First Internship, First Day
I look around as I push through the revolving doors to WGBH’s main office. This day was the start of my internship and I was filled with excitement and nervousness. WGBH is a company that focuses on enhancing education, culture, citizenship and entertainment through public media. Even though I just finished junior year, this was my first internship and first job in a corporate office. I am a first generation college student that is double concentrating in Information Technology Management and Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Design. In my past summers I have worked in summer camps and during the semester at Sodexo at Trim dining hall on campus to help support myself financially. Although I was successful at my interview and was hired for the summer, I could not shake off wondering if I had the skills and experience to succeed.
Getting hired was a journey in itself. Being a first generation college student with immigrant parents who have never been through the internship search process before posed a number of challenges. My family did not have business contacts I could network with nor experiences with interviews that they could advise me on. I attended every internship and career fair on campus that my schedule would allow and asked for help at career services on how to build my resume and communicate. I also knew I wanted something different from the norm. I wanted work where I could be creative and entrepreneurial, which was a lot to ask for as a first time intern. I started searching for internships last fall and was still searching mid spring semester, until I tried to see if I could network through my friends, many of which are older and are now working full time jobs.
In one of these experiences, I spoke to a full time employee at WGBH, I could tell he loved his job. He was very passionate when he recalled some of the projects he worked on and the creative and collaborative aspect in his department. I remember thinking to myself, this is something I am looking for in my work! With advice from Babson’s career services, I applied, wrote a networking e-mail and was invited to WGBH for an interview.
The internship hunting journey was long and difficult, but I know I have a bright summer ahead of me.