Who wants to go egg Sony Pictures with me?

I don't even know where to start to express how much I've been screwed over this week. I'm rarely an extremely angry person, but this event has warranted it. I'm very career oriented and there's a certain path I had hoped to follow throughout college so that I'd be really prepared when I graduated to get a job. Part of this plan was doing an internship my sophomore and junior summers. As I've written about and probably gushed to just about everyone, I was thrilled when I had an interview at Sony Pictures and was offered an internship for the summer. Subsequently, I made plans for summer housing, schooling, and various things so that I could work around an internship schedule. A call to Sony on Thursday pretty much screwed all that up. It's kind of a long story, so I guess I'll just start with the very beginning back in march.

FEB & MARCH
 
I submitted an application on line for an internship with Sony (as well as with some other companies).   I got a call a couple of weeks later from Mr. Jonathan Baker who asked me to come in for an interview, which I did.   During the interview, he said that I had an impressive resume and that I should "think it over" whether I wanted the internship and call him back the next day.   I called back the next day and was told that Mr. Baker was in a meeting. I left the message that I had thought it over and would like to accept the internship.  
 
Being nervous about whether Mr. Baker got the message, I called back twice the next week, each time being told Mr. Baker was in a meeting and would call me right back.  He did not call back.   The third time, the person had me hold, checked with Mr. Baker, and reported that he had indeed gotten my message and remembered me.    I asked if the lady could tell me how many days the intership involved, that I had to make plans for the summer.  I was told to call back another time.
 
During the rest of March, I called a few times.  Each time I was told that Mr. Baker was "in a meeting" and would call me right back. Each time I left a message that I had a question about the specifics of the internship I had been awarded.  He never called me back, ever.   This made me a little anxious about things.

EARLY APRIL

I called yet again. I was told, again, that Mr. Baker was "in a meeting".  Knowing from experience that he would not call me back, I explained to the lady that this week was my deadline for committing to summer housing and that I needed to get confirmation for sure whether I was hired.  The lady this time had me on hold for a long time and then came back on the line, said she had spoken to Mr. Baker and that he confirmed that, yes, Mr. Baker remembered me.  
 
I then asked how I would find out what days of the week I would need to be there.  Now that I would be living at school, if the internship were only 2 or 3 days a week, then I could sign up for a summer class.   The lady told me that there is a big project everyone is working on and to call back in 2 or 3 weeks.
 
During this week, I went ahead and committed to summer housing, found a roommate, jointly submitted roommate paperwork and put down a deposit.  The next week I got confirmation of the housing unit, and did all sorts of tasks associated with the situation such as renting a storage unit for items that wouldn't fit in my smaller summer unit.  That next week I also re-arranged my fall class schedule to leave open two days in which I could continue my internship through the fall, because Mr. Baker had said that was desirable.

Week of April 25th:
 
Apr 28th -- Per the directions I was told previously, I called "2 to 3 weeks later" to follow up on finding out which days I will be working.  I spoke with a secretary who said Mr. Baker was "in a meeting".  When I asked the question, the secretary said I didn't appear on her list of Interns, that I'm is not an intern for the summer.  She expressed no regret and simply said that if I wanted to apply again I should send her resume and the secretary would forward it on (not sure to whom).  I was devastated and crying like...all day.   I explained the history, that I had gotten confirmation and seemed to be confronted with an "I don't care" attitude.  
 
My dad was certain that there had simply been a misunderstanding and even though I didn't want him to call and make a fuss, he wanted to call.   He called in the afternoon, was told Mr. Baker was "in a meeting".   He told her he was sure there was some kind of miscommunication and the secretary told him that there was no miscommunication, that there is no internship for me and that I had never been told there was.   He said he wasn't sure whether I had explained that I had been led to beleive from Mr. Baker that I had the internship and had already arranged for housing as well as arranging her fall class schedule to leave open two days for interning there through the fall, which Mr. Baker had said was desired.   The secretary told him that I had indeed explained it, but that I shouldn't have arranged these things without getting a confirmation from HER, that she is the only one who can give confirmation.  She said that I should have known that the internship offers are made on a space-available basis (I have no idea how she would have known that) and that perhaps it was because not as many interns had left as they had expected.   But that she would have Mr. Baker call my dad "when he is out of his meeting". 
 
After not hearing back for 2 hours, he called back to see if Mr. Baker was out of his "meeting".  The secretary said he was still in his meeting.   He said that he should probably start documenting some of these phone calls and politely asked her for her last name.  She refused to give him her last name!   He asked for Mr. Baker's title and she refused to give him his title.   Then she said Mr. Baker will call him back some time.  He reminded her that she told him Mr. Baker would call him back today, after his meeting, and she said that he will call him when he wants to.  She then said she was very busy and had to go now. 
 
so my dad called the main desk again and asked for the person in charge of student internships. He explained the situation to her and she was very nice about it.  he told her it didn't seem like he was going to get a call back.  She said she would call Mr. Baker.  He told her that it seemed like the secretary was already touchy about it, but she said Mr. Baker would speak with her. 
 

Apr 29th, YESTERDAY -- Mr. Baker left a message with me for me to call him.   When I called him back he started yelling at me.  He said that unless someone from Human Resources called me, that I was not being offered an internship. Again, I would have no way of knowing this, and this is contrary to the first message she got which was that I was being offered the internship.  It's also contrary to the secretary's position that SHE was the only one who could give confimation.    He also said that unless I heard it from him directly that there was no offer, yet another story.   He then said he had to go but would "call me back".  I doubt he will, but it seems like at this point there is no reason to do so.

 
I got a call from Walt Disney Studios to interview for a summer internship.  Even though Disney has always been my dream company, I talked it over with my parents and we jointly decided that I had committed to Sony and it would be good for me.   I called them and thanked them, but said I had already accepted an internship with Sony.

Mr. Baker and the staff there had plenty of opportunity to tell me if there was perhaps a misunderstanding on my part. 
 
At this point, I think that even if the internship were offered today, that working there for Mr. Baker would not a possibility.  It would not be a good work environment being surround by, and working for, people who did this shit. 
 
This is not the way a reputable business is supposed to treat people.    Reputable people are supposed to return phone calls.  Reputable people don't leave someone until it's too late to take any other internship.  Reputable people don't refuse to give people their names or positions. Reputable people don't come up with the excuse that the internship candidate "should have known" that "only Jennifer" could confirm, or that "only Mr. Baker" could confirm, or that "only Human Resources" could confirm (each of these stories were told at various times during Apr 28th & 29th).  Reputable people, when faced with phone calls from someone who obviously thinks she had an intership, if she didn't have it, would let her know so that she doesn't fuck up her entire year.  Reputable people don't call and yell at the internship candidate for trying to contact Human Resources when they couldn't get through to Mr. Baker after hearing an assistant blow her off with apparent lack of concern.   


Sorry that was so long, but that's my story. I managed to switch my schedule so I can still take a summer school class and not everything is completely fucked, but the fact that it's too late to find another good internship and the waste of the amound of work I put into job hunting since January really sucks. Sony, eat shit and die.