February 06, 2017
In front of the narrow Spectator building, I pressed #11 and, after two rings, heard a disembodied voice go “Yeah. This is Spec.”
I said something stupid to the degree of “Uhh, this is a trainee”. Then I walked up the 3 flights up stairs to Spectator’s Super Bowl LI watch party. Walking into the main congregation space (I have no clue what it is called… projector room?) I saw a table of laptopping Speccies (Spectator people?) working on all sorts of things while waiting for the Super Bowl stream (probably found off Reddit) to come up. Recognizing a fellow trainee, I promptly took the space to his right on the couch. In truth, I didn’t plan on staying long. My clothes were in the dryer and I thought I’d stop by to show some appreciation for being invited. It was kind of awkward, being a newbie surrounded by a roomful of people hard at work. It was also kind of strange considering how few trainees actually showed up (boy am I a complainer). However, I was already there. As such, I sat around and talked to people who I hoped would become a big part of my Columbia life.
In some places, blood and sweat seem to be the emphasis. Some extracurriculars ask you to push your limits in regards to physical and mental exertion. As an actor last semester, I suppose I was expected to find some method to learn my lines, learn the dance, become the character. However, something about Spectator seems to suggest blood and sweat are to be expected. I recall the publisher’s little summary of his talk on expectations. In short, mediocrity would not be accepted. To me, thats a firm statement blood and sweat are the base line. What’s being poured out in that building, even more worrisome than the sweat and blood, is the gross excess of time.
Relevant image which I’m not too sure I’m allowed to share.
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Just about a week ago, I had nothing to do with Spec(tator).
The first application, submitted in the early hours of Saturday morning, was all sorts of rough. I was pretty sure I wrote junk but my schedule was looking pretty bad and I couldn’t afford to spend anything more than a quarter of an hour on that nightmare. I was mostly frightened by my 150 word responses to the 500 word paragraphs they expected… whoops.
The open house, which I went to a day after, was pretty cool. There was a nice talk on mobile apps, web apps, the front end, the back end, the works. What I remembered best was asking the head of web apps a stupid question. No regrets?
After that open house, two days later, I got a notification that I got accepted to the first round of interviews. I set up a 15 minute slot two days later and I forgot about it.
Thank goodness I had a phone alarm set, or I would have completely slept through it.
I went to my interview completely and utterly sleep deprived. I drank a venti americano before stepping foot on the Spec’s block. I drank another coffee afterwards to calm my nerves.
The second interview was such an ordeal, I won’t speak of it. We had obscenely difficult questions, a group interview, and a written test…
But on the bright side, I’m now part of SpecTech, the part of the Spectator that makes cool tech stuff related to the Spectator.
Phew. I feel like I breezed over that, but I really didn’t plan on going too in depth on the application process. However, I hope someday, it will serve as some assurance to some future Spec applicant.