Grace
City of Internship: Washington, D.C.
Employer: US House of Congress How long were you in D.C. and where did you stay? I was in D.C. for six weeks. Well, seven actually but only working for six. I lived in in apartment in the Georgetown area that I subleased with some of my friends who were also interning in DC. There were three of us all together. |
Was your internship paid or unpaid?
It was unpaid, and rent was a lot. That was a bummer. What made you want to intern in the House? I am a history major at Princeton, but I wanted to get my feet wet in politics. I think American history specifically is so interesting, and I liked seeing how different aspects of our history influence our government today. What was your application process like? I had to submit a written application along with my resume. The written part consisted of questions like, "Do you take initiative? Please provide examples." Then I had a phone interview with the intern coordinator of the Congressman I worked for. The hardest part was not knowing whether I should be applying to other internships while I was waiting to hear from the first one. You have to be prepared for not getting it, but at the same time, you only really want to submit applications if you are serious about the job. |
Did you enjoy your time as an intern?
I definitely learned a lot. The day to day life is hard and a lot of work. You work 9-5 every day and have to be in a suit the whole time. I wasn't really ready for that. My commute on the Metro was about an hour each way too which became annoying. It definitely made me appreciate my college life style more. What was your favorite part about being an intern? The main reason I wanted to intern in DC was that I had heard great things about the intern culture in the summer there. So many kids come in from all over the world to do really interesting things. You become part of this kind of unspoken culture. Every weekend there are places where everyone just congregates--parks and restaurants and things like that. You get to meet a lot of people in a really short span of time, and most of them have interests very similar to yours. I learned a lot at work, and I am definitely very grateful for that, but I also learned so much from the other students I met while I was there. What do you think of the concept of the unpaid intern? Why do you think it is considered such an important thing for college students to have summer internships? I think it definitely has become kind of a trendy thing to do. The classic summer job of waitressing or lifeguarding has lost some edge. The amount of work that we do for no money is also kind of insane, especially if kids aren't getting college credit for it. That said, I don't think I have ever learned more in six weeks, so as a learning experience, definitely very valuable. Any tips for first time interns? Meet as many people as you can, and always do your work. Otherwise just enjoy it as much as you can. |