Category Archives: Lia

Informational Interviews

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I’m not messing around with the title this week, because this is a serious post. I’m writing this blog because I want to help all my readers in their respective internship searches. I promise it’s not all as scary as it seems. Take informational interviews for example. You may be stressing: How do I find someone to talk to? What do I ask? What should I do with that information? What IS an informational interview?

Well, for those of you who don’t know, it’s “a meeting in which a job seeker asks for advice rather than employment.” (Thanks, Wikipedia!) They’re useful for finding out about a specific job, field, company, or individual. For example, if you know you want to get into health care but you’re not sure which direction you want to go, you might set up information interviews with people who work in fields: dermatology, surgeons, pediatrics, nursing, pharmaceuticals, etc.

So how do you get started? Let me tell you what I’ve been up to in the last week.

I mentioned that I contacted a number of alumnae through life connections. Within two days, three had got back to me. As if that was overwhelmingly awesome enough, I set up two informational interviews for the weekend and the third didn’t have time to talk on the phone but told me to e-mail her any questions I have and she would get back to me. In case I ever forget, this is why I love Scripps.

Before I go on, a quick plug: CP&R’s website has an amazing section called “networking” that talks a good deal about informational interviews including how to set one up, what to ask, etc. Please do check it out; it really helped me.

My first information interview was with a 2004 grad who also majored in International Relations. She worked on the Hill in DC until recently; she is now in New York but still working in politics. Although DC life was not for her, she had some good advice for me about finding a summer internship on the Hill and calmed my fears of not finding anything. She told me about some of the specific day-to-day tasks of her old job and what she liked better about her new one. We had different interests, so her Hill career sounded amazing to me.

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Motivation

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It’s February. I was definitely supposed to have my applications completed and sent by now, rather than still having the daunting search task ahead of me. How did I get into this situation? How can I get out of it?

Let’s start with the past. In November, I sent an application for a summer internship to a well-known consumer goods company. After hearing a guest speaker in DC and chatting with him afterwards, I was convinced that it would be the perfect place for me. At his advice, I stated on my application that I would work in any of their nine U.S. offices, including one in Puerto Rico. I spent hours on the various parts of application and felt so accomplished to finally send it in.

Less than three weeks later, I had a no.

I was crushed. Family and friends rushed to my emotional rescue: maybe they had already filled the position and had neglected to take down the listing. Maybe they could only accept a certain number of applicants. Whatever it was, I was upset – far more upset that I thought I would have been. I wrote last week about my fear of sending in applications. Now you know a legitimate reason why.

So: on to the future. How do I break out of this rut? Well, luckily, I have a few motivators pushing me forward. Number one is fear. No, I’m not joking. Last year, I thought I had secured an internship with the same company I had worked for the summer before. Even though my supervisor was being noncommittal about the whole thing, I cruised happily through spring semester until I finally got the e-mail in late April confirming what I had been ignoring: due to a variety of reasons, they would not be able to offer me an internship. By that point, it was far too late to find anything else. My summer was fine, but I spent the majority of my days sitting at home doing nothing. I am absolutely terrified of the idea of doing that again – I need to be constantly busy, I need an internship.

The second thing that’s keeping me going on my internship search are the friends I made while in DC. Recently, four or five of us were audio Skyping when one girl mentioned that she was considering a summer fellowship in DC. Immediately after, another girl piped in, saying she wanted to go back for a summer internship. All of us, whether we had realized it or not, wanted to go back. Someone suggested how much fun it would be for all of us to live together. The idea of all of my friends together in DC while I sit at home internship-less motivates me to find something that will make me happy and at the same time will be something I want to tell my friends about every night when we all get home from a deliciously exhausting 9-to-5.

No matter how much I hate the process, I know that I have to do the work to land my perfect internship. I will get there. I just may need a few more pushes.

Motivation, Part II

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Two weeks ago, I had an appointment at CP&R. It wasn’t necessarily to edit my resume or to peruse Life Connections. I had just hit a wall and needed a push forward. Valinda gave me some direction (critiquing my “perfected” cover letter – harsh, but necessary) and set up an appointment for me for three weeks later so I would have motivation to get a few things done.

