Seeking my dream job

All our dreams can come true,
if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney

We all have those dream jobs. The ones we think we could never have in a million years that we ponder on as teenagers or young college students.

At the top of my list would have to be a job where I get to write, photograph and travel and it's all paid for. Another one of those top-of-the-list jobs would be working with CNN.

Fingers crossed, that might actually happen for me. Last month, I applied for a CNN summer internship. It's not paid or anything, but it's CNN. That alone would pay for itself later on. It could lead to a job in the company or probably open the doors to other jobs.

To me, a job with CNN (or even certain other reputable news organizations like it) would be like the best thing for a journalist. After all, they are "the most trusted name in news."

So, last week, I had my first interview. To be honest, I was really nervous. See, my future plans are rather vague. I'm still not sure what I'm doing when I graduate. Part of the reason I haven't decided is that I don't feel particularly drawn to anything. When I think about these different options, I don't feel sold to any of them.

But CNN is a different story. I was nervous when I got the email telling me to pick a time. I was nervous before the interview. It was phone interview, which I learned in Dr. Mike's class is one of the best because you can "cheat," as he says. I tried to prepare and get all the possible paperwork together.

Mainly, I was trying to calm myself down so I wouldn't have a panic attack or pass out or anything when the phone rang. I even took a walk before, just so I could gain some peace and enjoy the beautiful day a little bit.

During the interview, I realized two things. First of all, you can never be fully prepared for everything a prospective employer will ask.

Secondly, no matter how unprepared you may feel, you are never as unprepared as you think. This seems a little ironic, as these are somewhat contradictory statements, but they're both true. Some of those questions caught me completely off-guard. Then there were some that I kept waiting for and never got asked.

I may or may not have gotten the job. I'm not sure yet, there's going to be at least another round of interviews. However, all in all, I felt that it went fairly well. I can't make any guarantees about it because, well, you can't guarantee anything, but I feel almost confident. I know that I did the best I could have.

Sure, there were things I probably should have said to him or ways I could have prepared more, but I didn't do it then and there's nothing I can do about it now. Hopefully it works out, keep my fingers crossed, but either way it was a great opportunity and good practice for a job interview.

Here's hoping it was more.