My focus while at City Tech has been learning as many skills as I can. When I started my only interest was graphic design. After taking an intro to video class I discovered motion graphics. Since then my goal is to combine my graphic work with motion. Through communicating with professors and peers I have been discovering my own work ethics. This past summer it finally hit me that I have to focus on life after college.
Process: Applying to internships takes time. I had to push myself to create a website. Finding the correct site to brand myself was hard. However the hardest part was telling myself I had good enough work to showcase. I was proud of my work but had doubts my work might not be what the companies are looking for.
When researching there were moments I felt overwhelmed. I would spend 30min to two hours researching motion and graphic design on indeed, idealist, simply hired, and Glassdoor. (Professor Tanya Goetz brought to my class’s attention that this year our school partnered with Handshake https://joinhandshake.com/ , which I also created a profile on for internship and future job opportunities). If the mission sounded like something I wanted to be a part of I would pull out key words or copy and paste it into a google doc that I color coded. I wanted to create specific cover letters for each.
Monday, September 13, 2021 I applied to Brooklyn College. I emailed my resume, cover letter and portfolio to Isana.
WEEK ONE
Interview: On Wednesday, September 15, 2021 I had an interview at 3pm with Isana from the Brooklyn College’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness. It lasted about 30 mins. We discussed how they are a public college and how their office provides a leadership environment that promotes and supports the college and other related activities. Their mission is to influence and shape educations future.
You can learn more about them here: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/about/administration/provost/institutional-effectiveness.php
During the interview I was informed of what is required of the intern and that it would be completely virtual. They do not start back in person until spring. I was asked if I ever worked with excel, Microsoft and google slides. I explained yes but minimal use. She mentioned the project required of each internship student would be presented to her at the end of the internship before presenting to my internship class at City Tech. The final project would be a power point presentation.
A main requirement was to pay attention to email and my phone during working days. There will be times when texts or calls are faster than emailing. In addition, dedicate two days a week, a minimum of five hours and a maximum of eight hours to eventually meet the requirement of 120 hours total with a 30 min lunch.
When we were wrapping up the interview I was told I’d be joining two other City Tech students that started two days before and possibly one or two additional students. Isana’s team feels student work was best effective in a team setting. It took me a minute to realize that meant I automatically got the job. She continues by saying I will receive a zoom link after the interview and each morning at either 8:30 or 9 am unless otherwise directed.
Role: The three of us would be receiving the same topic but individually work on the deliverables asked. Creating drafts and being sure to spell check our work. Isana will then show the work to the associate provost and assistant vice president of institutional effectiveness for review.
Isana was friendly and polite while in a rush. Overall the experience went well because I left the interview with an internship and a tip for my resume. She pointed out how my resume had my website as an active link but my email was not. I could potentially lose opportunities if it isn’t.
When the interview was completed about 10 mins after I received an email with a link to the google folder we would be working out of, as well as Brooklyn College Guidelines.
Day 1 : Thursday, September 16, 2021 beginning at 8:50 I entered the zoom link for my first 9 am group meeting. When we started, Isana introduced me, then jumped right into it. The three of us were given a schedule of Mondays and Thursdays 9 am to around 3 pm. The two other interns had already been informed but Isana caught me up and shared with me the previous project they had been working on that I’d be joining. She asked for three versions in the google drive by 1 pm so she could review it with time for corrections.
Assignment one: Assess@CUNY flyer
- We were told to design the flyer
- Find images and logo pngs to support the copy provided
- Use the provided Cuny Assessment logo
- For this flyer NOT to incorporate Brooklyn College Logo
- Try incorporating geometric shapes
We were also all asked to provide a headshot and paragraph bio about ourselves so they could update the Brooklyn College Team page with this semesters interns.
See linked: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/about/administration/provost/institutional-effectiveness/team.php
I also needed to complete the Internship Agreement Form.
