By: Yameng Zhang
It was on my 22nd birthday, and it was a scary, stressful, energy-consuming and frustrating day. I put on my mom’s suit jacket and a pair of new trousers with its label, and I walked into a bright conference room and people were waiting to judge. Questions were asked, every words and motions were watched, and my voice cracked and hands chilled. I walked out the room, thinking things went fairly well till I realized the price tag of my trousers was out there the whole time. Later that day, I made my birthday wish, I wished I can still get the position even though it might sound hopeless. This was how my interview went for this internship.
After that, every night I dreamed the label didn’t flip out, I dreamed I understood every question for the first time, I dreamed about having the interview all over again, and I dreamed I’d got it all. And here I am.
If the interview was a performance with thousands of rehearsals, the internship would be the arena. We wear customs—the uncomfortable but professional suits. We put on masks—the attitudes that we rarely have towards others. We bring props-- computers and plan books so that we can set our own scenes. We performed the best of ourselves at the interview in order to get ourselves onto the real stage. When we are about to do the internship, all eyes will be on us and wait for us to bring out all the skills we promised on our resume. The internship will be a long and complex process with many parts, therefore we will have many opportunities for errors. Once we realize we cannot be the best of ourselves the whole time, the extreme pressure comes around and it is ready to take us down anytime.
The good news is it just gets started. It is ok to be terrified, it is allowed to make mistakes, since it is the internship which will make us stronger, and only the mistakes we made will let us know what is right. If practicing interviews could make one a speaker, an internship should make one a doer.
It was on my 22nd birthday, and it was a scary, stressful, energy-consuming and frustrating day. I put on my mom’s suit jacket and a pair of new trousers with its label, and I walked into a bright conference room and people were waiting to judge. Questions were asked, every words and motions were watched, and my voice cracked and hands chilled. I walked out the room, thinking things went fairly well till I realized the price tag of my trousers was out there the whole time. Later that day, I made my birthday wish, I wished I can still get the position even though it might sound hopeless. This was how my interview went for this internship.
After that, every night I dreamed the label didn’t flip out, I dreamed I understood every question for the first time, I dreamed about having the interview all over again, and I dreamed I’d got it all. And here I am.
If the interview was a performance with thousands of rehearsals, the internship would be the arena. We wear customs—the uncomfortable but professional suits. We put on masks—the attitudes that we rarely have towards others. We bring props-- computers and plan books so that we can set our own scenes. We performed the best of ourselves at the interview in order to get ourselves onto the real stage. When we are about to do the internship, all eyes will be on us and wait for us to bring out all the skills we promised on our resume. The internship will be a long and complex process with many parts, therefore we will have many opportunities for errors. Once we realize we cannot be the best of ourselves the whole time, the extreme pressure comes around and it is ready to take us down anytime.
The good news is it just gets started. It is ok to be terrified, it is allowed to make mistakes, since it is the internship which will make us stronger, and only the mistakes we made will let us know what is right. If practicing interviews could make one a speaker, an internship should make one a doer.
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