How Far Would YOU Go?

I have easily just wasted the past two hours of my life. And by the time I am done with the wasting of time, it will probably be closer to three hours.

I got a call from one of my internships early this afternoon saying, "We could really use some extra help this week." Being as I had already given away all of my daytime hours, I said that I could come into the office in the evenings if they needed help. "Yes please, that would be great!"
And that is how I found myself sitting here in the office at 8:30pm on a Wednesday evening with absolutely nothing to do.

The thing about interning is, often you really are disposable. People you are working for feel overwhelmed, and so they call in the extra help. But then, they have actually nothing for you to do except watch them feel stressed.

So that is how I found myself this Wednesday evening, playing on my computer wishing for a project to do until 10 O'clock at night when I finally thought to myself:
"Have I no self respect?"

I am wasting hours of my life, trying to help someone out for free. They have nothing for me to do. And I am sitting here wasting time on my computer, looking for free tickets to things and losing myself in the vastness of youtube.

Things I am: productive and efficient.
At home I could be watching this youtube clip in my pajamas. Here I have to smile and pretend like I want to be here, feeling helpless.
Things I do not like to be: unproductive and inefficient.

So I went home. The entire process took four hours. I did nothing but refresh my gmail.
All I wanted to do was help.

When It Rains It Pours

About every two months I get a whole slew of emails offering me interviews. I don’t know why it happens in a cycle, but it always does. I wont hear a word from a single company, not a single positive response and usually not a single response at all. Then suddenly in the same week, I’ll get seven emails offering me interviews.
And so the rush begins again! The interview suit comes out, resumes get reprinted by the dozens, and if it were possible, I start getting even less sleep.
To me, interviewing is like craigslist, and craigslist is like a blind date. You absolutely never know who or what you might find on the other side of the door. And any one of those experiences could change your life forever.
Whether the interview be a 15 minute meet and greet, or an hour of resume nit picking, for that time you get a glimpse into the other side of your situation. The employed side. And you get caught up in the moment! You even start to feel important just to be interviewing for these intern positions. And why shouldn’t you? These interviewers are making a sales pitch to you (obviously because they want you to work for free) and trying to convince you that you should be honored to be considered for such an exciting time at their company. And then you get excited, and start selling yourself to them. Here is my resume! Here is what I can do for you!
I guess I am what they call lucky, in that I have actually been offered a variety of internships, and I usually get to choose where I want to devote my hardworking free time to. However, it is a harder decision than it seems. Each of these companies is probably excellent, and sometimes, when you are working for free, it all boils down to convenience. Which office is closest to the train? Which company has the best hours for my schedule? But personally, I think the most important question to weigh is: which company is going to give me the best connections? Which is the one I’ll be able to look back and say, if I hadn’t done that I never would have met _____ which eventually led me to ______ which eventually introduced me to the position I end up finding my self in…. successfully. Sometimes, I think I choose wrong. Other times, its easy to remember why I made the decision I did. But mostly, I can easily see where my first impressions of a place are skewed. It’s easy to get caught up in an interview when the interviewer is presenting their internship as the stepping-stone to your future. But it’s hard to remember how this internship is helping your future when you are making copies and getting coffee.

And so it begins! Let the runaround continue!



Bob, let's see what's behind Door Number 3!

Waiting... For Jeff Zucker/Sucker

As I was waiting for the NBC Page Program to instantly accept me, I began to fill me head with all sorts of trivia that would help make me the next Jeff Zucker. Interestingly, I found that if you typed in Jeff Zucker into your web browser, it immediately redirects you to his Wikipedia page. Funnily enough, I found that if you type in Jeff Sucker into your web browser, it also redirects you to his Wikipedia page. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.