job on the horizon?

as i was sitting in my "team room" yesterday (aka the fish bowl), i received a call from the smithsonian institute asking if i would still be interested in working for them this summer on a financial modeling project. 

let's be honest- i was stunned. i've gone this entire year reaching out over and over to countless firms, banks, pe shops, etc. and have grown extremely tired of hearing "well- we like what you bring to the table...but". that damn "but" gets me every time.  so needless to say, the fact that someone called and asked if i was still interested was a huge boost to the old ego. however, there was a "but" attached to this prospect as well. the huge "but" being that the internship is unpaid. 

excuse me while i collect my visions of getting an MBA and perhaps landing a job with an i-bank or a vc/pe firm afterwards off the floor. don't get me wrong- i have no problem working for the smithsonian and possibly opening more doors to my future. i have a formal interview with them this afternoon at 1600 in fact. however, the stark contrast in what i thought i was getting into when i started school and what i'm getting now towards the end of the first year couldn't be more different. 

at this point i have almost entirely committed myself to going to oxford for the summer. i say almost entirely because, well, let's face it- i don't have the extra 13 grand or so it's going to cost me laying around my tiny apartment. not even close. with the current loan market being overextended, i don't expect (and in fact have already been turned down) for private loans to cover the costs. (those costs being the tuition for oxford, the rent on my apartment in dc for june-august, the flight over to the uk, etc...) so- the first thought i had with the smithsonian idea was that i might work my tail off (like i usually do i suppose) and make as much money as i could for the project. but then, that fell through with the "unpaid" part. 

so i guess it's back to figuring out what else i can do this summer to make money. i could go back to bartending or bouncing, but really- i went to grad school for that? at this point, i'll take a wal-mart greeters job, so i suppose bouncing/bartending isn't much worse than that. and, i have no issue with that type of work. it's not that i feel that i'm above it in any way shape or form- it's how i got through undergrad, right? but still- a part of me thinks it's a giant step backwards for me. and we all know how large my steps are, right? ha ha- at least i can still find humor in all of this. i suppose that's one good thing to be happy about.

in any event- i'll be leaving my residency a tad early today in an attempt to convince the smithsonian institute that i can perform financial modeling tasks and work independently to produce a project which will be presented to some influential people. and, come to think of it, this opportunity never would have happened without me coming here in the first place. huh- funny how that works. 

wish me luck!