This is a guest post by Liz LeCrone for Student Stories.
Coast To Coast: How One Internship Lead To Another
Last summer, I had the amazing opportunity to intern for InternMatch. I still don’t know what possessed them to hire a nobody from the Midwest. I was just another applicant on their site from a state university, but I had passion and some good on-campus experience. And so I found myself in San Francisco for the summer. I worked on a myriad of posts and projects, and I put my journalism major to better use than a news publication ever could.
While researching a white paper for InternMatch about career fairs, I discovered a startup in New York, called Uncubed, offering a new kind of job fair. Uncubed events are designed to be casual and fun, complete with ping pong tables and an open bar. Naturally, I immediately signed up for their Chicago event, explaining how I had found them and why I wanted to go.
Upon arrival at the event last October, the Uncubed staff were excited to meet me. They had seen my registration and checked out the work I had done for InternMatch. Not only were they impressed by my writing and skill set, they offered me an editorial internship in New York City for this summer.
I was blown away. But what I didn’t realize was that this opportunity was just more proof of what InternMatch had seen in me from the beginning.
Once the excitement of being offered a paid internship in Manhattan wore off, I actually had to face the prospect of getting to, paying rent in, and affording to live in New York City. Getting there was relatively easy, thanks to the glories of air travel. But where would I live?
Like San Francisco, New York sports many neighborhoods, each with its own culture and attitude. And I didn’t know anything about any of them. So I took to the internet and, scarily enough, Craigslist, where I found a lovely shoebox of an apartment in West Village, Manhattan, which I shared with two other people for three months. All I will say is that it was better than a dorm room.
I fell in love with New York the way I fell in love with San Francisco—by diving right in. And the big city slowly evolved into home.
Just one week into exploring New York City, suddenly the buildings didn’t feel quite so tall, the sirens didn’t faze me, and tourists became the bane of my existence. I worked from ten in the morning until six at night in Chinatown. I drank overpriced coffee in West Village, I shopped in exclusive boutiques in Soho, and I partook in almost-reasonably-priced happy hours in nearly every neighborhood in Manhattan (and a few in Brooklyn). In short, I lived the dream.
I am just finishing up my internship for Uncubed, using the skills I developed while working for InternMatch and gaining a few more in the process. And without InternMatch, I would not be here, with two internships in booming cities and a professional network spanning the country. I wouldn’t be published on multiple sites, or have a well-rounded resume chocked full of experience. I wouldn’t have left a piece of my heart on both coasts.
And I would still think that I was a nobody.
Opportunities don’t always come when you want them to, or in the way you expect them to. And sometimes, it isn’t about what college you went to or what your degree is. It isn’t even about where you’ve been or where you’re going.
When you do good work, people start to take notice. And there comes a point when you have to start recognizing your own value and, more importantly, capitalizing on it. So go forth, and be somebody.
About the Author:
Liz LeCrone is a writer, marketer, freelance editor, and doodler. She is just finishing up her career at Michigan State University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and journalism. She is a strong proponent of the Oxford comma and will willingly enter into verbal altercations about grammar in general. Learn more about Liz’s projects and experiences at www.lizlecrone.com.
