Sample cover letter for Full Time position at Bocconi

Dear Mr./Ms. Director of Master of Science program,

I am writing this letter to you as a personal statement for my application to the Master of Science program
at Bocconi University 2016/2017. I have applied for three choices of program, and you may find my
motivations for each program below.
The program of my first choice is the Marketing Management program in English. Truth to be told, back
when I was a freshman, I used to be one of those Economics students who looked down on Marketing as
an easy and not really challenging subject. However, during my four years of undergraduate studies, I had
been exposed to Marketing on many different occasions, and it has gradually became one of my passions
since.
My interests in Marketing first aroused when I joined my university’s chapter of ENACTUS (formerly
known as SIFE) team as a Marketing Executive, during my first year. Actually, I applied as a graphic
designer, but the design team got merged with the Marketing Department, so in a stroke of luck, I got my
first hand-on view of what Marketing is really like. I soon discovered that Marketing is not really a simple
and dull subject, but it requires a lot of creativity, and lots of analytical skills too. The time I worked with
ENACTUS gave me a basic grasp of various Marketing techniques and knowledge.
Currently, I am working as an E-commerce and Digital Marketing Specialist for Cultural Images, a newlyestablished brand of high-end culturally-meaningful fashion gifts. My main roles is to manage social media
campaigns, promote our website and products through various means like Facebook ads, Google
Adwords… and analyze digital marketing and e-commerce data using Google Analytics. My experience at
Cultural Images provided me with new skills in social media analysis and digital marketing tools. However,
the most important part is that it cemented my desire to continue my study in a Marketing Management
master program, since the more I work, the more I feel there are still a lot of things that I need to learn.
Of course, my education has already provided me with some theoretical knowledge about Marketing.
After I found myself interested in the field, I took some elective classes in Principles of Marketing and Ecommerce. Those classes were very mind-opening, and certainly had given me more thorough
understanding of Marketing, and the methodologies of doing research in Marketing. However, due to the
limitations of an elective, it could not satisfy my learning curiosity. Therefore, I feel that further study is a
must.
The first reason why I choose Bocconi University to do that study is because of the wide and interesting
curriculum your university offers, while I can still focused on the area that I am interested in, that is Social
Media and Digital Marketing. The Marketing Department of Bocconi has a world-renowned reputation,
with highest-quality faculties, so I believe I can easily both deepen and widen my knowledge of Marketing
at your school. Another reason is the international opportunities that Bocconi offers. In my current job, I
have to deal with foreign customers and partners every day, so I really appreciate the chance to have a
semester abroad, or a double degrees, to experience and immerse in another culture, language and
customs. Bocconi also attracts top talents from many different countries in the world, so even without a
semester abroad, I can also learn about various cultures from my classmates. The rigorous training of a
third language at Bocconi will be a precious asset too.
Last but not least, your school’s location in Milan, the culture and fashion capital of Italy is also an
important factor. After my studies, I intend to return to my current company, which already has plan to
expand into the European market, or work for another fashion or cultural products company. Therefore,
it is undoubtable that there is no place better to do my studies than at Milan, where I can observe and
learn from top companies of the field. With the advantage of the compulsory internship of Marketing
Management program, I also hope to be able to have some working experience right in Milan, for both
future job prospect and potential networking.
My second choice of program is the Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology program
(EMIT). Personally, I find this program of Bocconi to be very unique in the way it combines perfectly two
area of my interest, besides Marketing: Technology and Entrepreneurship. One of those, Technology,
actually has been my passion for longer than most.
My interest in Computer Science and Technology started during my high school years. Back then, I was
part of a few students selected from my “High school for the gifted” to be part of a provincial team
competed in “National Amateur Young Developers”, and I even received the silver medal. I have been
learning coding languages and computer sciences theories by myself since I was in 9 th grade, and even
though I am majored in Economics, not Computer Sciences, I can say that I have a decent IT skills. During
my first and second years as an undergraduate student, I also worked part-time as a reporter for
Thebox.vn, where I wrote and translated news articles in the field of Technology and Innovation. That
experience gave me an extra view of Technology from the consumer perspective, in addition to the
technical view I already had.
