsinghua University, where I learned the art of quantitative analysis and critical thinking from extensive mathematical and engineering practice. I also showed leadership potential by successfully organizing a 10 people internship trip during the summer vacation. Besides, by grasping the essence of communication and teamwork, I performed excellent and cooperated with other partners to design a 32-bit CPU. 4 years in Tsinghua granted me a solid foundation, a sense of responsibility and most importantly, confidence, for my future career development.
However, working in financial related industry has long been the dream of mine, so I shifted my major to Engineering Management in order to seek more opportunities. After several talking to the CCC members about the career development, I participated in your info session on campus, simultaneously I persisted to collect every possible information about financial industry. During these processes I surprisingly felt a sound of excitement resonating deep in my heart, which has vanished for quite a long time. The experience in the MEM program helped me realize it is finance that I really want to pursue.
Morgan Stanley is one of the leading financial institutions in the world with well-established reputation. As a native Mandarin speaker and a keen analyzer of Asia, I am confident to work intensively to contribute my wisdom and unique perspective to your group, while the professional insight in financial industry and international vision are what I expect for return.
Thank you for your interest and I will make myself available at your convenience if you offer me an interview. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely

 

hey man. you seem like you're in a pretty good position--there are lots of alums from my school who make the switch from engineering to finance and investment banks tend to look favorably upon quantitative skills, even if they're not in finance/economics. as long as you demonstrate an interest (which you have) and do some networking, you have a decent shot. just my thoughts

 

The problem is that my target now is Asia Pacific while I am in US, besides, being an international student who just arrived in U.S, networking with someone work in big investment banks are not that easy, would you give me some advice? e.g. talking with someone in Business School for example?

Missing the simple days~~
 

ur cover letter sounds good, original in a way that you genuinely want to work in the industry as compared to others that just state why they are good and fullstop (like me till someone pointed out). but honestly, im not too sure what the HRs are looking for so yup..

anyways if you do get trading, why will you want to do MBA? is being a portfolio/fund mgr ur ultimate goal?

 

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Missing the simple days~~

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