The break-up

As I'm sat on the sofa in my pyjamas and have to shamefully admit that before eleven o'clock in the morning I have already cracked open the homemade chocolate fudge, it has suddenly dawned on me that applying to the BBC or ITV for work experience is a lot like going through a break-up.

To start with, you have the constant need to check your email every two minutes and look at your phone to see if they have called. You know damn well they haven't, but somehow you convince yourself that possibly it went off while you were in the bathroom or while you were in the kitchen stocking up on nerve-abating junk. (Which you also know is not true, because you take your phone with you everywhere, even to the loo, just in case the Head of the BBC or ITV phones you to say you are an inspiration and you absolutely must work for them immediately. Hey... it could happen, a lot of life-changing moments can happen on the porcelain throne, I've read "Love it!" magazine enough times to know that you can enter the WC thinking you need the toilet and come out with a baby. And need I even mention Elvis?)

When the inevitable happens and the phone doesn't ring, you start over-analysing everything you said (or didn't say for that matter) in the application and, if you were lucky enough, the interview. The "if-onlys" set in... "If only I had mentioned more volunteer work... I shouldn't have used this word instead of that one... I forgot to mention the high-school newspaper that I worked on in 1998!! Noooo!"

Then comes the lowest point as with any break up... desperation. Maybe I should write to them to ask about the status of the application? Maybe I should apply again in a different way? I CAN BE ANYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE... GIVE ME A CHANCE!!!

Stalking them on Facebook doesn't help either, there they are, happily uploading photos of their life without you in it and tweeting about their next trainee scheme. They move on, and quickly. You scour the profiles of people they have chosen and think maliciously "What does she have that I don't? A degree in broadcast journalism? Cow. I could have had one of those if I had wanted."

Sometimes they have the decency to let you know that it's not you, it's them... there were hundreds of applicants and the quality of applications was higher than ever. However, sometimes they just don't return your calls and if you haven't heard from them in a few months, you can take yourself as dumped.

The course of action to "get over" it varies from person to person. Maybe you will go out drinking with your friends and say sod them... it's their loss. Maybe you will listen longingly to podcasts and eat your weight in häagen-dazs (a la Bridget Jones). Personally, I think I will throw myself into lots of rebound relationships and whore myself out, work experience at this company, helping out at that one... Who knows, I might succeed in making them jealous.