Intern Chick

I'm a firm believer in "everything happens for a reason." Even when the
most horrible awful things happen, you can still learn from them and
take away some sort of wisdom. I took that mentality in getting my
first and second internships and looking back, it worked out pretty
well.
My freshman year, representatives from a well known pharmaceutical
company came to give an overview to my chemistry class of what chemists
in the pharmaceutical industry actually do day-to-day. I was star
struck even though I had never before given any thought to making
pharmaceuticals. They gave us little first aid kits with the company's
logo to thank us for coming to their talks. I carried mine around with
me for months before displaying it on my dresser at home as a reminder
to work harder than everyone else so that I could maybe work for that
company some day. When I was neck deep in work, staying in on Saturday
nights and missing fun events to write ten page lab reports, it was
hard to not give up, cop out and go have fun. Having that little
reminder to work extra hard for something I really wanted was sometimes
all the push I needed to give that extra ten percent.
I took my first internship honestly because it was the first good
interview I had. Previous interviews were train wrecks of me sputtering
and studdering over my lack of experience and uncertainty of what I
wanted for a career. Hours after my interview, I was offered a position
in the research and development group making can sealant compounds.
Although it seemed like a job so far from anything I would want to do,
I jumped at the chance to accept a job out of fear of not finding
another. Days later I had calls from other, more reputable companies
inviting me to interview which I had to politely decline. After I
finished my first internship, I felt that I had learned not much more
than how to fill out my time sheet and make a tasty cup of coffee, and
that the position would not help advance my career at all. Although I
had a fun six months where worked with awesome people and was rarely
without some work to do, I seriously regretted taking that internship
so quickly.
When it came time to find my second internship, I promised myself to
not settle. I was picky about where I applied to, and accepted
interviews with. As time was running out and all my friends were
accepting positions, it was nerve racking. I wanted to just settle and
work at yet another internship I wasn't entirely in to when I got a
call from my first aid kit dream company to interview. I interviewed
for two separate jobs and was nervous beyond belief for both of them. I
wore a blue shirt (so not my favorite) because I read somewhere that it
made you look more professional, I was shaking probably the whole time
and concentrating so much on the proper place to put my hands or way to
sit in my chair, that I can't even tell you what my interviewers were
talking about. I thought I did a miserable job, but maybe enough to get
by so I was blown away when I received a job offer. Although I thought
it was not the job I that was a good fit for me and there were stronger
candidates, I figured whatever, it's the best internship I could have
imagined! I was on cloud nine and celebrated for about three hours.
Then I got a call from HR to knock me back down to earth. They
basically said, we made a mistake, we meant to hire someone else, very
sorry. I was destroyed. It felt like someone ripped my dreams out of my
hands and I couldn't believe it. Shell shocked, it was hard to stick to
my mantra that there was a reason this would happen to me. However, a
couple days later I received a call to come interview for a third
position at the same company. I almost didn't want to even bother, I
was still a little bitter, but luckily I have great friends that talked
me into going in for the third interview. I was only up against one
other candidate, so that made me feel better about my chances. I went
into my final interview more relaxed, wearing my favorite pink shirt,
listening to the interviewers instead of fidgeting and freaking out.
Oddly enough, having the first job offer taken back gave me a weird
confidence. I ended up getting the internship mainly because it
involved a lot of the work I did at the first internship, what are the
chances? I thought that experience would never come in handy but it
turned out a small part of what I did there is what I now focus on at
my second internship. So that six months of goofing around in a lab
that I though would be no help to my resume was actually the boost to
put me miles ahead of the competition, I guess you never can know.
So after two completed internships, as lame as it is, I really
completely believe now more than ever that everything happens for a
reason and that if you work your butt off you can really do anything
you want. Now I see that little first aid kit on my dresser at home and
think about how when I received it I thought it would be the hardest
thing in the world to get an internship at that company. Although I
went a little bit of a round about way, I ended up making that small
dream come true. Now it's on to the big time.