At the end of last week, the School of Design held Confluence, a two-day job and internship stress fest.

The madness began two weeks prior, when we could submit our resumes to the companies we were interested in. The companies then selected who they wanted to interview. This was all handled by an online system that was being used for this purpose for the first time. Confusion and frustration ensued.

But in the end, things seemed to mostly work out. I had seven interviews set up for last Friday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. with IDEO and ending at 3:45 with Microsoft. I also met with Google, MAYA Design, Moment, Cooper, and IBM Research.

All the interviews seemed to go well (except with Microsoft—I think my brain was fried by the time I talked to them). Though, it turned out that Moment, Cooper, and IBM Research weren’t actually looking for interns. That was kind of annoying, as I could have lined up other interviews with people who would actually hire me. But it wasn’t all bad, as I learned what those companies were like and got to understand my options as an interaction designer.