It was a total craps shoot; like I'm discovering most things in grad school seem to be. But, I applied to a couple of internships for this summer. Why? Because I suppose it is what you do. For "experience." Had you asked me in February, it would have taken two hands to list the names of places to which I intended to apply. Today, I can tell you just using just two fingers. Coursework and lack of motivation hindered me. Mind you, these internships are much more competitive than one might expect. Around the office, we have our own March Madness...interviews, internship offers, second interviews, job offers; we need brackets to organize everyone's advancements.
About a week ago, I received an e-mail from one of the two internships to which I applied. When I saw the subject line, I sunk. I've been conditioned now to just expect rejection. (I've experienced my share of rejection letters this past year for various things.) I've become so conditioned, that I now skip the first sentence and go strait to the second sentence, "We regret to inform you..." or "However..." But, this email was different, I actually made the cut. I was shocked.
So, I had my phone interview last week. It went okay. I didn't nail the interview, but I didn't fail it either. It was probably an adequate showing for my first interview in over 6 years. One of the questions, though, surprised me. Here, these national experts with PhDs punctuating their names, who get paid the big bucks, asked me one question. It was a challenging one. One to which there was not a right answer, yet one one on which major policy decisions are contingent upon the answer. I gave a nervous chuckle and responded, "That is a really good question." They replied, "there is no right answer, we just want to know what you would say, this is what we deal with on a daily basis." I gave the best answer I could, stumbled my way through, feeling my confidence plummet.
I honestly don't think I got the job and would be really happy to just hanging out in Iowa City this summer. Part of me doesn't want the internship because of the hassle it will create in my life. I came here because I wanted to learn; not necessarily because I want a lucrative job post graduation; I was just really curious about decision making, research, statistics, testing. I wanted to know how tough decisions were made, what inferences could legitimately be drawn. I wanted to know who has the power to mold such policy, and I learned... in some cases, it is the intern.
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2 comments:
What was the question?
It was more or less a technical question that was highly subjective. Essentially... how do you know if documentation is good enough.
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