Applying for internships can be time-consuming and at times overwhelming. Filling out resumes, perfecting cover letters, and answering strange questions can get old pretty fast. Countless hours are put in and sometimes with no result. While we anxiously await the replies and hope for a shot to prove our worth, here is a list of thoughts you may have had while applying.
1. Why won't my stupid resume format itself?
You spend half your day perfecting your resume, then realize you forgot to enter the date you graduated. Now you have to reformat the entire thing, and we all know you will never get it perfect again.
2. Have I listed off every accomplishment I have ever achieved in my entire life?
Maybe they do not care what you accomplished in high school, but if you were a club president even for a month, you most likely will be putting that on your resume. The more accomplishments the better, right?
3. Where does one find a paid internship?
There have got to be a few companies that actually want to pay you for your work. If not, then I guess you will have to get used to eating ramen in the summers too.
4. Do I have to travel across the country to find a decent internship?
If you do not get paid and you cannot live at home, then how is this supposed to work out? There has got to be some kind of internship near home, or at least one that provides housing somewhere else.
5. Do I continue to brag about myself in the cover letter, or is that obnoxious?
How obnoxious can you be about yourself before it is borderline Kanye? Do you want to list all the articles you have published and how many shares they received? Or should you stick with "I write well?" It is so hard to find the happy medium.
6. Will I only be getting coffee for them or do I actually need to adult?
You may not want to get coffee all day, everyday, but do you want to be in charge of huge projects either? You never really know what to expect as an intern, but being the bottom of the totem pole will most likely result in a lot of stress, coffee-related or not.
7. How did she get to intern at Google and I am stuck applying to mediocre companies?
You know your internship will never be as glamorous as that one girl's. You can only hope that the mediocre company you are applying for has happy hours and a ping pong table, because it will never live up to Google proportions. At least you are going to have a job, right?
8. What do I do if they want to interview me?
You may feel like you will not be able to form complete sentences and you probably are wishing that interviewing was not a vital part of getting a job. You instantly regret applying the second they send an email to set up a time to meet with you. What do you say? What do you wear? How do you breathe?
9. Why did I fill out a resume if they were just going to have me rewrite it all online?
There is nothing worse then applying for a job which makes you do an online resume. You start to wonder why you had to spend hours on a different resume just to rewrite it in a text box. At this point, you have memorized your resume like the back of your hand.
10. Can I just quit school and give up?
After 10 applications and hours behind your computer it can be easy to want to give up. You are sick of applying to places and dreading rejection. You wonder how anyone ever finished college and actually got a decent job.
11. Will the stress ever end?
You know that you are almost done with applications but there are still 1000 other things weighing on you. You are still unsure if the companies will even like your application, and on top of everything, you still have to go to class, work, and function as a normal human being. At this rate, summer cannot come soon enough.
