Let it be known that it all officially went down on 11-10-2011
a. I officially bought my non-refundable plane ticket to Peru.
b. I officially accepted a Project Manager internship position at LDS IT and Communication
c. My mind is officially blown.
This is really happening. My goals and dreams are now a reality. OH MY GOODNESS. Ok here's the whole story. Feel free to keep reading, but I don't blame you if you don't.... this is going to get kind of lengthy :)
a. See all my other posts about Peru for more info here. the non-refundable tickets were purchased today, so this is a done deal!
b. At the beginning of the semester we had a career fair on campus. I'm a junior and have been getting anxious about getting an internship before I graduate (a requirement for my major). So I attended in hopes to get the ball moving on some sort of internship. Secretly I wanted something super chill in Rexburg so I could stay here for my off-track and kill two birds with one stone. That would have been so easy and so comfortable.
Well, that night I took a shot in the dark and signed up for an interview with LDS Information Technology and Communication. In my mind I had worked up this plan in my mind here's what it consisted of:
I would spend my winter semester in Peru doing Humanitarian work, and then I would come home and spend my spring semester interning for the church. It just seemed so right!
Well, a couple hours before my interview I had a total melt down! I had told a few people about my plan to interview for this department of the church and they all asked,
"Uhhh do you know anything about Information Technology?" My answer was of course no, and I began to feel so inadequate and so under-qualified. I even got on the computer and logged onto the website where I signed up for the interview and came THIS CLOSE to cancelling it. I was so discouraged!
Well after a chat with my dear mom, I decided to go for it anyways and give it all I got. So I did. The interview went well, I applied for a Human Resource internship, something I'm very interested in. Towards the end of the interview I was told that they'd like to interview me further for this position, but I had to understand that this was a one-year internship. I'd have to leave school for one whole year. ONE YEAR! That didn't feel right to me, so I asked if there was another position I could apply for. He told me to think about my decision for a few days and to let him know if I'd like to continue on with the interview process for human resource. He then directed me to the man in charge of interviewing for
project, product and process management (at the time I had no idea what any of that meant :) So I did another interview right then for those internship positions.
I left the interviews feeling ok, but not very hopeful. It was a good experience, but I realized how under qualified I was. Two weeks later I received a phone call from the church's hiring department. They told me that they had two hiring managers who each wanted a follow-up telephone interview with me. So I set them both up and interviewed for them later that week. Holla
The first interview was for project management. Let's just say that it was 50 of the most vigorous, intense minutes of my life. When I hung up the phone, I seriously collapsed on my bed out of sheer exhaustion. It was not child's play that's for sure. At the end of the interview I was told that he was very confident in my communication skills and how well I handled the stressful situations he put me in (we did a simulation) without letting emotion get in the way. He just worried about how little I knew about computer information technology. So he said he'd give me the next two weeks to learn as much as I could about CIT and then he'd call me back and interview me on it. My homework began that night and I have studied my guts out since then!
Five days later I had another interview with the same company, but a different hiring manager. This one was not as intense, and rather enjoyable. He went through my resume (he was impressed :) and we talked about some leadership experiences that I've been in. It was great!
Ten days later,
yesterday, I received the phone call saying that I got the internship. I was seriously speechless when she was explaining things on the phone. I couldn't believe it! I was so overwhelmed and seriously just wanted to cry. I called my pops and told him post haste. My mom squealed :) I had four classes to attend right after that, and I couldn't tell you a single thing that was said in any of them. I was so side tracked. My mind was racing all day long.
So this is it! My dream is coming true! I'm deferring from school for the spring semester (this breaks my heart, but it must be done). I start the week right after I get home from Peru. I will be interning in Riverton, UT as a project manager. I'll be working 40 hours a week and making 2.5 times as much as I do now :)
My heart is so full of gratitude for these amazing experiences. I was so dreading turning 21 next month, but something tells me that this year will be one of the best I could ever imagine.
And since this post is so lengthy, I'll leave you a picture that's worth 1000 words:
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| This is me and my goober-FHE brothers. How I love them! |
Thanks for listening :)
Love, Noelle
By Thursday morning we had gutted most of the house and got to work on scrubbing and sanding cupboards. We also started painting all the rooms. 
