Kicking myself over Katie Couric

If you’re a college student, you’ve been there - an internship interview. I had one a couple months ago over the phone with CBS News. I had applied to their internship program in NYC a few days prior to receiving a phone call from their intern coordinator.

Although I’ve secured a great internship at KCCI-TV this summer in Des Moines, I’ll share with you what ended up (probably) causing the demise of my possible internship with CBS in New York:

I was, at random, asked three different questions by the coordinator:

  1. Who is the U.S. Secretary of the State?
  2. Describe President Obama's family
  3. Who is the anchor of the CBS Evening News?
Apparently, I was spacing off during the transition between administrations and never noticed that Hillary Clinton had become the U.S. Secretary of State. And during that transition, I didn't catch the names of Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia. Finally, in a final blow to my self-confidence, I didn't know (or remember, at least) that Katie Couric was the anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Seriously?!? How does someone not know the answers to those three simple questions.

The Lesson to be Learned: No matter where you’re applying, make sure you’ve got a solid grip on who is running our country and what the current political issues are. More importantly, make sure you know the names of the people running the business for which you’re applying.

I’m really looking forward to KCCI this summer, but maybe after I brush up on my U.S. political knowledge (and watch prime time CBS television), I’ll get another shot at being a CBS news intern.

I’ll leave you with a Katie Couric clip discussing unpaid internships (which inspired be to write this post). Enjoy.

Believe