Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
For quite a while already, I have been interested into spending time as an intern at the FSF Europe. During summer 2007, i made a call to the german bureau of yours in Düsseldorf. I was told to just give it a try and apply with a short explanation of my motivation and a CV. That being said, i would hereby like to present myself as a motivated applicant to the internship in Göteborg this year!
I am Johannes Tiemer, a student of economics, currently studying as an ERASMUS exchange student at the NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. My home university is the CAU in Kiel, Germany, myself being German too. The spark that originally lit my interest for open source, ultimately being the reason for me writing this letter of motivation right now, was a friend in school, who first brought me into contact with GNU and Linux in late 2002. Not even a year later, i was using Linux as my primary operating system. While serving one year as a foreign civilian servant in Lahti, Finland from summer 2003, i extended my knowledge about open-source and free software by reading IT-newspages such as slashdot and the like - which i still do - and trying out different tastes of GNU/Linux. These pages regularly also reported about activities of the FSF and FSFE respectively, giving me a little insight on what the work is about. In addition, the work of my brother, having worked in Brussels as a lobbyist, supplied me with even more information on lobby work. The need for fitting internships during the studies of Economics then quickly made me consider the FSF Europe. Not only are the aims of the FSF/FSFE highly correlated with my personal opinions, but also would I love to contribute to the adequate representation of the Free Software movement to business and government representatives. In addition the general prospect of a working environment with interesting and diverse tasks leads me to believe that i could be a valuable addition to your team as an intern. I can without any doubt and hesitation promise an extraordinary degree of involvement, high performance under pressure, creativity and keen perception. My broad common knowledge and above average language skills (see CV) most likely being a helpful addition, i have all the qualifications asked for to be a good choice for you in Göteborg this year.
Finally, i would like to refer you to my attached CV (text-file) for a more general overview on my achievements so far. My average grade German 'Vordiplom' which roughly corresponds to a bachelor degree, is a result of my commitment to numerous time-consuming voluntary activities like the student-representatives, the debating club and the dormitory-bar. Ever since i awarded my 'Vordiplom' in April 2007, my grades improved to an average 2,3 (German), which corresponds to something in between B and C on the more general ECTS scale which is used in here in Norway. If needed, i can supply scans of the original work- and degree certificates on short notice. If you are interested in a recent piece of work as an example for my abilities, i could send you a term paper of mine, characterizing and analyzing the Oslo-based company Trolltech.
with kind regards, Johannes Tiemer
P.S.: Attached, you will find my CV in PDF format. Please do not hesitate to contact me for further or more detailed information.