Catch-up time - Starting Internships

Let me catch up on what's happened over the last few months. (Thanks to Michelle for prompting me to continue) I've been really busy. Foremost three great job events happened:

I interviewed for the internship program through my university. I am really embarrassed to even post that I was late to the interview, but my goal is to let people know what really happened in my process so that hopefully they can learn from my successes as well as my mistakes. The interview itself went okay, but I knew that arriving late killed it for me. Being late threw me off as well in the interview. So now I am committed to giving myself an extra hour to arrive at the appointment. In this instance I thought that 1.5 hours to get from Santa Cruz to Santa Clara would be sufficient. It wasn't. It rained earlier and there were accidents. I got turned around because I was flustered as time was ticking down and ended up making mistakes in my directions. I'd visited the office once before, but the path wasn't solid in my mind.

Lesson for you: Print a map even if you have a GPS. Plan to get there an hour early. Once you've actually parked in the lot and you have more than 10 minutes to wait, go hit a local coffee shop and relax and review notes about your interviewer.


Tips: Go into the bathroom immediately upon arrival and make sure your collar and clothes are correct. Take the time to urinate as you don't want a full bladder during the interview. After the interview send at a thank you note. I send both an written and email note. There's lots of advice online as to what to say. I was advised to add some additional selling point that wasn't brought out in the interview itself.

So I'd given up on that prospect because when I've interviewed people myself I really don't care why they are late - its a big BIG negative. Later on I called up one of the interviewers and asked if she would de-brief me on my performance. She did and it was very helpful. Yes being late was a big negative.

After that unfortunate performance I kept asking my network about other internship possibilities. Almost immediately one of my contacts mentioned one at a non-profit company and set me up for an interview. I showed up very early and waited at near-by coffee shop. The interview was so easy that after 10 minutes max I knew I had the position! I started the next week.

Two days after that I received a call from the previous internship interview that they wanted me to come in the next day and start the internship process! I must have done at least something right! While I didn't make the first cut, I was still on their list and something opened up for me. I was very excited! While this meant two new jobs, I could flex my schedule to accommodate them as they were ultimate goal and I was willing to sacrifice my personal time to make it happen.