Tag Archives: internship search

What I Learned From Being Rejected

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I felt my body temperature rise and my jaw start to tense as I clicked on the un-read email:

“Thank you for applying. This year we received an overwhelming number of applications and regret to inform you that you have not been selected to interview for our program.”

Tears started to well in my eyes. I began trying to distract myself with other homework, because I didn’t want to let myself get worked up over this. Even though I had poured my heart out into this internship application, it was competitive and I wasn’t that qualified. I tried to convince myself not to take it personally.

No one likes rejection. However, in retrospect, I really do view it as a learning experience. I tend to get really focused on irrelevant details, and subsequently forget to look at the big picture, and getting rejected helped me broaden my viewpoint and scope immensely. It gave me the impetus to begin thinking about what it really was that I wanted out of an internship, and it gave me the motivation to set up some appointments with people who might be able to help me be more proactive with my search.

Here are a few tips that might be helpful for others facing rejection:

  1. Draw on your resources. There are so many professors, students, and staff members at Scripps and the 5Cs who are more than happy to help and provide their expertise.
  2. Do not take rejection too personally. If you google “Famous and successful people who have failed,” who will find long lists with people like Oprah, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, and Jay-Z. It literally happens to everyone. Instead of letting rejection or failure get you down, use it as fodder to fuel and motivate you to accomplish your goals. Plus, sometimes you might not get an internship or job position because you don’t have the right connections, or you are not qualified enough. These things will come with time, so try not to blame it on some fault of character or lack of intelligence. 
  3. Map out a timeline. Part of what makes job and internship searching so stressful is that deadlines can be spread-out, and it can be easy to lose track of time. It helps me to write deadlines for myself in a planner so that they don’t sneak up on me.

Heeding my own advice is easier said than done, but so far, I’m doing a pretty good job at not letting rejection define my sense of self-worth. Rejection is pretty much inevitable at one point or another, but so is success. Focus on the small successes, forget about the small rejections, and focus on the big picture; you’ll be a lot happier and more motivated to keep moving forward.

Summer Internships: Searching, Applying, and Waiting.

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Searching for a job or internship involves a lot of unknowns. It necessitates waiting for weeks or months for an answer, second-guessing oneself, and vacillating between one’s options. This Winter break, I entered uncharted territory and began searching for my first-ever internship.

When I hear the word “internship,” I either think of fiercely bright and motivated pre-med students working long hours in high-pressure situations for no pay, or I think of an unsure student who somehow ended up in a drab, dimly lit office, monotonously filing papers and answering annoying phone calls. I don’t know where I got these preconceived notions, but I do know that I was hoping for was something a bit different. Was I expecting to land the internship of my dreams that would leave me with a new sense of wonder and awe towards the world? Definitely not. But was I hoping for something that would give me a clearer sense of what sort of career I might want to go into, while also remaining moderately interesting and informative? Absolutely.

When a few google searches didn’t look super promising, I turned to some more specific websites that focus on job and internship searches such as Idealist.org, internships.com, and handshake. Even though you can tailor the results to certain geographic areas or career types, I still found it difficult to find internships that appealed to me and that I was also somewhat qualified for.

I spent hours perusing the web, copying and pasting names of organizations into an online document, so I could have a compiled list of possible positions to apply to. Once I had a list of about 10 internships that ranged from topics I was vaguely interested in, to ones that I was very passionate about, I decided to pick one, and begin an application.

Somehow the internship that I ended up finding the most intriguing was also the one with the most extensive application process. Normally this would have discouraged me, but since it was break and I had a ton of free time, I decided to give it a shot. The application consisted of a resume, two references, a 5-6 page write-up, and a lengthy set of questions relating to personal demographics.

While there are so many other types of internships I could have applied for, I decided to seek out ones that were social-justice based. This past election and the current state of our nation has left me feeling defeated, sad, and angry all at once. Thus, I felt like the most meaningful way to spend my summer would be to work for some sort of organization that does uplifting and important work that challenges the morals and precedents set by our current government. Even though I have only applied for one internship, I feel good knowing that I sought out an internship that felt right to me. I’m lucky that I’m not pre-med, pre-vet, or anything of the sorts, so I was afforded a lot of leniency in my search.

