The 5 Stressful Stages Of Applying To A Summer Internship
With summer just around the corner, the weather is warmer, people are happier and life seems, in all aspects, better. Well, that's until you realize you should have started applying to summer internships yesterday.
With this realization, you will likely jump off the couch, force yourself to close out of Netflix and finally start the process of applying for your future summer job. The anxiety begins immediately because you are now faced with the insurmountable amount of stress that accompanies applying for a summer internship.
As I have been through this process before, I know what it's like to live through this unique stress. But if you want to gain real-life experience, build your resume and have a fun summer job, the stressful process is necessary. So take a deep breath, and mentally prepare yourself for the strain ahead.
Here are the five stressful stages you will live through while applying for a summer internship:
1. Finding Internship Applications
This is the stage were you will frantically search the Internet for the perfect internship that fits you and your credentials. You spend an inordinate amount of time scrolling through hundreds of different job descriptions, doubting that you have any skills at all by the time the first hour of the search is over.
But don't fret. The moment will come when you will find your perfect fit, and relief will wash over you.
2. Updating Your Resume And Cover Letter
Now, it's time to make your resume flawless. It can take hours. But it's time well-spent.
You'll stress over how to make that babysitting job you had last summer sound like a qualifying factor for a corporate internship. The layout will push you even closer to the brink of insanity as you try to get everything to align just right.
Then, there is the dreaded cover letter. There is a lot of pressure when it comes to the cover letter because it is your first opportunity to showcase your talents and convince HR that it should look at the rest of your application.
How is a short letter supposed to do that? Let the stress ensue.
3. Pressing Submit
Once all the pieces of the applications are filled out, the next stressful stage is pressing the submit button. You can spend what seems like an eternity hovering over the button that will send your application from the safety of your laptop into the hands of potential employers.
You question everything. What if something went wrong? What if I'm not qualified after all? Is my resume perfect?
Does my cover letter adequately convey my desire for this internship? The questions will keep coming, until you finally force yourself to click. Just bite the bullet and do it.
4. Waiting, Waiting And More Waiting
This is the stage in which you will go back to watching Netflix, even if it's only to drown out your fears of never hearing back. You wait days and possibly months to hear back from the company, all the while wondering if HR has even seen your application.
You start questioning everything. You start wondering where you could have gone wrong, and you explore all the possible reasons why you haven't heard back yet.
Then, you get a call.
5. The Interview
You finally get to set up an interview. You are now faced with the stress of interview prep (as if you weren't stressed out enough already). On the day of the interview, you feel like the stress of it all will be the end of you. You're sweating through that new, expensive outfit that you only bought to impress your potential employer. You have to continually remind yourself to smile, speak clearly and not mess up.
No matter how stressful the process becomes, it will end with a feeling of accomplishment. As I have lived through this stressful process before, I know that you will survive it too.
When it's over, you will know that you survived all the stages of stress. Hopefully, you will be rewarded with an awesome summer internship.
