>> Originally published on LinkedIn on January 6, 2016

As fall full-time recruiting for college seniors comes to a close, it means summer internship recruiting is right around the corner. For current college juniors, it’s a stressful time filled with anxiety about future career goals and full-time employment. However, right now, the most productive thing college juniors can do is to think in the short-term rather than the long-term. Isolating what you want to do (and what skills you want to develop) in the immediate future will help you gain more clarity as to what you want to be doing full-time.

So that means you should focus only on the mission at hand: finding a meaningful summer job that can allow you to grow as a professional at a company you admire.

Being two years removed from the internship recruiting scene, I've been able to gain some perspective as to what worked for me during internship recruiting season. I used a 5-step process to help me land my dream internship at Spotify in 2013 before my senior year at Northwestern University. My hope is that by sharing my strategy I can help current college juniors (or anyone looking for a job for that matter) find that perfect opportunity.

Focus only on the mission at hand:Find a meaningful summer job that can allow you to grow as a professional at a company you admire.

Here's how I went about landing my dream summer internship and how you can do it, too:

Step 1: Make a list of every company you admire and every product you love.

After working for a variety of clients across several industries during prior internships at advertising agencies, I realized that I do my best when working for clients I love. So, to be able to do my best work all the time (and to be excited to do it), I knew I wanted to work for a company that had a mission that resonated with me and a brand I admired.

Ultimately, the best way to start your internship search, is to first search from within. Create a list of 25 to 50 companies and products that you respect, creating your "total addressable market" for potential summer employers. Dream big. Do you admire Google for it’s uncanny ability to quickly tell you what you need to know exactly when you need it? Then, put it on the list. And don’t be afraid to think small. What apps on your phone can you not live without? Put those on your list, too. Any company or product is fair game as long as you feel a strong attachment to the brand and its mission.

Step 2: Write a clean, easy-to-read cover letter and have a focused, action-result formulated resume.

In my opinion, cover letters need to be "good enough," meaning they need to be written with a strong voice and specific as to how your skills make you the best fit for the role you want, but not “the best cover letter ever written.” Don't overthink it. I used this four paragraph template and changed about 5-10% of it for each application—more for roles that were of higher priority or of a different function):

Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself and the two to three skills you have that make you uniquely qualified for the role (1-2 sentences).

Paragraph 2: Explain your accomplishments associated with your prior internship experience and how they relate to the job (4-5 sentences).

Paragraph 3: Explain your on-campus accomplishments and how they will make you the perfect candidate (4-5 sentences).

Paragraph 4: Conclude in saying that you are the best fit for the role because of skills X, Y and Z. Thank the hiring manager (use names when possible) for their time and consideration for the role (2-3 sentences).

That’s it. If need be, you can change what skills you promote throughout the cover-letter depending on the role. Don’t stress it because odds are you are going to give yourself an unnecessary headache trying to come up with the “golden” cover letter. Remember: it just needs to be “good enough.”

For the resume, make sure that your bullet points are meaningful. Try to have every bullet explain X thing you did and Y result that it had for the company or for your team. Be sure to show what you did and demonstrate the impact that it made. If each point on your resume can answer the question, “What would not have happened had you not done this?” then it's a winner.

Step 3: With your list in hand and application materials ready to go, check the job page of each company on your list at least once a week.

Apply to jobs you are interested as you find them. New opportunities open up (and close) randomly. Checking job postings on the career pages for the companies on your list is a great way to ensure you don’t miss an opportunity.