My Professor, Stella Nicolaou, helped me with this internship. She gave me the information on the company, such as the company name, the address, phone, and email. For the first time, I sent email to one of the people in the company, but there weren’t any responses. I told the Professor about this. She immediately gave me another person’s personal email, and she told me that I could try this one. I emailed another person. I got a reply within 1 hour. In the email, the person asked me to send my resume and portfolio to his work email. I sent immediately. Professor also gave me that person’s phone number. I waited for almost 2 hours. In the email, the person asked me to schedule a time for the interview for the next day. I made a time range and let the person to choose the exact time for the interview, so it could be more convenient for the person, and not me. The person chose 10 AM in the morning. I started to prepare for the interview.

I went to the interview in Manhattan. I was 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. I opened the door and immediately saw the interviewer came up to me with his hand ready to shake with my hand, and he said, “Maggie.” Then, he asked me to sit down, and he was sitting the opposite side of me. He started to ask me questions followed by my resume. He just literally did the interview. He just asked me, what skills do I have, what direction am I going for, and the language I speak? After all those questions, he asked me if I have any questions to ask. I asked him, what characteristics that you think graphic designers should have in order to success in his or her ideal job? I already forgot his answer. The last question that he asked me was, when can I start to work? I felt so surprised. He seemed to understand my situation, and he already decided to hire me. For the languages, he asked me do I speak Chinese Cantonese more or Chinese Mandarin more? I felt so surprised, and I said, I speak Chinese Cantonese more, but when I’m home, I speak my home language. Then, he asked me what language do I speak at home? I said Taishanese. He said, he was Taishanese, too. I felt super surprised. Lastly, he asked me, am I free to look at how do their photo-shoot works outside? I said, I am free, so I went with him to look at how they worked. I followed him to the restaurant. I saw the co-workers were waiting for the table set up and started to photo shoot the foods for the restaurants. Others co-workers could take photos of the foods, too. After their photo-shoot, they could eat all the foods. I stayed there for a few hours. Then, I left with them. They were going back to the office, and I went home. This was an unforgettable interview experience.

This is an unpaid internship. For this internship, I have to bring my MAC book with me to work every day. Because of this is a small business, the company did not have a lot of money; interns have to bring their own computers and or cameras to work. My position is Graphic Design Intern which is under the department Graphic and Web Design. My supervisor is Julio Li, and he is a Front-End Web Developer. He is also the department head of Graphic and Web Design Department. Basically, he is the only one that gives work to me. My job is to help him with his design jobs, which include menus, flyers, and maybe a bit of websites. Overall, all works are related to restaurants. Also, sometimes, my supervisor might send me out for photo shooting. I don’t have to photo shoot, but I might have to help the photographers to set up the table and take care of the foods. I also have to help them to eat all the foods because eating the foods is part of my job. I will be doing those works for the entire month.