I Turned My Cover Letter Into A Playlist.
I need a job and that’s no secret.
Internship season is about 3-4 months in most junior and senior college kids' lives dedicated to heavy networking, applying to internships, and interviewing in hopes of securing a job for the upcoming summer. It’s a big deal. Summer internships are not only extremely vital to your resume when you want to lock down a full-time job after college with a super cool company that pays well. But also an amazing way to move from home, make new experiences, and ultimately grow in your career and as a person.
Last year I got the opportunity to move from North Carolina to New York. For the first time in my life, I spent a summer away from my family. I was so nervous and scared and I contemplated not doing it a few times. I am glad I didn’t let my nerves get the best of me, it was cool moving to a place where everyone has a dream or hustle that they hold on to so tightly while on the evening subway after a long day of work. My internship allowed me to chase my dream and grow my love for music.
I was sitting on my bed in my Brooklyn apartment listening to beats for hours after I had clocked out of work. Mumbling here and there I would make out a few words or phrases that I felt could make a hook. The more words and phrases I came up with, the more songs I wrote. With me making more of my music I also felt a lot more drive to explore music from other artists. I needed a fresh sound to inspire me and keep me warm when I was missing my family. I started using Spotify a lot.
I fell in love with the radio feature on Spotify. It was the best way for me to find new and revisit old voices that motivated me to dig deeper and work hard on making better music. My summer sounded like a mix of Cleo Sol’s When I’m In Your Arms, Tyler, The Creator’s Lumberjack, Tame Impala’s Borderline and Brent Faiyaz’s Wasting Time.
I am one of those people who completely obsess over any little thing. So you can imagine how obsessed I was with Spotify and its radio feature. I have always been an “album girl.” I love listening to one artist a day. I’ll go through their full discography album by album, story by story. This summer was different. I wanted to be spontaneous. I didn’t so much want the structure, I needed variety. Not just in my music but in everything. I was slowly changing the little parts of my lifestyle, which ultimately birthed new interests. It felt good to start my days with Blood Orange and end them with Pierre Bourne. In between that the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Ye, Queen, Weston Estate, Kelis, and PinkPatheress had also frequently passed through my ears.
Those moments on my Brooklyn rooftop with my air pods in, romanticizing my life helped me fall in love with this streaming platform from the perspective of a listener whose lifestyle is always changing. So like every other insane person I made it a goal to work there. That’s when we fast forward to the present.
Two Fridays ago I applied for Spotify’s Summer 2022 Internship and I turned my cover letter into a playlist because…duh!
Hopefully, they hire me, but we shall see.
No matter the outcome I still really enjoyed making this playlist, so that’s cool. I also have been listening to more music than ever, so that’s also cool.
Listen Below.
UPDATE 3/20/22 - I got the job :)