meredithbklyn:
Melissa Reyes, who graduated from Marist College with a degree in fashion merchandising last May, applied for a dozen jobs to no avail. She was thrilled, however, to land an internship with the Diane von Furstenberg fashion house in Manhattan. “They talked about what an excellent, educational internship program this would be,” she said. But Ms. Reyes soon soured on the experience. She often worked 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., five days a week. “They had me running out to buy them lunch,” she said. “They had me cleaning out the closets, emptying out the past season’s items.” Asked about her complaints, the fashion firm said, “We are very proud of our internship program, and we take all concerns of this kind very seriously.”
OMG GET OVER YOURSELF AND CLEAN THE CLOSET AND GO GET LUNCH. WE ALL DID IT AND YOU CAN, TOO.
As someone who did their fair share of temping and post-grad internships, I have a pretty strong feeling about this. Yes it sucks to be running errands and cleaning inventory as someone with a college degree, but I am incredibly grateful for the internships that I had. This girl should be thrilled that someone sees enough potential in her to give her a chance and prove to everyone that she DESERVES to be there instead of whining that “it isn’t fair.”
You may have noticed that a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned that I was going to be exploring the option of going to grad school, I neglected to say what I would be eventually getting a degree in.
There’s a reason for that. At the time, I wasn’t ready to share details yet (mainly because there weren’t any), but with my plan for a degree, I’m also taking a flying leap and changing careers and industries.
After a lot of late nights and long days of wondering what I was doing with my life, I came to a pretty big conclusion. I’m not cut out for corporate America. As much as I like PR and social media and beauty products, I don’t have the edge necessary to talk about them for a living.
So I thought about what I’m good at and what else I’m really passionate about and came to a conclusion. NON-PROFIT. I love helping people and in the grand scheme of my life, I want to look back one day and know that I made a difference. I did something that matters. I realize that that statement is a little idealistic and incredibly optimistic, but then again so am I.
Which leads me to a little bit of a big announcement. I GOT AN INTERNSHIP doing non profit development starting Monday!
I am so incredibly excited to start this phase of my life and look forward to seeing where it takes me.
Update on yesterday’s post: I sent the recruiter an email. I said that “as loyal consumer of the brand and a job seeker, I was incredibly disappointed about how the whole situation was handled. Not expecting any acknowledgment of my email (I’ve become a little cynical when it comes to job-hunting), I was very surprised when she called! That’s right. The recruiter actually called me. Although we did not The recruiter called and left me a voicemail apologizing profusely for the oversights. She explained that while the team had liked me, they had re-evaluated their needs and realized that this position would require someone with a more senior experience (story of my professional life). She also mentioned that she was understaffed and so being the resourceful person that I am, when I emailed her to thank her this morning, I also mentioned that I am an excellent administrative assistant and would be happy to assist her if necessary.
Moral of the story: It’s nice when you’re reminded that there are some good people out in this big crazy city.
P.S. Big shoutout to everyone who left replies or likes yesterday. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is a really special little community that I feel really lucky to have stumbled across.
