It’s December 2019, I’m attending my churches annual nativity fair with my family. My brother was looking into enrolling his son in a Christian school that was being promoted at the fair. I noticed he was speaking with one of the representatives who happened to be the Marketing and Promotions Officer for the churches head Conference in WA. I knew I had to utilise my networking skills and talk to the representative to discuss the possibility of completing an internship with the Churches head Conference.

It was a success! The representative gave me her business card and told me to contact her to discuss it further.

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The process of landing this internship came with a couple of hurdles along the way. You see, the Christian Conference has never had an intern, which meant the process took longer than normal.

On January 15th 2020, I was told that to be ‘officially accepted’, I had to have one final online interview with the Director of Education. I can’t tell you how determined I was to get this position. I could see the job was right within my reach and this interview was the last hurdle.

It was day of the interview, I was very nervous and I could feel my face beginning to go red. My palms were getting sweaty and my heart was racing. There was only 5 minutes till the interview started, but it felt like an hour. I closed my eyes and thought to myself, ‘it’s not the end of the world if I don’t get this internship, all I can do is try my best’.

I think it is important for us as students to remember that when we experience rejection it does not necessarily mean that we aren’t good enough. We must instead think positive and keep striving towards our end goal.

As I see the light blink from my computer, it is now my time to prove to the Director of Education why I will be a great fit for their organisation. I want to show them that, as their first intern I would treat it with honour and be proud to work along side them.

Let’s not forget, as an intern they are not expecting us to be perfect, we are learning and it’s ok if we make mistakes. What they are expecting is an intern who is committed, organised, ambitious and able to crack a smile after a hard day of work.

I’d love to know what you think, what are employers looking for in an intern?

I’d like to leave you on this special note, one of my lecturers told me this quote in first year and it has stuck with me ever since. “The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time”. – Thomas A. Edison.

 

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