First job/internship
We all have been there, we all have been through it, and you will too 💪. We all, as humans beings, need to conquer the very first job/internship from our lives. We might have different personal motives to accomplish this personal milestone. Moreover the end of this goal may shift from one another. For example:
- You might need this job to validate yourself to someone. That someone could be your parent, someone you love or yourself 💕
- You could be in need for a job for your own survival.
- You may have the passion for doing that job.
- You may want to help others by doing so.
Arming up for the battle 🛠
Having stated some examples of job motivation, now you need to root for it. You have to apply for that job and present yourself. You will have to define yourself and state your strengths. Trust me we all have them. If you don’t see them yourself ask anyone in your social circle 😀
The best way to prepare yourself for this moment is to be able to answer the following question: Why? Why do you want or need to have that job. Is it because the job aligns with who you are? Is it because you want to learn how to do that job?
Could also be the rewards from the job which are appealing to you. The rewards can be economic 💰, moral, new experiences and a whole lot of other reasons. The main point here is that you have to stand your ground if someone ask you why you are working there. You have to be contented and thrilled if someone asks you about what you do for a living.
Now that the reason is crystal clear, you will need to study which projects or tasks does that job implies. Research 📚 how is the recent history of that specific job and who you will be working with. Its better if you have an idea what kind of tasks you will be in charge of.
You will face tough questions and mostly blunt assumptions about yourself. The best way to surpass this might be to expose your vulnerabilities 🎯. We trust people who fail, who seems approachable, who isn’t afraid to show themselves as how they truly are.
All humans make mistakes. If they expect a perfect employee wish them luck hiring a robot 🤖. We as humans do not trust people who seem flawless, we don’t empathize with people who are idealized.
You will succeed on your first try for that job application 🙌 or you will learn a valuable experience 😎. Bear in mind you have to enjoy your journey, there will be ups and there will be downs. Although we have to always learn from our experiences 🙂
Now what? 😅
Congratulations! 🎉 You made it 🏁
But wait… Now you will have even more questions than before 😅
After being relieved from the main question you had before: will they choose me? now you will face now lots of questions❓ about your new journey.
We can imagine the most important one: will I be able to do it? will I be able to keep up the expectations?
In the previous section I wrote about vulnerability and failure so lets dive more into this. Lets talk about some feeling you might have as you do that job. We will get to know a syndrome which you might have felt previously. Because you are not the only one, and furthermore you will not be the last one by far.
Impostor syndrome
There are a lot of resources regarding this topic. I will leave some of them at the bottom of this post. The first time this syndrome was studied was in a group of female college students by Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes (research paper).
Lets define the impostor syndrome as an individual feeling. This feeling can unravel other kind of deep feelings but that might be a good idea to tackle them with some help from 👨⚕️👩⚕️🏥
Impostor syndrome is a individual feeling, but at the same time, it impacts the whole world society. We all have felt it someway at any time span throughout our lives. Its a feeling you suffer when you expect some outside input from something you provide. What you expose could be anything, from some document your superior asked you to your mom asking you to take care of some household errands.
This feeling is living from time to time inside of us and will show in different shapes. A good way to tackle this feeling is listening to other peoples experiences. Being able to empathize with others and get to know their vulnerabilities will help our own impostor syndrome. Its hard to think the cure for the impostor syndrome is to talk about it among your environment.
Hope you can find the courage to speak about with your social environment 💪
If you scored that first job speak about it. If you didn’t get it, moreover, speak about it. Make visible the struggles 🤕 from your experiences, break the chain ⛓ of flawless people. Who by the way… don’t exist 🤣
For instance I failed A LOT until I found something I really enjoyed 😅