Cover letter when applying a company that rejected my intern application before

Question

In a few month I am looking to apply a full time position (new grad.) in a company. In the recent past I had applied for similar role (intern) in the same company, and was rejected after one of a technical interview rounds.

Does it make sense, in the cover letter of the new application, to say something like "Thanks for interviewing me for [job role I applied before] in the past, it was a great learning opportunity. I had continued work on my knowledge and skill in [those things tested in past interview] and [those things listed in this job requirements]......" or should I better not mention my interview history in cover letter at all?

Answer 1

or should I better not mention my interview history in cover letter at all?

Don't mention it unless they specifically ask.

There is nothing for you to gain here. If they have good record keeping it's in your file anyway and if not, there is no need to draw attention to it.

What's done is done, it happened a while ago, and not it's reflective of your current skill set. It's way more important & relevant to demonstrate in your cover letter line-by-line how you currently stack up against the job requirements and what specific experiences/learning/class/projects you have done to demonstrate your capability.

Answer 2

It wouldn’t hurt (assuming it’s true) to mention that you have been working hard over the last x years to develop your skill in a, b, c, giving examples of how you did this. But there is no benefit to reminding them that you had previously applied and been rejected.