The standard career trajectory that’s expected in college is internships over the summers, and then by the time of your summer before senior year, you already have a full-time job offer. I worked at my part-time job over the summer between freshman and sophomore year, and now I’m SCRAMBLING for an internship for this coming summer. That’s when I started to take matters into my own hands.Â
I’m the type of person who hates making phone calls to make appointments, call customer service, or literally anything that involves making a call to anyone I don’t know. Which is why the prospect of cold emailing recruiters, alumni, or any professional asking about an internship made me want to puke, but I’ve heard it work, and at that point, I was so desperate that I would do anything. I told myself it is so much easier to email than call, the worst thing they can truly say is no or not respond. I can hide behind my screen and send out emails, so I scoured the TAMU Law School Alumni website and sent about 10 emails out to different lawyers.Â
I got responses from eight of them. I sent the same email to all of them, asking them if it was possible to ask a couple of questions about law school and their careers now. I ended up meeting with five of them, getting all eight LinkedIn connections, and now have a close relationship with one of them. During my meeting with one, he complimented my boldness, saying it “reminded him of a move he would make at this age”. I have received a Christmas card and him saying he would be more than happy to write letters of recommendation for law school. I may not have gotten an internship out of him (RIP), but he said that during law school, he would love to have a place for me at his firm, so there’s that win.Â
Recently, I went to the Economics Career Fair and elevator-pitched probably 20 times. It was exhausting to say the least, but I did end up getting one recruiter’s business card, and I emailed her. I know it wasn’t a cold email, considering I did talk to her in person, but shooting my shot and emailing her asking if she could email my resume to an internship recruiter was scary nonetheless, and she did just that. I’m currently waiting on that email back about whether or not they have internships open this summer (literally emailed her like five days ago, so I must wait), but the overall feeling of putting myself out there got less and less daunting the more I did it.Â
It is probably the most clichĂ© saying, but the more you do it, the less scary it gets. It was so much easier for me to hide behind my screen and send emails than calling and truly, the worst thing they can do is say no, and if they do, you never have to see them in person. I will never see the people I emailed, except for the one who is actually kind of mentoring me. It’s a reassuring comfort for me, someone who hates rejection (because who doesn’t). Shoot your shot (professionally, of course); it can lead to four things: a connection, a mentor, a straight-up no, or a job. Why not at least try?Â