"Thank you for your interest in Convoy. We've made the decision to not move forward at this time. We will reach out in the future if a position opens up that may be a better fit."
-Convoy, 2018

I've been told that opening an essay with a memorable quote is a good way to grab the reader's attention. Well, this gem (and many variations of it) showed up in my inbox last semester. It was nearing the end of the internship hunting season, and I was getting nervous. Computer science majors were supposed to be in high demand, right?

Then I found a listing for IES abroad on FrogJobs. IES is a study abroad company with sites all over the world. They had an internship program in Berlin. The concept was simple: you apply to their program, they match you with an internship in Berlin. You don't have to mess with visas, job searching, finding a place to live, etc. They take care of all the dirty work.

Cool beans. This could work. Except the deadline was less than a week away. And I needed to submit 5+ different documents with lots of signatures.

Cue me running around like a decapitated chicken getting professors to sign off on all my stuff. The study abroad office (oh no, go to the career center). The career center (we can't sign that here). The dean of computer science (yeah okay I like you I'll sign). My academic advisor (oh no she's not in her office). The department chair (technically not supposed to be signing anything but he was there and cooperative).

I scanned in my documents and held my breath. I almost didn't want to be accepted. Going to Berlin was kind of terrifying. I sort of bothered everyone within a 3-mile radius of me with worry about it. Sorry.

At last, I got an email from IES. It looked like I was going to Berlin.

The specific company I'll be working for is called Forexfix. They're a small startup dealing with currency exchange. Through Forexfix, a company can schedule a cross-currency payment in advance for a date when the rates are better. A lot of what they do involves computer programs that calculate exhange rates and keeps track of orders. I'm not sure the exact projects I'll be working on, but I know I'll be writing a lot of Javascript and Angular. Should be an adventure!!