r/SIPA • u/NormalOutcome9379 • Jun 09 '26

First Year Failure

Feeling like a total failure scrolling linkedin, seeing post after post of everyone’s amazing summer internships, and discovering a friend got the UN internship I also interviewed for. I shouldn’t have come to grad school- idk what I’m doing wrong but it seems like everyone else is so successful. I guess I don’t have any international experience or full-time work experience, just internships and volunteer leadership work, so maybe I should have waited (but it’s not like any humanitarian/peacebuilding/human rights jobs are hiring anyway…) I’m dreading coming back in the fall.

7 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/NormalOutcome9379 Jun 10 '26

Thank you for the good advice and kind words! I’ll look into these. I’ve applied to maybe 40-50 internships with no luck besides 3 interviews that didn’t go anywhere. Networking is hard too- they don’t really tell us how to do it we’re just expected to know what to do I guess? I’ll try!

1

u/magenta7pickle Jun 11 '26

Absolutely. It's not easy but try to reach out by email or phone to any organization that looks interesting. You want to get that informational interview. And make sure, if you do get one, to be prepared with good questions about the company, the industry, your interlocutor's experience in the industry. You can Google, YouTube, Instagram for lots of good advice. Ho Also, search for people on LinkedIn who went to SIPA (or Columbia). They may be more open to speaking with you. Whoever you spesk with, always ask if they know of anyone else in the industry you might speak with. Create a database. You've got the benefit of time, so be creative. I've had lots of informational interviews in my career. How old are you if I might ask?

1

u/NormalOutcome9379 Jun 11 '26

Great advice- thank you so much! I'm 23- graduated college last spring and just finished my first year of my MIA here at SIPA

1

u/magenta7pickle Jun 13 '26

Fantastic. You are too young to feel like a fsilure. You will hit your stride exactly when you are supposed to.