By Marit Tegelaar
What did you do this summer? Did you get the paid internship of your choice, or did you gladly accept an internship that didn't pay you but may give your resume a much desired boost? Did you find a job that wasn't all that fun but will at least help you pay for another year of college? Or were you like me, and did you spend most of your break doing absolutely nothing?
Junior year is the time to start thinking about life after college and to get a head start in the job market. Like most upperclassmen at UP, I spent many hours searching and applying for summer internships and jobs. I got rejected over and over because I lacked relevant experience and the desired "leadership skills."
This is what Urban Dictionary has to say about leadership: leadership is "a broad buzzword thrown around so much by every organization everywhere that it has essentially lost all meaning" and "true leadership is actually an exercise in bullsh*tting. The amount of bullsh*t a person can spew back about what leadership truly is, is the best measure of leadership." While you should never consider Urban Dictionary a reliable source for anything, I entirely agree with its definition of leadership.
One of the so called leadership positions available at UP is that of hall receptionist. To have something to say in interviews, I applied to be a hall receptionist in Mehling Hall. I got rejected (I suspect I wasn't perky enough) and so I missed out on another opportunity to use doing homework while getting paid as the leadership position that would set me apart from other internship applicants.
Admit it: we learn absolutely nothing from most of our jobs. In an interview I was asked what leadership skills I acquired while stocking shelves at a Home Depot-like store and flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant in a zoo. I tried my hardest but even presenting myself as the heroine summer employee got me nowhere: "Ehh ... that's it?"
So this year I will again be struggling with the relevant work and leadership experience section on my applications, because I never got the chance to show that while I don't have any actual leadership experience, I can still do a pretty good job and be an asset to the company. My hope is that educational institutions and companies will start to take a closer look at word leadership and realize that the average college student hasn't had the opportunity to learn actual leadership skills, but has shown character and the willingness to work hard by accepting other, not so glamorous jobs. Isn't that worth a whole lot more than the ability to make a fairytale of irrelevant job experience?