While I am definitely nervous that all my plans will fail, and I won’t secure my top choice internship, let alone any internship, I keep trying to remind myself that I am only a Sophomore, and I have the rest of my life to worry about settling into a career path. Even if the internship I end up acquiring turns out to be completely unrelated to whatever field I end up going into, I will still inevitably gain skills that will help me in the professional world. Plus, nothing is really set in stone: I can make a decision about what I want to do this summer, and then I can always make another decision. I can have a plan A, and I can have a plan B, C, D, and E if necessary. And after three months of interning, I can have the comfort of knowing that I will return to sunny Scripps, with a new sense of direction and purpose, ready to begin working on those applications for summer 2018.

First Thing’s First: The Internship Search

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A summer internship in itself isn’t too scary: you’re prepared to work hard, learn new things everyday, and be challenged to do your best. Probably the hardest part of the internship is finding it.

This is my third summer interning, and my interests, skills, and places of work have changed greatly. I’ll take you through my thought process throughout my internship searches to show how I explored, narrowed down, and applied to internships.

Two summers ago I was pushed to apply to internships I didn’t even know existed. I was waitressing when one of my customers asked me what I was going to major in at college (this was the summer before my first year at Scripps). When I replied “politics”, he exploded with questions: what are you doing at a restaurant? Why aren’t you out on a campaign? Have you contacted any of your state representatives? I never knew internship opportunities were available to students with no experience, and never thought I could contact places of work on my own without a reference. With my customer’s encouragement, I emailed my representatives at local, state, and federal levels in mid-June. In my email I wrote that I was interested in studying politics in college, wanted to have a career in the government, and included a few of my political extracurricular activities. I heard back within a day from one office and was called in for an interview: the next week I was in the State House twice a week as an unpaid intern. This internship search was unique because it made me realize that just by putting myself out there (with no resume, no real-world credentials) I could surprise myself and get positive responses (though I only had one interview, 2 other offices expressed interest in meeting me). I also learned from my customer that if I am truly interested in a certain field, I should be actively working in it, even if only part-time and even if not in the most glamorous setting.

After a year of Scripps under my belt, and experience working directly in the government, I wanted to intern at an organization that focused on women’s equality in politics. My main search tools were CP&R’s internship search engines (indeed.com, internhub.com) and Google. Though I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do, it took a lot of time to go through all the internships that came up when I searched politics + women + intern. Using synonyms (government + campaign) generated even more results, but after a few months of searching, several internships kept coming up that interested me. I started the search in the fall, and found it fun (but somewhat tedious) to search through all the possible internships. I was able to manage the internship search by designating an hour every weekend to search for internships. By March break I had applied to almost 10, having no idea how competitive the process was or how I stacked up against other applicants. Like the college application process, I applied to some that seemed very competitive (i.e. Governor’s office, PACs), average (i.e. my state’s democratic party, offices that I emailed last summer), and easy (i.e. campaigns that are always looking for as many people). I had positive responses from more places than I thought I would, and was able to intern at an organization that focused on getting women elected.

This internship made me realize that politics was not for me, and I changed my major to public policy analysis (PPA). I had a very unclear idea of what I wanted to do this past summer, but I learned from last year’s long, drawn out process that I had people who were more than willing to talk with me about internships. So this past year I took CP&R’s advice and asked current students who are PPA majors what they did over the summer, went through Life Connections and talked to PPA graduates about their work, and asked professors for internship ideas. This helped me immensely: PPA was new territory for me, and I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to do with my summer. Instead of looking on website search engines, I utilized personal connections to learn about possible internships. After looking at internships closely online, I applied to about 5 internships, all in slightly different fields (consulting interested me from talks with alumnae, research institutions were encouraged by my professors) but all relating to PPA. Because I spent less time searching for internships, I was able to focus on the applications and interviews. This summer I will be interning for an organization that focuses on women in public policy.

How I Made My Story

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Along the same lines as last week’s post, my post draws inspiration from How I Met Your Mother. For those of you who missed an epic 10 years, last year one of my favorite television shows ended. Ted Mosby told his kids the story of how he met their mother–for the purposes of my sanity, we are pretending that the alternate ending was the ONLY ending–for a really long time.