There’s my motivation. Deadlines.

I suddenly looked at my calendar and realized that our meeting was in four days. I hadn’t done a thing. (Sorry, Valinda!) I spent a good while combing through Life Connections, specifically searching for recent alums in the DC area. I found five strong candidates in a number of areas that interested me, including a woman who works for a Congressperson and a woman in the Department of State. I e-mailed all of them making a point not to ask for an internship, per se, but in more of an informational interview format: What did they like about their jobs? What did their positions entail? Etc. I also made a point to let my personality come out and mention that I “fell in love” with DC after studying there for a semester.

Another point involving letting my personality come out involved my cover letter. I thought it was perfect. It looked just like all the models I found online, except it was about me. What was wrong with that? Everything – it was boring, trite, and though it did talk about me, it didn’t represent me. She scribbled some notes on my printed copy and handed it back: “Hook – confident”. I knew exactly what she meant. So I redid it. Now, it reads like me talking, albeit professionally, rather than some scripted format. Instead of saying that I hope they agree that I would fit, I say that I believe I am a good match. Instead of talking about my qualifications, I say what I did with my skills and what I will do with them at that internship. I talk about the enthusiasm I will bring to the workplace. I tailor it to match the specific needs of the internship, rather than the whole company.

Deadlines come into play in another way. Many have already passed me by. February is pretty late to be applying to a summer internship, but I will not be deterred. There are still options open to me, and I am going to grab them. Those options do have deadlines though – deadlines which are fast approaching. I also would love to secure an internship before April so I can apply for one of Scripps’ amazing internship grants and get funded to work at the nonprofit of my dreams. March will be a busy and stressful month, but all these deadlines help me sort out what I need to do when. I always have been a lists sort of girl.

Necessary Stages in the Internship Search

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There are definitely aspects of my internship search that are so easy I almost don’t have to think about them. Number one would be my resume. It sums me up beautifully, thanks to help from CP&R of course. It details my education (including the semester I just spent at American University in Washington DC), work history (sadly scant for a junior, in my opinion, but I didn’t start work until college), and activities (perfectly balanced between volunteer work through Girl Scouts and leadership experience in high school band). I don’t have to do anything to it but attach it to a cover letter and send it away.

Cover letters also don’t really give me a problem. I have a “sample” cover letter that explains my basic background – that I’m a junior at Scripps – and confidently states the obligatory “I believe that I would be an asset to your company” and that the internship would provide me with “vital experience”. I have a space open to tailor the letter to the specific internship, where I can briefly describe how I heard about the internship, my related experience, and why I’m the perfect candidate. That takes a little bit of time and thought, but I’ve written so many by now that it’s nearly second nature.

Actually searching for internships is more of a task. I spend hours trawling search engines, company websites, and internship matchers looking for something that might spark an interest. This is not my favorite step, but it’s passive enough that I don’t really mind it. Unfortunately, I often get stuck at this point; I have a whole folder of bookmarks on Firefox of internships I want to look into more, but have yet to do.

This is the part of the search I find myself dreading, stressing about, and avoiding.

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After a Semester in Washington DC

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I knew studying in Washington DC would be a fun experience. I knew I would meet new people, have numerous opportunities to hear important and influential people speak, and add some work experience to my resume. I never thought that the study abroad experience would change my career goals as much as they did.

When I left for Washington in August, I wasn’t entirely positive what I wanted to do in the future, but I had a fuzzy sort of idea. After graduation, I would get a steady job in a bank in California, maybe go to business school, and continue in banking or business. While I still have an interest in banking and definitely want to attend business school in the future, I now have a more concrete idea of where I want my life to lead me. I think I want to run for Congress someday.

It’s still a far-off daydream for now, but I think it’s a noble goal. I’m interested in working in business, but I have a lot of good ideas and want to make positive changes in California and the country. My focus on international relations will also probably help me, as I have a good sense of how other countries are run and what is positive or negative about their governments. The presidency is not for me, but I believe Congress will be a good way to make change.

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