Program Manager Intern,Customer Experience Team,Expedia,Bellevue, WA --- The Journey

Thats a really long description of what I am actually going to be in the Summer of 2006 in my Internship. Well lets start from scratch.

I have been hunting for internships since a long time. The earliest I can remember is Jan first week when I started my hunt by spending probably 6 hours on perfecting my resume. Resume is perhaps the first and the only impression that can get your foot in the door of companies looking for interns. So I made my resume had all the right words at the right places that would impress a recruiter. Once through that I started applying online to companies that hire interns for summer. Sooner or later it was a case of brute force attack as it is known in the Computer Security circles. Monster.com, Craigslist were inevitable. I was applying day in and day out. No replies though. March ended and April signalled that Summer was close. Summer course registrations opened in school and I had to register for courses as I was starting to lose hope of anything happening regarding my internships. Slowly but surely my graph of mean daily applications dropped from 10-15 to about 2-3. These were signs of deteriorating inspiration and energy. Life was moving towards another unsuccessful attempt and I was looking ahead towards another semester in school. The same schedule, the assistantship work and all the rest.
And as luck would have it, my brothers employee referral in Expedia, Inc worked and I got an email from their Recruiter about Request for a Phone Interview. That was perhaps the much needed spur of inspiration. Got the email on Thursday, April 13.. I scheduled my interview for Tuesday April 18th giving me enough time to prepare for the interview. Prepared decently by talking to my brother about the expected questions and what kind of replies they expect from bright candidates. Brushed up on my projects in my undergrad and previous semesters in ISU. Tuesday arrived and the interview was scheduled for 1pm. I had been waiting impatiently since 1230pm. No call until 1.15. I started getting kind of even more impatient. Finally I get a call from a number starting 425 - thats Bellevue Washington, the Head Quarters of Expedia in US. I knew this was the chance of my life. A make or break situation. I was a little apprehensive about how the interview would go and the formal way of talking. But suprisingly, the interviewer, a female, was very very polite and sweet and made the interview more a conversation than an interview. She asked me many things about my current projects and past projects. She asked me about my interpersonal skills, conflict management etc. Towards the end, she was talking much much more than me in giving me information about the policies and procedures in Expedia. It was valuable information and more importantly, it was indication that she was enjoying talking to me. The interview lasted 45 mins and it looked like I would get a positive response for the next step. I was told I would hear from the HR by next day about what's next. I had put in my efforts and it was upto HR to decide.
Surprisingly, I heard early the next day that the interviewer enjoyed talking to me and they would like me to visit them for a series of on site interviews. So I arranged my school work and decided to fly April 22, barely 3 days after my phone interview. I was really eager to nail it as soon as possible. I flew out to Seattle on April 22 and had my Interviews scheduled for April 25, Monday. This again gave me time with my brother to brainstorm and prepare for the in-person interviews. Monday arrived with much anticipation and excitement and tinge of nervousness. The interview loop as they call it, was a round of 4 interviews back to back 1 hour each. 10-11, 11-12, 12-1, 1-2pm. This schedule seemed really heavy and intolerable. But the interviews went pretty smooth and we in fact fell short of time at the end. This was a big indication that the interviewers were enjoying talking to me. I was interviewed by officials in all cadres from a Program Manager to Group Program Manager to even the Director of Program Management in Expedia. They were really the cream of Expedia officials. I felt honored to have even got the opportunity to talk to them. It was an invaluable experience. The interviews were wrapped up by 2pm and I left for my brothers apartment feeling pretty confident of my time with them. I appeared in all for 5 interviews ( 1 over the phone and 4 on site) and its surprising and weird that all my interviewers were females and so were my recruiters. That would perhaps, after all, help in explaining why I did so well....The next day I took flight back to ISU for remainder of the Spring semester and submissions etc. I was told I would hear back from HR about how the interview went by the end of the week and their final decision.

By the time I returned home it was Tuesday evening and I was expecting the unexpected. I was ready to take any decision equally merrily although I really wanted it to work out successfully. And then the recruiter's magical email saying she wanted to talk to me in detail over the phone in the evening arrived. She did not tell me if I was selected or not. This added greatly to my impatience. But the very fact that she wanted to talk to me was an indication that I got it. Finally she called me in the evening on April 26 2006 and uttered the magical words, "Congratulations Kedar , We are pleased to select you for the Program Manager Intern position for the Summer of 2006", I hardly heard the next few things she said as I was soaring beyond all imagination. I was literally dancing and jumping around the campus much to the surprise of people around. She spoke about the offer and the other things about the contract. I just said "Yeah Yeah" as I was still beyond my senses. She understood and said "I can imagine how happy you must be , and we are happy for you too." Later she spoke about the compensation during my internship. They offered me much much more than what I was expecting. That threw me into the clouds again. I had barely got back to senses and there I was again soaring high.

My Internship starts May 22 2006 and goes 12 weeks until Aug 11 2006. I will be staying with my brother in Bellevue, Washington barely 10mins from where Expedia North America's Head Quarters are located. I am going to miss school and my friends here. Summer is perhaps the best time to be in ISU and I am going to miss that. But I am glad that I will be missing it for a greater purpose in my career and life.
Here, I would want you guys to know that people underestimate the importance of an internship.Especially for people who want to work in the US after graduation. An internship gives you the much needed corporate exposure in addition to the financial benefits. But perhaps the most important of all benefits of an internship are the prospects of the internship converting to a Full Time job in the same company. The basic purpose of companies hiring Interns and giving so many benefits is conversion to a full time job later on. This is an investment for them and getting a good fresh graduate from school who has already been ramped up to the organisation's policies and work ethics saves them a lot of time and efforts. I hope I do well during my Internship so that they can think of me to be eligible and appropriate for a full time job later on. But thats for later, right now the task ahead of me is to do the best I can in my Internship in Expedia Inc in Bellevue, Washington as a Program Manager Intern in the Customer Experience Team.