The mtvU Journals: The Fellowship

Introduction

I first heard of the mtvU Fellowship program last year. I applied then, along with a bunch of other video game related internships. Although I never heard anything from mtvU, I luckily found another great opportunity. When the Fellowship came across my inbox again, I decided to give it one more try for my last summer of internships. This was in the spring before I even found out my game, snagu, won the mtvU/Cisco Digital Incubator Grant, which I talked about in The mtv Journals: The Proposal.

When snagu won the grant, I got a chance to speak with some of the people involved in the Fellowship and asked them for some inside assistance. They were all smiles and said they would “see what they could do.”

I hadn’t heard from them when classes ended, which put me into an anxious mood. I started applying to internships at companies in the area that had an involvement in gaming, and was having a hard time finding one in New York City, even though I had a solid resume with some great video game related experience. I got some friends involved in my job search, asking if they knew of anything else I could apply to. One of my friends sent it to his mom, who turned out to be very helpful, but it ultimately did not lead to any jobs. The summer was starting; I got back to New York from E3 and visiting my family in Los Angeles, and still had no offers. When I finally got an email asking if I was available for an interview, I felt a huge load had been lifted as I entered into the second phase.

 The Interview and Offer

The interview was pretty typical—I met with the head of the group to discuss my thoughts on gaming, and explained a little about me, my education, and experience. I even got to talk about snagu—he didn’t know much about it, other than that it won the grant, and it was some sort of cell phone game. So after going over the game a little, and just chatting, the interview was over and I was on my way home with the customary: “We will call you Wednesday to let you know.”

I remember waiting all day Wednesday to hear from them. I hoped they would get back to me pretty early, but I didn’t get the phone call until 6:30. The woman I spoke to told me that I got the job. Not only that, but much to my surprise, I was also a finalist last year. I was set to start on Monday, and had to come for orientation with the rest of the interns. Luckily for me one of the other fellows was a friend from my graduate program. But as we quickly found out, I would be working in Times Square with MTVN, while he would be a block from school, and working for mtvU.