Tag Archives: Informational Interviews

The importance of Self Awareness

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I love to talk. If you were to come up to me on the street—even if you were a random stranger—I would gladly hold a conversation with you about anything. Preferably, I would want it to be about food or Taylor Swift or my pillow pets or something, but honestly, I love to talk about anything. So, you could imagine my pleasure when Karen, an American Studies Major that graduated in 1993, told me to spend my time talking to people.

“I talked to a lot of people, and the best thing about that was the questions they asked me, which forced me to be more introspective and make sure I was answering and thinking in a way that was true to myself and not what other people expected. It was really helpful to talk to a range of people, not just my parents, professors, and friends.”

Luckily, that’s exactly what my internship has entailed. As I have mentioned in previous posts, talking to such amazing women made me really think about what I want to do in the future. However, Karen’s advice has motivated me to talk to fellow students I have never met before, to ask professionals in specific fields if they see me alongside them, and, yes, to speak to my professors, friends, and family about their opinions, too.

All of the people I speak to ask me questions, just like Karen said, challenging me to think and respond for myself. Even if in the moment I am afraid to answer “incorrectly” or hear them say no, they don’t think I can make it as an author, or no, I don’t have the grammar skills to go into editing (seriously, this could be a huge problem…Y’all should be thankful CP&R edits my posts), they are giving me something to think about. If they don’t think I can be an author but their questions make me realize that I do want to be just that, then I will just have to prove them wrong.

Like Karen, my dad has always told me to stay true to myself. For as long as I can remember, the motto “be your own person” has been drilled into my head.

Dad: “Olivia, what are you going to remember on your first day of Kindergarten?”

Five-year-old Olivia: “To be my own person!”

Dad: “Olivia, who cares if they are bullying you? What is the only thing that matters?”

Seven-year-old Olivia: “That I am my own person!”

Dad: “Liv, honey, what do you want to be for Halloween this year?”

(Pause as eight-year-old Olivia thinks about the “correct” answer): “Um…my own person?”

Can I just take a moment to say here that I love Dylan O’Brian? Sadly, even he is annoyed with how oblivious my eight year old self sounds as she answers the question.

You get the idea.

Extensive questioning, whether it comes from others or yourself, is (in my opinion) one of the best ways to find out what you feel and what you want. It forces you to be self aware, which is so incredibly important when making decisions about your future.

“I found a way to be fulfilled when I was focused on me,” Karen said near the end of our interview. Being self aware is incredibly important at times. I’m not saying you should always be focused on you, but when it comes to your future, you should aware of what you think and feel. Take the classes you want to take, follow the career path you want to take, but make sure you research, you question, and you answer questions, always having that little voice inside your head prompting you to be your own person.

Building Transferable Skills at the Truman Project

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I’m going to start this reflection with a confession: I truly did not know or understand what exactly my internship would entail. While there was a description on the Truman Project/Center for National Policy’s website about what my specific intern duties would be, I was unfamiliar with “Leadership Development”- the department that I would be interning with. Moreover, I had difficulty explaining to friends and family what specifically I would be doing as a “Leadership Development” intern at a national security focused think tank. I knew that “Development” referred to fundraising for any given organization, but where exactly did the “Leadership” portion of the title come in? As much as I tried to research my questions on their website, it wasn’t until the first day of my internship that I finally began to grasp what my summer interning with Truman would look like.

Katie1

The Class of 2014 Truman Project interns at a special VIP tour of the Pentagon.

One of the skills I first learned as an LD intern was how to manage and work Truman’s huge database called “Salsa.” Salsa was vital to our organization because inside the database was every important piece of information that we needed to know about our members. For example, each one of our members has a profile within Salsa that records in-depth information about their jobs, biographies, membership dues, the number of Truman events they attend, veteran status, rank in the military, and even more. Throughout the summer, I learned how to update member information within Salsa and how to work with some of the more specific packages: the email and events package.

Katie2

Me standing behind the podium in the Pentagon’s Briefing Room.