The other element, Entrepreneurship, first interested when I was working as a Marketing Executive for
ENACTUS. Our team main mission was to assist social entrepreneurship projects to develop their business
plan, to find funding for the project and to apply them in an industrial scale. One of the main project I was
involved with was “STICK”, an innovation design integrating a laser sensor to the walking stick, then
transferring the signal to voices to help the blinds safely navigating around. Working in that project made
me realize that in developing countries like Vietnam, everyday there are a lot of meaningful innovative
ideas made, but a very high percentage of them cannot come into reality because of the lack of business
and entrepreneurial education of the owner. And that is why I want to learn more myself about that area,
with the hope that I could one day utilize those knowledge or transfer them to other peoples.
I choose the Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology at Bocconi because of various
reasons. Many of them are almost the same as my first choice reasons. The curriculum of Bocconi for the
EMIT program covers a lot of different aspects of Innovation and Technology, and in addition to that
rounded education, I can also focused on the area that I am interested the most in, that is Technology and
Innovation Management. The international opportunities are abundant, which is very important in the
current globalized innovation economy. One of the unique reasons for my choice of EMIT is that from
what I have heard, Bocconi boosts a very healthy entrepreneurial environment, so I hope that I can find
peoples to cooperate with me to realize some of my start-up ideas.
After finishing the program, I plan to utilize the knowledge I learn at Bocconi to develop a business of my
own. In case that plan does not go well, which is a big chance every start-up must face, I will join, or start,
a technology and innovation consulting company, to help realizing meaningful ideas of others.
My third choice of program is the Economics and Social Sciences program. In above passages, I have
talked about my interests in Marketing, Technology, and Innovation, but I am still an Economics major, so
the love for doing research, for discovering how the economy works is very much deeply ingrained in me.
During my undergraduate studies, I have taken many different courses on various subcategories of
Economics. I have achieved good grades in almost all of economic courses, like Macroeconomics,
Microeconomics, Development Economics, International Economics… and I always found those to be very
intellectually fulfilling. From my education background, I can say that my economic knowledge is pretty
well-rounded and good.
Beside economic courses, I also took mathematics and methodologies courses like Advanced
Mathematics, Econometrics, Statistics, Research Methodology and Logic. You may find that my Math
grades is a little bit low, since it was during the first semester and I had not settled to the university
environment well enough. If I had the chance to take those again, I believe I could do much better. As you
can also see, in latter courses I did quite well, and I can apply those mathematical and statistical knowledge
to math-heavy courses like Advanced Macroeconomics and Advanced Microeconomics easily, as proven
by my score. These courses also provided me with competent skills in doing research, analyzing data and
statistical modeling.
During my third year at Foreign Trade University, I also participated in “Student Scientific Research”
contest organized by my school with a team of four other classmates. Our paper’s title is “Decentralization
of Municipal Government in Ho Chi Minh City: Effects on Local Economy”. With the guidance of our Public
Economics Professor, we investigated the positive and negative effects of the transition from a centralized
government to a decentralized one on local economy, as well as suggest the best course for local
companies to deal with the situation. Our paper only received a silver medal and did not qualified for the
national competition, but it was still a very fulfilling experience on economics research.
The reasons why I prefer Economics and Social Sciences program at Bocconi are its rigorousness, the
reputation of its faculties, as well as the outstanding placement rate in top Ph.D. program. Firstly, the
curriculum consists of lots of advanced mathematics, econometrics and statistics courses, which will be
very useful if I want to continue my study further in a Ph.D. program. The rigorousness of these courses
at Bocconi is pretty well-known, and I believe it can help me overcome the low mathematics grade during
the first year of my undergraduate. Bocconi’s Economics faculties also consist of many world-class
researchers like Prof. Tabellini, Prof. Bruni… many of whose articles I have read a lot. Furthermore, the
placement result of Bocconi is extremely good, with many students able to secure a place in top programs
of the world. I believe that Economics and Social Sciences program at Bocconi will help me to achieve
what I dream of if I choose to do a Ph.D.
After finish the master degree, I will apply for a Ph.D. program in Public Economics, and hopefully will be
able to become an academic who can contribute new ideas, pushing the boundary of current economic
knowledge base.