The ending of this show was horrible and never happened.

The ending of this show was horrible and never happened.

 

The great thing about Ted’s story is that he crafted his life into a narrative. It was not always smooth, but Ted made it seem linear. And while Ted was not applying for an internship or job, we can learn something about building narratives and drawing connections from Ted. In cover letters and interviews, your future employers want to see a story, growth, and that the position you’re aiming for builds upon your narrative.

Sadly no....

Sadly no….

I’m in no way saying that you should lie or make up a story about your career path. DON’T do that! But I’m sure there are connections between your positions that you may not see. For instance, I’m a Beyond the Elms blogger and a Phonathon manager. How do those relate to each other? As a manager, a huge part of my job is to coach and give callers advice. I don’t write a blog about it, but I use oral communication to achieve similar goals. By participating in both activities, I’m able to develop my leadership and communication skills.

See? It's legendary!

See? It’s legendary!

See? There are reasons you do what activities, internships, clubs, etc. that you do and there are connections, but you need to be able to communicate those connections in cover letters and interviews. Having a narrative makes you sound more confident and like this position will really advance your career in the way you say it will. This week, try brainstorming the connections in your life and discover your own narrative!

Good Luck :)

Good Luck 🙂

Just Keep Swimming

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Right now, I’m taking my inspiration from Dory. I’m in 5 classes, 1 CLORG, write for 2 publications, work as a manager for Scripps College Phonathon, and am applying for internships and study abroad. Each piece of every day isn’t unmanageable, but boy do I feel like drowning sometimes from the constant work. As it’s the week before spring break, I’m sure I’m not the only Scripps student who feels like she’s swimming against the current!! So I’m going to be like Dory and swim at my own pace and keep at it. Obviously, if you’re swamped and need to say good-bye to some activities or commitments, that’s a completely valid choice.

Accurate.

Accurate.

I, however, have decided that I love everything that I’m doing and that I won’t be cutting out activities or a 5th class to have more free time. Will I ever overload again? Hopefully NOT, but I do love all my classes and my professors are all great. “Just keep swimming” doesn’t mean overextend yourself or flail until you get some air. To me, it means: keep working at what you’re doing and don’t let yourself or jellyfish or anything else get in the way of you doing what you love.

 

KeepSwimmingWhen I have a lot to do, I tend to get overwhelmed and shut down and I certainly don’t keep up with my applications. But I have been trying to combat that this semester by making a lot of to-do lists and prioritizing my internship search even when it’s hard. There is always time, but sometimes you have to just be steady and persistent and make time for what you need to do. With 6 papers in one week, it’s hard to remember to write cover letters and fill out applications, but sometimes your schoolwork and internship search overlap. I’ve found that making lists and staying organized allow me to keep swimming. It may seem counterintuitive, but I would advise going to CP&R if you’re feeling overwhelmed and like you don’t know how to make time for your internship search. It may seem like you can’t take the time out of your day to go to an appointment or drop-in hours, but really it allows you to be more efficient.

 

Dory

Follow this list!

So let’s list what you can do to keep swimming because we all know that’s what I’m good for:

  1. Remember to breathe. Not breathing is clearly a bad plan in the first place, but remember to give yourself breaks and maybe a Motley drink or two to relax.
  2. Go talk to CP&R and make a plan. Why just make a plan when you can get expert advice on your plan?
  3. Keep up with your to-do lists. Once you’ve laid out what you have to do, it’s important to make sure that you’re keeping up with that and initiating your plan.
  4. Have a set time for internship applications. It’s sometimes hard to do, but this makes sure you’re applying AND not using applications as procrastination *I see you not finishing your essay while writing that cover letter*
  5. Apply to positions that motivate you. If you’re excited about the opportunity, chances are that you will want to apply for it.

 

Whale2

Try speaking whale in your next interview! It’ll work woooooondeeerrrrrrrssss!

Remember to stay positive and keep swimming! That doesn’t mean go as fast as possible, but just to keep working at your own pace. The internship search can feel very daunting–especially as it is later in the game–but try to remember that internships are cool opportunities for you to take advantage of!! Keep swimming and I’ll report back on my swim next week 😉