One of my biggest responsibilities was to send emails to our entire community. Every Monday, I sent out an email titled the “Week Ahead,” which listed all of our upcoming events in addition to breaking news that happened over the weekend. Throughout the week I would work on this email by designing pictures that would accompany the event listed and formatting the email. This was where the most difficult part of the process came in: I needed to know the basics of html/coding in order to change the format. While I was briefly taught some of the basics of coding by my intern supervisor, it took a tremendous amount of practice for me to finally be able to read html, and then alter the code to fit what I needed it to do. And although I knew it would be okay for me to ask questions about the coding, I also understood that my co-workers had many other important things to work on. Therefore, I essentially taught myself how to code this summer. Every Monday I used to be so nervous about sending out the email to 1,000 plus members in fear that the format would somehow be messed up, but by the end of summer I was so excited to come into work every Monday; it was the day where I was able to put my skills to the test and to let my team know that I could handle this large responsibility. In addition to sending out this weekly email, I also learned how to create event pages in Salsa and have them posted on our website. Through this, I learned how to work with WordPress, and more specifically what visually appealed to people.

While I did learn many very “practical” and “tangible” skills such as working with a database and becoming very confident in my Excel skills, another very important aspect of my internship was learning how to communicate with our members. Not only would members directly email me with questions about events, but I also had the opportunity to meet of them individually for informational interviews. Although it may seem scary at first, I advise the next LD intern to reach out to members they are potentially interested in meeting with. They are such a great resource, and I am so happy that I had the chance to connect with many successful and young individuals who have landed great jobs in D.C. Moving forward, I am much more confident in my ability to network and learning how to relate to people who are doing the work I envision myself doing.

Editor’s Note: This guest blogger was a 2014 Scripps College Internship Grant recipient. To learn more about the 2015 Internship Grant process, click here.  Deadline Feb. 5.

Lessons From My Mom: How to Be a Great Intern

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Until I came to college, I never truly understood all the lessons my mom passed down to me. From sending hand-written thank you cards to treating everyone with respect, I’ve picked up some important life lessons that I’m now finding are especially important in the job search. I’d like to dedicate this post to my mom who has played a hugely important role in my personal and professional career development.

My mom’s advice to me often comes from her own experiences. Working in the workforce development field for over 30 years, she’s become an expert in all job-search related areas. Before I left for college, I’d hear parts of stories that I’d hear about ten times over again in the following months. Yet, these lessons have remained with me and continue to shape how I act. I can’t even remember how many times I was in situations at internship sites where I thought, “My mom was right! This is what I should do in this situation.” Here are some tips that I’ve found to be particularly helpful.

1)    Communicate upwards.

While interning, your boss probably won’t know everything that you’re doing. Some of the tasks you do may be directly for her, while others may be for other people. Remember what you do! Busy bosses don’t always have time to keep track of what their interns are doing on a daily basis. Periodically, inform your boss of what you’ve been doing in the order of importance. This serves 2 purposes. Your boss has a written record of what you are spending your time doing and you simultaneously build your credibility within the organization.

2)    Do lunch. Often.

Accept invitations to have lunch with others. Think of this as an investment into your future. Unless your work has an upcoming deadline requiring you to work through lunch, take the time to go to lunch with people you work with. You can learn more about the culture of the business, ask about any assignments that you might have questions on, and most importantly, create more dimensions to your personality. This is something I’ve found to be hard to do, as I know I tend to be “all business, all the time.” Going to lunch allows others to get to know you on a more personal level.

3)    Treat everyone like you’d treat your own boss.

When you’re an intern, everyone is your boss. Really. This is extremely important. The receptionist you pass on your way to your cubicle every morning could be the deciding factor on whether or not you get to return the following summer. Asking if you can help file documents, make copies, or pick up lunch for staff members are ways you can make good impressions on people.

Having a mom working in employment and training has helped me make small changes that have big, lasting results. I hope you find these tips helpful!

To Google or Not to Google?

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As I get ready to study abroad in Ireland next semester, another thing that has been hanging over my head is the question of what I want to do next summer. If I could get an internship in the Boston area then I could live at home and spend more time with my parents, sister, and the cat that I miss so much before coming back to Scripps for my senior year.

