I'd count the time I was in airports and on airplanes, but it would make me sad. I officially went to four cities, for four interviews (which means four hotels, each a different chain). I actually interviewed 13 different times, each time for a half hour. Sometimes these were each for separate sites; three of these were for the same site; one was with the director overseeing a group of sites. From those interviews I have 10 prospective internship sites.
So that's the numbers. It was a fun, if not exhausting, week and a half. I went to four different parts of the country. Three cities, and geographic areas, were completely new to me. I saw the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. I ate regional cuisine- crawfish etoufee in New Orleans, rockfish in Virginia Beach, and steak in Omaha (I have no idea what would have been considered regional cuisine in central Illinois...). I also was lucky to have one city that friends had moved to, so I was able to see how I could make that city work for my personality and lifestyle. It was almost a vacation, except I didn't have time to see most of the sights in the cities that I wanted to see because I was spending my days in pesky interviews. It was more like a vacation sampler- a taste of many places, just enough to get the feel for them. Each city has its advantages. Bloomington, Illinois is a pretty generic mid-sized college town, similar to where I am now. It is within driving distance from cities that I have always wanted to see, like Chicago and St. Louis. I also interviewed for internships in rural towns nearby, as well as ones in Chicago. New Orleans is a city I have visited before and love. It has a culture all its own, and I always have a wonderful time there. Of course, working there would be very different, but the culture is still there. Virginia Beach has, of course, a wonderful beach. It has just enough of an urban feel to be lively, and with larger cities nearby and a large military presence, it is the best mix of beach life and city living I have seen. Omaha is big city living surrounded by lots of corn :) It has a great downtown area with shops, restaurants, and galleries. I didn't expect a city like that in the middle of the country. And yes, it's cold.
So those are the places I could live next year. Of course, the internship sites matter too. I had great interviews everywhere. Each site, though, offers something different. I won't bore those who aren't in my field, but ultimately I have to figure out what experiences I most want from my internship year and which site will give me the best training. It's a harder decision than it seems.
The next two weeks I finish interviews closer to home. I have a phone interview with a site in Tallahassee, Florida tomorrow. Then I travel three times to the Dallas area and one time to the Houston area. These areas, at least I am familiar with.
After this is done, this is what happens next (for those who I haven't explained it to yet- I looked back and I only briefly explained it in September). I take my list of sites that I interviewed at and I rank them by preference. If there is a site I know I couldn't work for, I can leave them off my list and I won't be placed there. I submit my ranked list online by February 9th. At the same time, each internship site rank lists everyone they interviewed that they are willing to take as an intern. After all lists are submitted, interns and sites are matched together. I don't know exactly how it works, and I know some of it involves computers. I just know that it works, and on February 25th I'll get an email telling me where I will be working next year. It's a unique process, shared by psychology students and medical students. Not the most fun process for sure. Let's just hope it works.
I'll blog again in two weeks with my final thoughts on interviews, and maybe some hints as to what my rankings will look like. For now, a photo from the journey...was too cold to play in the ocean, but at least I could see it from my hotel room!
