I opened my HB the other day to find a letter from Career Services asking me to fill out an "Employment Reactionnaire," and as I looked at the reactionnaire -- Career Services apparently sends this reactionnaire to students following their leave term in order to gauge their work experiences -- the horror of my spring term washed over me yet again. What I thought had been long forgotten -- or blocked out in the six weeks since my final day of work-- was suddenly vividly recalled, and I experienced something akin to deep dread and terror.
This past spring I worked at a law firm in New York City. I found the job through Career Services when, last January, I stumbled into their office, pulled out the binder that said "Law" and sent a cover letter and r e sum e to every major New York firm.
The interview a few weeks later in New York went quite nicely, and when they called me in mid-February to offer me a job, I was extremely excited. For one, it meant I wouldn't have to be working in The Gap during the spring, but more importantly, it meant I would be getting a taste of the world I would be entering after graduation, seeing what life was like in the fast paced, corporate universe. I entered the building on my first day excited to learn new things, meet new people and conquer the big city.
So what happened? Nothing much. That was the problem. Mostly, I photocopied; occasionally I proofread; once or twice I even got to answer the phones. Some days, when I was lucky and had been a particularly well behaved slave, they let me deliver packages to midtown Manhattan. Once, perhaps my happiest day at the firm, I got to take a taxi to LaGuardia airport to pick up a wallet which one of our partner's had accidentally left on his flight to Wisconsin.
So much for learning or doing new things. About four weeks into the internship I resigned myself to the fact that I would be doing nothing of significance for my three months there. Instead, I turned my attention to having the opportunity to meet, interact and learn from the attorneys and legal assistants at the firm.
I didn't have much luck in that department either. The people I met at the firm all treated me with respect and kindness, but I didn't find any of them interesting. In fact, they seemed to fall into three distinct categories: the neurotic, insecure ones, the high strung, money hungry ones and the pretentious, fake ones. (If nothing else, my job gave me a new appreciation for Woody Allen films.) But in terms of learning from these people, or finding value in my interaction with them, there was nothing. Perhaps this was the most troubling discovery of my off-term: that I would have to spend the rest of my life working with people like this.
I offer all of this as something of a cautionary tale to my fellow sophomores who in the coming terms are about to embark upon their own leave term internships. From what I've gathered from friends who also worked during the spring, my experiences were not uncommon. It seems as if most of those well-paying, big-city internships that fill the binders in Career Services are not very exciting or enriching.
At best, you get to determine if the field you are working in is "right" for you, but in terms of valuable projects, interesting tasks or genuine challenge and excitement, the jobs are meaningless. It's unfortunate to think that employers wouldn't want to get the most from bright and eager Ivy League students, but the fact of the matter is that most of them are too busy (or perhaps too self-absorbed) to have interns do anything other than their grunt work.
As I take note of the numerous career services workshops being offered, and the many groups interviewing on campus this summer, I am reminded of how glad I am to have my leave term behind me; I won't have to worry about this again until next winter or spring, when I start looking for my junior summer job.
Maybe then I will take with me the lessons of my term in New York and perhaps pursue a field of interest that truly excites and inspires me, without regard to money or resume building.
Maybe.
For now though, I will fill out my reactionnaire, attempt to once again forget about my endless hours of photocopying and remind myself of how lucky I am to be nothing more than a college student for the next two years.
