By: Meliha Gutic
Asst. A&E Editor
Let’s talk about internships. Internships are the bane of my existence. Finding one is an impossible task that I sometimes can’t even handle.
I find it mind blowing how hard it is to get an internship. If I can barely get one, how am I supposed to find a job?
Some of the requirements for internships include “interning experience.” I need to be hired somewhere to have that experience! Can you just take a chance on me and believe that I can do it?
Being a Public Relations major, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to find an internship local to Sacred Heart, and so I decided to expand my search to New York City.
Prior to landing my internship, I usually found myself searching sites like LinkedIn on my laptop until my index finger started cramping from clicking so much.
This past spring, I somehow hit the jackpot and got an interview for a PR agency in NYC, and it was the weirdest process ever. I had to do a FaceTime interview, so I googled “how to look for a FaceTime interview” and “the best place for a FaceTime interview” (somewhere quiet and with nothing in the background, if you were wondering).
My internship had its benefits, but not without a heavy workload. Every two weeks the company had a manicurist come in and do everyone’s nails, and on Fridays they had lunch catered. I always had work to do, like media lists, which were always boring, and the hours—nine to six during the week—were pretty rough. By the time I left, I ended up with over 300 hours of work when I only needed to meet a requirement of 112 hours.
Did I mention this was an unpaid internship?
I felt that I should’ve been compensated in some way because I was doing work that the account coordinator would do. She was just passing her work down to me! But that’s a different rant.
This took a toll on my wallet and my school work and activities. It was hard to keep up with both when I was barely on campus. I was always focused on my internship because it’s my career path, and it was preparing me for what I planned to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to do well. I wanted to be the best intern I could be.
I ended that internship in May, feeling like I was on top of the world. I was on such an internship high that I ended up applying for 15 more during the summer. You’d think that because I had the experience this time that I would be able to get accepted into another one, right?
WRONG.
It is extremely stressful when I’m trying and trying, but it seems that no one else recognizes the effort I put in. My parents are pressuring me but there’s nothing I can do. I always come up with some lame excuse, saying things like “Oh, well everyone is home for the summer so maybe they just hired people that actually live in the city.” Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out why I can’t even get a “Thank you for applying but . . .” email response.
If I’m not qualified enough for an internship, how am I going to be qualified enough for a job that I have to start looking for in five months?
Does anyone else feel like this?
Just some thoughts to add to the list of “things that keep me up at night.”
