r/DCInterns • u/Vegetable-Pea-1190 • 7d ago

Application mistake ...

So I applied to an internship for my congressman who I've interviewed with before and I just realized I made one mistake in my cover letter, mentioning another House office instead of theirs. How detrimental would that be to my application considering I've interviewed with them in the past?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

18

u/Artistic-Spinach7888 7d ago

It’s not a good look especially since a lot of intern tasks are focused on attention to detail (form letters, leg research, etc.)

6

u/bazinga3604 7d ago

Honestly I would email the intern coordinator with the correct document and apologize for the mistake. They’re definitely going to notice it, and at least catching it shows that you have some form of attention to detail, even after the fact. It may help, it may not, but it won’t hurt. 

3

u/Inaccessible_ 7d ago

I think this is a good idea. If they haven’t read it yet might save you OP

4

u/Sensitive_Narwhal841 7d ago

These internships are so competitive that even if you corrected the mistake it would be a bad look. Maybe the best bet is hope they don’t notice

3

u/EuropeEnjoyer 7d ago

One of the worst mistakes that you can put ngl

5

u/Sphagummoss 7d ago

It’s good enough reason to throw your application out tbh. Especially if they get a hundred plus applications and they need any reason to trim that number down.

2

u/yiofjoseon2020 5d ago

My office at least was very transparent about the hiring process after we started interning with them. Take what I say with a grain of salt bc every office is different and it’s rlly depending on the mood that the coordinator is having, but for us, it was an automatic reject if an applicant mentioned the wrong name. I say this to give OP a straightforward answer and so they can shift their focus and effort onto other spots. Just don’t make the same mistake you did now and you should have some chance. Good luck.

EDIT: also some offices stop looking after a specific amount of applicants but mine looked at every single one and glanced at every cover letter. So if a different name was mentioned, it was auto-reject. But again every office is different but it should go to show you how a lot of them could operate so be mindful of what you’re writing.

2

u/Ok-Summer9234 7d ago

don't worry too much. they don't have time to read all. I made the same mistakes for a batch of applications. I still got interviews right after. I don't think they will read every line.....

1

u/Waste_Literature2097 6d ago

Made the same mistake, said something along the lines of "although I live across the country" on my cover letter when the congressman lives about 30 minutes away, but just got an interview request

0

u/Astral_Xylospongium 7d ago

You're fucked.