I have no idea how it happened, but I managed to convince some poor suckers to hire me as their intern.

When budget cuts forced my boss to reduce my hours at work, I tried to see it as a blessing.

Even though it meant making less money than I averaged my freshman year, when I was unemployed and my parents still gave me an allowance, I refused to let it get me down.

If anything, it was the push I needed to start looking for the internship I’d put off getting for three years.

Until now, the closest I have come to having any hands-on experience in the field of professional journalism was playing in the imitation WWL newsroom at the Children’s Museum as a first-grader (I do a killer Angela Hill impression).

As impressive as I’m sure this looks to future employers, it only takes up so much room on a resume.

In the past, whenever I have had to search for a job, I always anticipated getting hired to be the hardest part. I forget that having a job means I will actually have to do work.

In fact, it takes me a little by surprise when, after accepting a job, my new employer doesn’t just hand me a paycheck on the spot.

Why is that? I showed up for the interview. What else do they possibly want from me? What’s worse is that my new employers expect me to already know how to do stuff. As if everything on my resume is completely true.

So on my first day at my new internship, my boss sat me down at my computer and started using all of this fancy computer language: “icon,” “CD-ROM,” “mouse.”

I’m fairly computer-savvy, so I knew what he was talking about. Still, my computer know-how only goes so far.

I sat there and mentally kicked myself. Why had I never taken any Layout and Design or computer application classes? I meant to. I must have just forgotten – for seven semesters.

Luckily, he just wanted me to do some research online. Surf the internet for three hours? That I could definitely do. In fact, it’s something at which I happen to be really good.

And even though I knew neither theonion.com nor J.Crew online would have any of the information I was looking for, I still found the work to be extremely fulfilling.

Are all professional jobs this easy?

Maybe the secret that no one tells you is that no one really knows what he or she’s doing.

Perhaps we’re all just seeing how long we can keep up this charade before everyone else catches on.

Of course, I have only had one day of work, so I’m just guessing. I’ll know for sure after my second day.