Interview Marathon

Last week began my "Internship Interview Marathon" lasting 4 weeks in January! :) In hopes of getting a placement in the ever-increasingly-competitive world of psychology internships, I applied nationwide, and was grateful to receive invitations to eight interviews; unfortunately, only one was in California (which meant a lot of scrambling to coordinate and organize my travel schedule). Things somehow all worked out (which I defined as not having 2 sites that wanted me in different cities on the same day!) and although it wasn't always the cheapest option, I was able to arrange transportation from city-to-city in such a way that I *hopefully* won't miss any interviews (the big caveat being weather; and almost all of my interviews are either in cities/ or connecting through cities where a snowstorm could potentially mess up my carefully planned schedule!)

All this being said, I successfully survived week #1 of my interview-marathon (interviews 1 and 2)! I woke early on the Monday morning (well, the middle of the night really) and headed to the airport for a 6am flight... managed to make it in/out of Chicago O'Hare airport [Side note: ORD and I go *way* back... I've spent at least 3 nights in that airport in my life, including the night before my Auntie's wedding (I got ready for the wedding in the airport bathroom, yeah, that was an adventure!) but I digress...] Thankfully there were no weather delays and I made it to New York and navigated the shuttle services & found my hotel in Manhattan.... My interview at the Manhattan VA was on Tuesday morning (all of my interviews are with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs) and I even had time to get lunch & relax for a couple minutes, thanks to the hotel's flexibility with a late check-out time!

That same afternoon, I headed back to the airport, as my second interview was the very next day-- in Los Angeles! My connecting flight went through Denver (another risky-weather city, but with much less of a conditioned fear response!) and arrived at LAX around 11pm (that was a rough day... woke up at 6am eastern time, and went to sleep around midnight pacific time.... yuck!) Thankfully, my interview at the Downtown Los Angeles VA wasn't until Wednesday afternoon, so I slept in (all the way 'till 8:30!) and had some time to prepare for that interview before making the short drive. Both interviews went fairly well, and I was able to notice some of the more subtle, but important, differences in the sites (like how happy vs. frazzled the current interns appeared, how satisfied the staff appeared, and the interpersonal-interactions between the staff/interns, etc.)

The rest of the week I only had my "regular" things to do, which includes working at my practicum site- another VA- on Thursday and Fridays. I had a moment of panic/confusion when I arrived to work Friday morning, and was met by 2 students in suits at the elevator looking nervous/stressed... they were there for interviews! (the feeling was similar to the dreams in which you show up for the first day of school without any clothes... "wait, I'm not wearing my suit, oh noooo!" ) Of course, it didn't help that I recognized one of the people, but couldn't recall how I knew his face... then it dawned on me- we had interviewed together on Wednesday! :)

Tomorrow begins Week #2, otherwise known as the "Ohio leg" of my journey (interviews 3 and 4)! I'm looking forward to a quick visit with my aunt/cousins while there, and am really excited to learn more about one of the Ohio sites as I've heard great things so far.... fingers crossed that the weather cooperates, both with flights and the driving I will be doing....

Ready or not, here comes week #2!