Hello, World!

Hello, my loyal readers! I started this blog in conjunction with American University's Career Center to share my experiences interning at the Department of Justice. I'm working in the Civil Division, in the Office of Consumer Litigation (OCL).

Basically, any United States consumer can submit an inquiry to our office. It is investigated, and if necessary, litigated.

Anyway, let me take a few steps back: how did I find this internship? Finding the internship took some legwork. I used www.studentjobs.gov, selected a number of agencies that I was interested in, and searched the agency websites to find internships. I ended up on the Office of Consumer Litigation internship website, read the instructions, and faxed in my application.

About a week later, I received a call from a blocked phone number. I happened to be away from my phone when the call came through, but when I got my voicemail, I had a message from the Department of Justice asking for a return call to talk about my application!

I got in touch with Justice, and I spoke with soon-to-be-supervisor about the position for about 20 minutes. By the end of the conversation, he offered me a position.

The background check process was fairly intense. I had to list places I've lived and worked and provide references for each, and get fingerprinted. After all that was completed, I was invited for an orientation session where we watched a video about security, and went to the main DOJ building to get my ID badge. At that point, I was ready to begin work! My next post will discuss my first two days at work, so stay tuned!