I'm Frustrated.

*in·tern·ship

 /ˈinˌtərnˌSHip/

noun

noun: internship; plural noun: internships

1  the position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification.

2  "They encouraged students to apply for newspaper internships"


Source: Dictionary.com

*Millennial: A person born between 1981-1996

   I’m frustrated and honestly, I’m angry.

   While Millennials* make up about half of the work force, the unemployment rate among them is a staggering 12.8%, according to Forbes. I’m starting to understand why.

   I’ve been applying for Internships for almost a year now. I’ve applied for internships that I’m over qualified for, under qualified for, and everything in-between. It has been proven impossible to get what I’ve mistaken as a “simple” internship.

  I’ve found unpaid internship positions requiring one year worth of work experience. I’m sorry, but isn’t the purpose of an internship to gain work experience? Or am I (and the definition of internship*) wrong?

  On top of the already highly competitive work field, and impossible standards- I recently learned that many companies use an automated hiring process. That means: if your resume doesn’t have the keywords they’re looking for, it’s rejected before someone even looks at it.

And THAT is why I’m angry. I will accept the competitive playing field, but keyword cuts without any other consideration? The World Wide Web has presented us with many advantages in life, but it seems to have brought equal disadvantages too. Almost all applications are online now. There is no more face-to-face, nice to meet you, see I’m a real person, first impressions. There is only online entity and your resume. We’re not done yet though! Lets add more layers to this towering cake. I used the phrase: “World Wide Web” for a reason. Why? Because THAT’S whom you’re competing against, anyone else on the planet with access to the same site you were at. Which makes me understand the keyword process because how else is HR supposed to siphon through all those applications? (Don't mistake my comprehension of 'why' for understanding because I strongly believe that is not fair.)

  One of my friends shared a meme on Facebook (I’ll leave it below). I shared it, and got a few comments, and text messages from other frustrated Millennials who can’t seem to claw their way into the work field. That hurt my heart to see just how impossible it has been for not just my peers, but my friends too.

  Back in May I applied for an internship that I swore I was going to get. I felt like the perfect fit, I hit every qualification they had, I already had multiple ideas for their socials, and I even wrote a mock- blog for them as an example of the type of writing I would do for their company. (Managing their blog was part of the intern duties.) I practiced interview questions, I had Instagram influencers willing and ready to partner with the company for exposure, and I memorized their company morals and locations. I didn’t even get an interview. To say I felt defeated is an understatement. I had done everything I could possibly imagine. I did my absolute best, and then some. I was absolutely crushed. Even though my ego was crushed, I kept applying to other places. I even got help re-working and updating my resume, and still nothing. My best wasn’t good enough then, and it doesn’t seem good enough now.

 “It’s all about who you know.” Networking is important, but what happened to opportunity? Did we really use all that up on the Baby Boomers?

How do you get yourself back on the path of positivity? Are you having or did you have the same struggles? How’d you over come it?