I'm a third-year journalism student. About a month ago I got my very first opportunity to write for a newspaper. It went well, so I decided to e-mail the newspaper in my hometown to see if I could get some experience from them while I was home for the holidays. The editor, who graduated from my program at the same school, said it was my lucky day and told me to come in on the 23rd.
I went and the meeting went really well. He even asked me to write a column for him. The ony problem was, I seemed to forget that I was scheduled to be at work three days later, out of town. This was a major oversight on my part, but not something I could get out of. I e-mailed the assignment editor to let her know I wouldn't be here like I thought, and then I e-mailed the column to the editor and sent my deepest apologies.
I know, I KNOW, that I should have been more prepared. Believe me, I know this now. And I know I am paying for it.
So the editor sent me an e-mail back saying, "To be a good journalist you have to be prepared. The fact that you didn't know your schedule did not leave a good impression in my mind. Good luck with your career. Contact me when you're serious about writing for a newspaper."
He also commented on a grammatical error I had in my e-mail.
I approached some friends for advice, and they all told me to spend lots of time on a response, admitting my wrong. So I did. And they all thought it was perfect. I e-mailed it to him and he replied with:
"Hi there. You didn't disappoint me, but you need to learn to be more prepared in order to be successful in this business. Not all of us get a second chance in life to prove our worth. Good luck with your studies."
I feel completely shattered, although I know this is my own fault. This was my big opportunity and I managed to completely screw it up with my own stupidity. But there's nothing I can do to change that, all I can do is learn from it and move on. But I spent an entire day in bed pining over it. And I feel sick just thinking about it. I feel like my entire career prospects are blown if this one interview went as sour as it did. I've always been taught that the media is a very small world, and I fear that it will come back to haunt me.
Any advice?
