More on City of Bend internship as well as a new possibility

I have an overall positive feeling about how my internship with the City of Bend will turn out. I find all of the projects that Brian pitched to me genuinely interesting. I am already getting a much better sense of how local level planning intersects with the interests and requirements of the statement. I also was reminded of how important the professional interaction component of this internship is to me. On the second day I was largely left to my own devices in my cubicle and had a hard time not getting discouraged. I want to meet other people, make contacts and get the bits and pieces of wisdom that I can glean from conversations with those that have been in the business for awhile. Above all, I want my experience here to either lead me to a connection that helps me get a job or else gives me something positive to point to on my resume in a future interview.

A few days ago I received a mass email from Ethan Seltzer about a Port of Portland internship. Not only is it with the Port, which would be an awesome place to work, but it was a Transportation Planning Intern. I got pretty excited until I saw the part where they said that they wanted somebody that wasn't graduating in Spring 2012. This didn't make a whole lot of sense to me because the only people that it applied to were incoming MURPs, people that haven't even started a day of classes at Portland State.

I emailed an HR rep and she gave me contradictory information:

Our intern programs are typically run 12 months. In order to be eligible for our internship program, you must be enrolled in school at least part-time for the duration. You cannot graduate before the duration of the internship is over – which would typically be 12 months from your hire date. If you graduate during spring term 2012 you will not be eligible to finish your internship after your graduation date, therefore spring 2012 graduates will not be eligible for this internship unless you have already enrolled in a master’s program.

However, this internship is unlike more of our programs. It is only budgeted for a certain number of hours – most likely lasting 6-8 months. You are eligible to apply.

Please feel free to call me with any further questions. It looks more confusing on paper than it really is.

For starters, it would almost appear that her grasp of the English language is rather tenuous, but more importantly it didn't send me a consistent message as to my eligibility. I am going to go ahead and apply and leave information on the specifics of when I graduate out. I'll note that I am slated to graduate in 2012, but not denote that it's June. Shoot, if it's the difference between me getting this or not I can just push off graduating until the end of the summer.

Of course this gives me not such a kind thought: perhaps some of my competition will not bother to apply because of this confusion. The potential trip up for me is when it is that they would want me to start if I got it. My current gig started so late in the summer that I can't in good conscience leave it prior to the middle of September. The deadline for Port of Portland is August 5. They are a large, most likely bureaucratic organization, so there is a chance that by the time I they reviewed the applications, interviewed applicants and made a decision that it might be well into September.

If this didn't work out because of the reasons I stated above or else because I don't even get an interview (trying to forget about Metro), then all hope is not lost. There will still be other opportunities that come up as the school year gets closer to starting.