Polka Dots and My Career

So as it turns out, there are two kinds of job searches: the kind where you get to wear polka dots and the kind where you don’t.  This semester, I am attempting both.

The non-polka dot job search began with an interview on my first day back in Kansas City with a publishing company.  I learned about this company through the Rockhurst English department and career services, and decided to pursue an editing internship with them.  I sent them my resume, and they asked me to come in for an interview…which meant digging up interview-worthy clothes. 

Now, maybe I’ve been living in quirky English major world for a little too long, but I had no idea there were so many rules regarding interview attire—I get that it should all be appropriate and fit well, but no patterns?  No bright colors?  NO RED?  This initiated a St. Louis-wide search for appropriately grey/tan/black clothing.  The winning combination of the colors and my chipper attitude probably made people think I was shopping for a funeral. 

But the interview date came and I showed up in my grey dress and black tights…only to be told they were not really looking for interns because their fall ones decided to stay on for the spring semester (despite this setback, I still think studying abroad last semester was worth it!).  Oh the trials and tribulations of the internship hunt.

My polka dot job search is going a little….more interesting.  I am doing a curatorial internship/independent study with the head of the art department, Anne Pearce, which will involve curating three shows this semester: a “virtual show” in which I select any space and works from any artist and discuss how I would hypothetically put the show together; the art portion of the Student Achievement Festival at the end of the year; and a show of Rockhurst Students’ work at a gallery downtown in the Crossroads Art District (a new undertaking this year).  I am going to be really busy with all of this, but it is also very exciting to be doing something so hands on. 

A big part of this internship is also networking with curators and artists in Kansas City, which is why last Friday I found myself talking to a curator at a gallery opening who insisted that I MUST go to the back of the gallery and watch the live feed of cats playing in a cat-palace before I left (Do I love contemporary art?  Yes.  Will I ever really understand it?  I’m not holding out hope.).  Turns out that when you are networking in the art world, things like red lipstick and the pairing of flannel plaid and sequins are encouraged.  I think my polka dots would be welcome at those kinds of functions.

But regardless of whether or not I am allowed to indulge in my particular fashion tastes, this semester is about garnering all of the experience I can before my launch into the real world in May.  The publishing thing was a dead end, but I have an unconventional art internship, a solid selection of both dull and patterned clothes, and as of this afternoon a brand new career services account.  Look out job world, here I come…

 

 

Sam and I gong for artsy black instead of funereal/interview black for a night of hobnobbing in the art world.

 

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist sneaking a picture of the cat-palace.