Wednesday, December 5, 2012

James McCarty - Internships



Being an Applied Psychology major I feel will give me a huge benefit in finding a job for the future because of all of the internship experience I have/will gain throughout my college education. This past week really opened my eyes as to how beneficial it is to have good work experience, leadership characteristics, and most importantly the Penn State name backing me.

I have been in the process of looking for my last internship, and was interested in a local organization that specializes in working with geriatrics. I kept trying to get in contact with the head of the organization, and was not having any luck. Finally, after a few days I spoke with someone but it was not the director whom I was intending to speak to. This person told me that this site was not the best fit for what I was looking for, and that I should try somewhere else. Confused and peeved with what had happened I call the organization one more time. Luckily, I spoke with a lady and she told me to e-mail the director of operations, but she warned me that the likelihood of me obtaining a position was slim to none.

I sent out the e-mail, and to my surprise heard back very quickly and we set up an interview for the following day. I went into the interview and all seemed to go very well. At the conclusion, to my surprise, the Director of Operations said that he has never in his career taken any intern because he felt that they were all unqualified and weren’t there for the right reasons. However, he said that the only reason he considered me for an interview was because in the signature of my email he saw that I was a Penn State student. Then once we met, he was sold because of the leadership and experience I obtained throughout my education thus far. It was amazing to know that the sole reason for getting this internship for next semester was because of my experience I gained from Penn State, but also having that name to back me.  

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