You can see why I miss this one. [Photo courtesy of my sister, Caitlin]

My mom mentioned that Google has an office in Cambridge, so I decided to interview my friend and fellow Scrippsie, Briana Smith who worked as a web development intern at Google’s Mountain View headquarters last summer. I’m not a computer science person, but the internet and new technology are really interesting to me, so the thought of working somewhere like Google has been on my radar for a little while now.

Megan: How hard and/or stressful did you find the application/interview process? (If at all?)

Briana: I’ve heard many horror stories of the Google interview process being passed around, but I actually enjoyed mine. Granted, it was much longer than usual. I had 4 interviews total, 2 with a department I didn’t end up working in, and 2 from managers on the team I was placed with.

M: What was your favorite part of the internship?

B: Food. Google has a policy that their employees should never be more than 150 ft. away from food while on their campus and it was wonderful.

More seriously, the learning opportunities were unmatched. I left with an entirely new skill set that I didn’t even know existed. I went into the summer expecting to work hard, but I didn’t realize how much autonomy and creative freedom I would have. GoogleEDU is an internal service for employees to take classes in just about any subject you can imagine. I appreciated that this culture of constant learning was such an integral part of the experience.

M: What was your least favorite part?

The campus is HUGE and getting bigger every day. My team was relocated just days before I arrived to a location two freeway exits away from main campus. There were shuttles constantly moving between the campuses, but still transportation to and fro could be a real time-waster.

M: Did your internship influence what you want to do after graduation?

One of the most valuable parts of my internship was the personal growth. Working and living independently and full time at Google helped me realize some of the things that I do and do not want to do with my life after graduation. Education doesn’t stop when I graduate and I need to have opportunities for personal and professional growth wherever I go. I know that I will work in the tech industry. Working at Google helped me see that there is a different kind of corporate that is alive and well in the tech world.

Google’s Boston office [photo from their website]

If I don’t intern at Google (or somewhere else in the Boston area), and instead go back and work at camp for a third summer, I will be committing to spending no more than six weeks at home between now and the winter break halfway through my senior year. That would be a lot of time away from home, and I’m not sure it’s what I want to do, even though I love camp. I think the Google internship would be a great alternative, and a really good experience, based on what Briana said. Now I just need to do the application…

[Please note: interview responses were edited for the sake of length. And many thanks to Briana for sharing her experiences!]

Sometimes Life Works Out!… It Just Takes a Little Work First

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So, I have some good news and some bad news. I’ve always preferred to get bad news out of the way first (that way you have something to look forward too!), so here goes: I didn’t get an on campus position I applied for to do next year.

But, before I let myself throw a pity-party; I can’t exactly complain about the reason: I’ve been asked to be a Writing Mentor for a new experimental writing program for a semester next year. I’ll still be receiving the Peer Tutor training, but Professor Simshaw wanted to give as many Scrippsies as possible the chance to get involved in the Writing Center. Part of that process unfortunately includes not giving me two jobs with it.

See, aren’t you glad we’ve gotten the not-so-bad news out of the way? And if you thought the Writing Mentor position was the good news, just wait to hear my next item of information:

I got a summer internship!

I will officially be working as the PR/Marketing & Communications Intern for Miss Representation in San Francisco. I’ll be writing for their blog, helping with press releases, forming press relationships, forming a virtual book of press mentions, and more. It’s a great opportunity for me to explore a different application of my English major skills (other than journalism), and it fits in perfectly with my interests in Gender & Women’s Studies! In fact, I’ll actually be receiving credit in the GWS department for the internship.

But wait, the good news isn’t over: If you’ve read my previous posts, you may remember my dilemma deciding whether to choose a summer internship or a family vacation to Greece in August. Well, now I don’t have to choose! Conveniently, my boss will be leaving on maternity leave at the beginning of August, so my work there will be completed in time for a little well-deserved relaxation.

So now you’ve heard the good and the bad… now it’s time for the uncertain. I’m still waiting to hear back from another on-campus position that I applied for.

So far, my work has led to things working out quite well in my job search, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that trend will continue. I guess the best part of this entire process has been reaffirming that no matter how futile your work can seem, it does matter. My internship may be unpaid, but my work will still pay off for years to come!