Brief Life Update No. 20: Summer, and Interview Internships, In the City

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. - I had two more internship interviews in New York today, both with small companies and both related more to film/TV than copy editing. One was with Departure Films, a company that produces reality shows for networks like A&E, Court TV and HGTV. Supposedly I would be mostly helping out with production and post-production there: reviewing tapes, transcribing TV episodes, and probably some administrative stuff. The other was with a woman who works behind the scenes at the Margaret Mead Film/Video Festival at the American Museum of Natural History. It's a documentary festival that runs sometime in November, and I would most likely not only be doing administrative duties there. I would also do some work in public outreach to promote special events at the museum---meaning I would help make and put up flyers and contact universities, organizations and such to try to get the word out on things happening at the museum.

Why these two organizations? Just because they look interesting and fun to me, really---not in the service of some larger copy-editing plan.

I think both interviews went fairly well, although the first one was over pretty quickly---not bad in and of itself, but I felt a little like I wasn't as successful at saying all I wanted to say about myself when I left. I think I was a bit more successful in that regard in the second interview, but...well, let's put it this way: if I don't get it, I don't necessarily think I'll be dwelling too much on that fact. Still, the Departure Films interview was tantalizing in one respect: when I asked the ladies over there about the possibility of compensation for travel, they said that they would be willing to compensate for both travel and lunch. That actually got me rather excited about the possibility of working there---the possibility of being reimbursed for travel expenses and thus getting back all the money I would spend traveling to New York City---even if I end up doing mostly grunt work. As long as I'm in the city, I'd be happy.

Can you tell that I love New York City very much?

Not much to love about being in the city today, however. Last night a storm hit---I heard the thunder loud and clear last night---and somehow it left MTA subway lines all out of kilter. Many lines were down, and people were waiting longer than usual for train rides. And have some of you been in NYC subways during the summer---especially on a day as hot and muggy as today (I think the high hit 95°, with a heat index of about 102° with the humidity added in)? Ugh! It was worse for me, in my long-sleeve white dress shirt with a shirt underneath and black dress pants. At one point in my day, I waited about half an hour for a local A train to come. Luckily, I made it early to both of my interviews today, but the experience of riding MTA was...well, interesting, to put it mildly.

I wonder if all that effort will end up being all for nought, though: as I was heading back to New Jersey, I got a call from someone at Human Resources at Dow Jones, saying they wanted to set up a second interview with me about working part-time there in the fall. Maybe a sign that I'm close to working there again in the fall?

We'll see. Meanwhile, the internship search continues...