The never ending internships

A couple of weeks ago I admit I was actually excited when the first of the internships appeared. Designed specifically for out of work graduates and therefore a place where experience is less likely to be a differentiator they were perfect for me. I was told to submit a covering letter and a C.V which I did.

Two weeks later and I have now applied for six different marketing internships all in different guises. Some have attached research, administration, design and P.R. Some are three months long, some are twelve. Some involve working in Southampton, others are as far north as Hook. The thing they all have in common. They are produced by GJS based in the same office in Southampton Solent University.

Can anyone spot a potential issue yet?

Writing a covering letter is time consuming. Most jobs require covering letters to accompany C.Vs so if you have any sense you have templates. After all if you are after jobs in the same industry what you want to say is likely to be very similar. One of the particulars for the internship is what you think it will do for you. Regardless of which internship I end up on, I hope it will do the same thing. The result is I have now attached six virtually identical covering letters and the office that receive them are probably sick of me. The thing is I don't see what else I could have done. An intelligent approach would have been to have one letter explaining why any internship would benefit you and what skills you hope to gain.

I still have not heard from any of the positions yet but if more keep appearing which will provide me with useful skills and carry the coveted "marketing" in the title I will keep applying until the GJS have a small pile of my applications. Yes I prefer some over others but any of them would make a massive difference to me and my chances of forging a career in marketing and therefore I will keep applying.

May the internships never end. Although it would be nice to hear from one or all of them soon.

Compromise

Part of job hunting is compromise. When you first set out to find a job, unless you are especially flexible you set a number of criteria which any potential job has to fill. These may be location based, occupation based, money based or based on an entirely different premise altogether. When I first set out to find a job I wanted a marketing exec position in the south that paid over 15,000.

The money was the first thing to go. After all its less important really. For many Graduates, a salary at all is just numbers and I picked 15,000 as a limit as I thought that was reasonable. Of course clever firms are cutting costs by offering significantly lower salaries because they know how tight the job market is.

Next I cut down to look for any marketing position and soon got a few interviews for marketing research positions. This is turn became any business based position which involved marketing which has led me to apply to some rather odd job titles.

Location cannot be changed. I am tied to a contract in Southampton and dont want to leave what I have here and in a way it limits me as much if not more than the others.

I am fortunate in that I have some savings and therefore do not have to literally take anything. The question is though how far do we have to compromise?

Last week I applied for a purely Admin position, a job description which could be filled my a school leaver and which duties include filing and making tea. I justified applying because it was a year contract and would give me office exeperience.

I think this is where I have chosen to draw the line. I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel with regards to the economic situation and I don't expect the job market to simply pick up. I have therefore ruled out jobs which have absolutely no application to my chosen career in business. I could go and work in a shop but then I am effectively just wasting time. Time which for the moment I can use to hopefully find one break. I am not naive to think that with that first job everything will be exceptionally easy, I do think I will be considered for more positions, and at least the excuse "you have no experience" will not be flung at me.

Incidentally I have an interview for a sales and marketing position with JPA tomorrow. When I originally applied the position was a marketing one, the sales was tagged on later. However I was impressed with the company and the position has marketing in the title. It is after all, all about compromise.