The Great Internship Hunt

Any college student who does not get have an internship would get chills reading that phrase. 

I am currently sitting in the office of my non-internship job listening to my boss talk to a lifeguard (I am a deck supervisor at a YMCA, among other things).  This lifeguard is only in high school, but my boss started talking to him about college and popped the million dollar question: What are you gonna do with the rest of your life.  He is happily telling her about his plans for chemical engineering (did I mention Rockhurst now offers engineering?  Maybe I’ll recruit this kid). 

But somewhere along the line in college that “this is what I want to do with my life” spiel turns into “how the heck do I make that happen?”  And one of the first major steps on that path is getting a good internship, which can be a daunting process.  During my junior year I decided I should keep any eye out for any good opportunities, with plans to go after a more serious publishing internship at Andrew McMeel in Kansas City senior year.  Luckily, English professors are constantly sending out emails to all English majors letting us know about internship or job opportunities they have heard about.  A lot of people I know have gotten internships that way, doing interview work for non-profits in rough neighborhoods, interning at the National Catholic Reporter, and other things like that.  In January I got an email from a professor about an opportunity that looked perfect for me: Business Blog Writing.  I could do it from home on my own time, which was great because I also worked at the Learning Center so it would be hard to go somewhere for several hours during the day. 

I emailed the contact person, frantically put together a resume and some writing samples, held my breath and crossed my fingers, and got hired!  I was so excited…it was blogging, I could handle that; I had experience with that.  The job involved blogging for other businesses who wanted to outsource their blog, so I would do research, include keywords, and write a post. 

I got my first assignment.  Plumbing.  It was for a plumbing company.  Like most 21-year-old girls, my knowledge of plumbing is limited to the small plunger that came in a handy little stand my mom and I found at Target.  I called my dad in desperation—tell me anything, anything, you know about plumbing!  No dice.  I was on my own.  It sunk in then that this is what growing up and figuring out your future is like, namely, an utterly ridiculous situation in which you just have to take your best shot.  So I wrote what I consider to be an incredibly impressive post on what to look for when purchasing a toilet (I could tell you all about green toilets and flush power if you asked me).  And that was step one.  After that came months of posts about office rental, hair highlighting, diet supplements, and all sorts of random things.  I’ve gotten it wrong a lot, but I usually figure things out, and I am ready for the next Great Internship Challenge. 

What I apparently look like while in the blogging zone.