How I Landed My 1st Internship With 0 Skills And Then 4 More.
From Zero to Hero (Well, Almost): Networking with a Hint of Awkward Charm!
Ambition Attracts
Recently, I’ve been all in on a book called ‘It’s Not You, It’s Biology’ that explores the science behind love, sex, and relationships. An excerpt from the book states,
“A man is attracted to a woman’s ability to grow a baby inside her. A woman is attracted to a man’s ability to grow a baby outside of him. How does he do that? Resources. ”
Women will always look out for that one alpha male who can provide, or at least has the ambition to. To attain what we men want, we need to go out there and prove our worth. Although the landscape is changing now and the book has extensively studied apes and gorillas, don’t attempt to directly equate our modern culture with theirs, please.
Quite a heavy point I tried making for a dull story ahead. Joking.
Unknowingly, I have been chasing growth internally, which in turn helps me build relationships too—a win-win.
Pandemic-led Networking
With the pretext of focusing on growth, it didn’t matter what I did. I was making YouTube videos, learning how to invest, and also learning the art of flirting from none other than my female friends. On top of all this, COVID hit and hell broke. I did multiple things at once but still had a lot of time at hand. I totally forgot about my entrance exams and kept on learning and watching a lot of movies. This stupendous amount of content that I watched taught me one thing.
Your network is your net worth.
I joined multiple communities on WhatsApp, Discord, and Telegram. Wherever I found resources and people that I resonated with, I was constantly talking to people, learning what problems they had, and was on the receiving end of multiple cracked software, paid courses, and whatnot.
For the next 6 months, I just tried talking to as many people as my bandwidth allowed. I had no purpose in mind, just a genuine urge to speak out whatever I felt was useful.
Mind you, it was not at all forced because the prerequisite to getting into this spiral is to like where you are. If not, have the spirit to explore (buttered version of asking you to start all over again).
I Got it!
You focus on growth and naturally end up on an island of opportunities. Don’t take it for granted; it stirs in that direction not a lot of times.
Similarly, I ended up talking to an HR through the communities I mentioned and kept talking for a while, with no intentions of taking a job but curiously picking her brain, trying to understand what they look for before hiring someone. It was quite an intel for me, but HR found me fit for an internship based on how enthusiastic I was. Back then, it felt like I got it out of luck, but when I think about it today, I was unknowingly working for it.
After that, getting internships got easier pertaining to my experience section getting filled up.
A few quick tips to improve your chances of getting an internship are:
- Talk, talk, and talk. Build your network.
- Be a permission-less apprentice. Don’t ask, just do the work. You’ll always stay ahead of most applicants
- Join cohorts, if possible. You grow fastest with people, not alone.
What Life Has To Say
Life never rewards you linearly. Networking, helping selflessly, and making ‘work your religion’ will yield returns, often in unexpected ways. You can never predict when and where these opportunities will arise, so be patient.
Also, we are often unaware of where the lever of luck lies. But from personal experience, I can say it favors the hardworking.
With everything said, one thing that stays intact is having the intention to outgrow yourself every day.
Stay true to yourself and be ambitious, whether it’s to attract women or for your own sake dammit.
