After applying to a hefty amount of internship positions, I was offered a time for an interview soon after. Around a day’s worth of time. It would be the quickest turnaround I’ve ever had so far in terms of job applications. I emailed the person back and then did extensive research.
If there’s anything that I think people should do once they get some form of acceptance for a position, it is to research that company meticulously. It’s good to know what you’re getting into and what you could bring up as talking points in interviews. This is exactly what I ended up doing. I went to the company’s LinkedIn, checked out their website, and more specifically, I browsed through the content they released through LinkedIn and their own blog. The position that I was going in for was Remote Video Production. This meant that I’d need to know how to format content in order to fit their image. From the first glance, I was pretty anxious.
Most of the published content had a big amount of motion graphic work as the primary video content. Now, this isn’t that bad considering I wanted to go for a motion based internship in the first place but… have you ever seen work in the field you want to be in and wonder how it was ever done? Most of the work posted looked professionally done. It was work that had a lot of great pacing and style. Comparing it to the work that I recently put out, I felt like I may need to train my skills a bit more before doing anything else. Yet, I remembered that my main role was as a video producer and not motion artist. It was still a good decision to look into that work as it gave me an insight to the type of content the company allows itself to show to the world. It means that in terms of structure, style, and pace, I had to learn how to match it with different media. It’s a challenge but it’s one that I called upon to conquer.
The grand day arrives. Our meeting is at 11am and I end up sleeping at 5/6am. My sleep schedule is always crazy whenever I feel nervous about something. It wasn’t any different this time. I wake up at 10:40 to make sure I look good, adjust my webcam and lighting, and then practice looking into the camera along with preparing some information that I might be questioned on. I’ve been adjusted to interviews for retail positions but never something related to my field. It would be a new experience to me and I didn’t know what to expect. 11am strikes and I join a Zoom meeting with Trish. Trish is a practice manager for Krietzberg Wealth Management. Just as the meeting was going to begin, my camera bugs out and I become unable to show my video without Zoom crashing. She understood the complication and said it would be alright. We then introduce ourselves to each other and I get asked about my interest in the position. I brought up points such as how I’m mostly used to in-person camera shooting and editing but after seeing this position I was interested to see what it would entail. She told me that’s great and had asked for more information on what I am used to. I bring up the SoHo Memory Project and how that has won a few notable awards along with some other projects that I have worked on in the past. She thinks that this information is fantastic and had asked to see some form of work for what I do. Although this is where I show her my site, this is also the point where I freeze inside.
This whole entire time constructing my resume and website, I had formatted everything to fit the role of a motion designer. I made it my mission to advertise myself as this artist who only focuses on motion design so heavily that I forgot how to properly advertise myself in other focuses. I didn’t have a video reel to show which could have been a potential ice breaker. I showed her a snippet of the SoHo Memory Project and then we continued talking about the position from there. But it bugged me that it took this long into the process to realize that I did not have an accurate reel of work to show for this specific position. I was lucky enough that this did not impose itself as an issue but in the future, it would be best to be 100% prepared even by having other reels of work presented.
After showing Trish some of the work, she told me that everything looked good and that as long as I’m willing to, I could start as soon as possible. I told her that because I’m in an internship class and I am in need of an internship immediately, I was available ASAP. There were just 2 problems:
- This internship was intended to be for Spring 2021. The LinkedIn listing did not specify this but Trish had meant to find a spot for this position early to then properly plan out work later.
- Because the internship was intended for a future semester, it would mean that there may be less work as she would need to construct and have scripts become approved in order to move forward with videos.
Aside from these two issues, she said if I can talk it over with my internship professor, I could still secure this position. I felt pretty confident and happy about the opportunity being presented even if it came with its own risks. But that’s what I’m here for: Taking risks in the name of learning.
We concluded our meeting and I got straight to sending emails to both Trish and our internship professor. It would become a busy week soon after but I felt much more confident in myself and my ability to improve as an intern for Krietzberg Wealth Management.
