[cheshireoctopus]

Great question.

Given the forum, going to assume you are seeking an internship in tech.

FWIW, I created/lead an internship program for software devs at a small(er) venture-backed startup. The program was responsible for hiring ~20 interns over two years.

Among the interns I hired, those that stood out had a demonstrated genuine passion for the field as well as our company, had deployed their own side projects to production, and were very very clear in what they were seeking to gain from an internship with us.

Also, very early in my career, I recall a discussion with an intern on how he landed the role at the company I was with at the time. He said he cold-emailed the CEO. He also said that was how he had landed an earlier internship at Amazon!