An Internship Experience: My Journey to the SEO Africa Careers Programme
Before anything else, let me establish that this was the first time I had to write a cover letter for an internship. It was also through this that I had my very first professional interview.
Now, let’s get to it!
I started the application process, but I wasn’t sure I was going to complete it, so I was relaxed in finishing up.
One of the requirements on the application form was a reference from a professor or university official. Well, because I had no intentions of completing the application process, I didn’t request for my lecturer’s details earlier. I waited for the last week before I sent her an email.
I received no response some days after sending the email so I sent her a text on WhatsApp (this too was unattended to). I figured she was not online, but I couldn’t muster the courage to call her.
Anyways, she replied the WhatsApp message the day I was expected to submit the form. She requested that I resend the mail, which I did. Unfortunately, she did not reply immediately.
So what did I do?
I submitted the form without the reference at 11:12pm (deadline was 11:30pm) because I had already added one professional reference.
I woke up the next morning with hopes of not receiving any mail from her, because after all, I had already submitted the application form. But lo and behold, there lied an email from my lecturer. She replied and gave me her details for the reference, and she apologized for not replying on time.
I bet you can imagine how I felt. I was very sad when I saw it because I had already submitted it. All I could do was to keep it for future purposes.
Anyways, my application was successful (without the second reference), and I made it to the interview. Unfortunately, my journey to the SEO Africa Careers Programme was cut short as I could not make it to the next stage of the process. Nonetheless, I’m glad I applied and gained some experience from the application through to the interview.
You can read about SEO Africa and their internship programmes here: https://www.seo-africa.org/.
Why I decided to publish this.
Earlier this year, I highlighted and commented on a section of Medium Creators’ story on “What Are You Going to Write This Year?”. So as part of me fulfilling what I said, I decided to get this from my notes, make some changes, and publish.
