Reviewing Applications

A few weeks ago we (the interns and I) were informed that we would be reviewing applications for the same internship we are currently in. The unpaid internship is for juniors and seniors at the U of I majoring in Marketing or Advertising. On monday the applications began flowing in, and it is our job to look them over and decide who gets an interview. We first begin reading their cover letter, which is a full page of anything they would like to say about themselves in order to help them acquire the internship. While a great deal of the letter were unique and expressive, far too many of them were plain and blended in with the others. The next step (and arguably the most important) is the resume. For one, everyone's resume greatly resembled the ones Mrs. Sherrick taught us, so I am very thankful I had some help in creating mine. As for the applicant's resumes, we looked for experience in marketing and advertising jobs. The ones who were approved usually had experience at advertising firms such as Starcom or Leo Burnett. However some had GPAs under 3.0 and unrelated majors such as "recreation, sport, and tourism" (I was unaware a major this abstract), and these applicants were placed in the "no" category.

Reveiwing applications for this internship was something I thought I would never be doing. I can't imagine what the college students would think if they knew a high school student was assisting in their application review.