Saturday, July 24, 2010

Pariticipating in the scramble: time is of the essence.

Not only should you prepare for the scramble by gathering the materials you'll need, you can also prepare by knowing what may take place on the day of. In particular, you'll want to be aware of time in relation to your time zone and when D&D Digital publishes the list of internships with openings.

The scramble doesn't start when you wake up in the morning on the day the list is released. It starts as soon as matches are announced. Those internship programs that did not fill all their spots may begin sending notifications out to undergraduate program directors right away, letting them know that spots are open. If your program director doesn't send out e-mails to students regularly, or if you have already graduated and no longer receive such e-mails, get in contact with him/her and ask to have it passed along to you if he/she is informed by any programs that they have openings. The sooner you know about some of the programs with openings, the sooner you can start researching them and decide whether or not you will want to apply come scramble day.

Another key time is midnight, in D&D Digital's time zone, on the day of the scramble. This is when the list of internship programs with open spots is released. While you may not want to be sending out applications at this point in time, if it's not too late in your time zone this is a good opportunity to begin looking at the open programs. The sooner you can start looking at programs the sooner you can begin deciding which you may want to send applications to, and which you want to rule out.

Though you may want to check out D&D Digital's list of programs with openings at midnight, you should also plan to wake up early. Getting some rest and waking up early, rather than staying up all night, may help you feel more alert, and better able to make good decisions.

The morning of the scramble is a key time to consider what time zone you are in. This is because some programs look at applications in the order they receive them, and once they have found enough qualified applicants, they may stop looking at any more applications. If you're on the east coast this is to your advantage, but if you're on the west coast it may be a disadvantage. This is where people who live on the west coast may benefit from reviewing open programs the night before, so that they won't be missing out on valuable time because of the time difference.

Because some internships look at applications in the order they receive them, prioritize sending applications out based on where you would most like to be accepted. If a program is your first choice of the ones that are open, work on customizing your generic e-mail that I talked about in yesterday's post for their program first. Sending out a generic e-mail to every open program will likely be less effective than sending a personalized one to the programs you feel are the most desirable. So plan for time to personalize e-mails after researching the open programs.

Preparing materials and planning your time can help you be more successful in the scramble. Be prepared to dedicate as much time as you have available, as doing so may increase your chances of successfully gaining an open internship spot.

Source(s): D & D Digital. (2007). D & d digital. Retrieved from http://www.dnddigital.com/

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