Picking Up Speed – Searching for an Internship

Once I had my portfolio and my resume completed, it was finally time to start applying to internships. The only question is where do I find internships and would they even hire me this late into the semester? I had a ton of questions and doubts about this up until I put my foot down….and watched a video on Notion.

The start of the school year was incredibly tough for me. I felt like I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do and each day I found myself disliking the things I spent time on more and more. These thoughts were clouding my judgement and even my favorite hobbies took a toll. I didn’t want to stay this way and realized that if I wanted to do something, I needed to do it fast. I mainly wanted to change how I went about the things that mattered to me most. Relationships, hobbies, habits, you name it and there was most likely something I wish were different. I started listening and following a few youtubers who focus on self development. I’d listen to a few videos and talks here and there to motivate myself to get out of the rut I was in and to start working on something grand. One notable youtuber would be Matt D’Avella. His videos showed up in the recommended section and after watching a few, I grew to like the way he describes processes, his personal encounters with failures and how he overcame them, and I also favored his editing style (along with how he’s a filmmaker on the side).

The first video I have ever seen by Matt that I try to integrate into my life as much as possible

Watching a few of his videos made me want to change even more. I liked the way he thought about doing certain things and specific tips he would introduce ended up becoming information that guided my perspective on handling change. Another youtuber who encouraged me would be Matthew Encina. Not only is he part of The Futur but he is also a designer himself. Seeing a designer’s perspective from the inside, from a place of success, really made me want to do as much as I can to shape my practices better. His Notion video specifically had me jump to action as him speaking about his personal projects, work related projects, and personal tracking made me want to try it out.

Matthew’s Notion Video that persuaded me to get on the platform that same night

I jumped on Notion the same night Matthew’s video came out. It took some getting used to but I managed to create a spreadsheet that was not only quick and easy but also really nice to look at. This would then help me start applying to internships and keep track of everything on a platform that I can use on any device.

This is how my internship page was setup. It included tabs for super important things to keep in mind as well as some color coating to help me know what worked and what didn’t

After setting up my internship application page, I began searching. I’ve been saving internship positions on LinkedIn ever since the beginning of the summer but have never decided to apply to any of them until I got my act together. Now that I have all of the things I need, I started mass applying. These were an odd range of jobs too. I mainly wanted to become a motion design intern but had applied to graphic design and even video/photo production. I had no idea how that would even work but I wasn’t trying to waste time by asking. I also went on sites such as Internships and Indeed which had more options than LinkedIn. In total, on the very same night that I signed up for Notion, I applied to 9 different internships. That’s more than all of the job applications I’ve ever applied to in my whole life (and I’ve had 2 jobs in the past).

I applied on Sunday night expecting to hear back from a few places by the end of the week. May luck have it, the very next day I was approached with an interview via zoom for Tuesday. I responded “Thank you for your consideration! I’m available for the meeting!” and prepared for possibly the quickest turnaround on any application I have ever submitted in my entire life.