Please write a ~500 word piece (or upload a reflection in another medium, such as video) on the second meeting you had with a career advisor this semester.
Yesterday I met with Camille again to edit my application for the Summer Grant. After some stress, I confirmed my internship with the League of United Latin American Citizens. Given that it’s an unpaid internship, I’m hoping to receive the grant to cover meals and transportation on the metro. She helped me put more of my personality and passion into the essay, instead of just listing the facts of why the internship aligns with work I’ve done previously. Camille and I have built a rapport over the course of our meetings this semester, and I feel somewhat more confident in my ability to think about and present my qualifications and present them in interviews and cover letters. Once LULAC offered my a position this summer, I was relieved and excited to work with them. But after I made it to the next round of consideration with GQR, a political consulting firm, I felt a lot of stress. My dad was saying GQR was a much better credential and it paid $17.50 per hour. But I didn’t have that job. To continue in the interview and assessment process would have required asking for even more time from LULAC to consider their offer or reject the LULAC offer in hopes of recieving one from GQR. It seemed that the GQR internship was very competitive and that I was perhaps likely to not get it. One in the hand beats two in the bush, Camille told me. Take what you got. This happens all the time in the real world. The goal was to do something good this summer, and accepting LULAC at the expense of a remote possibility of ggetting an internship with GQR was the way to do that. Talking to Camille helped me feel more at peace with that decision and that I was doing the right thing. I hadn’t anticipated my parents presenting another challenge in the internship search. It was one thing to get the gig, but then to have my dad say that was a fine thing to do, but I really ought to pursue GQR no matter what was challenging. I did not want to treat LULAC like a last resort, asking to extend the decision deadline to eventually come crawling back. They were the ones who were excited about me and made an offer. They were the ones who put a leader in the organization on the Zoom with me. But maybe that’s how it goes at elite organizations that get people elected. The important people are too important to be interviewing college kids before their application has been read, their interview conducted by an administrative assistant who was way over-qualified, and their online assessment reviewed. In meetings and conversations with Camille, I felt better about removing myself from that process and committing the excited opportunity I have.
