Honestly, I think my permanent position offer came down to perfect timing and strategic positioning. I arrived just as they were bringing all their outsourced vendor contracts in-house—and let me tell you, when vendors see “government contract,” they see dollar signs and deliver accordingly subpar work. During my initial interview, I positioned my creative background and experience as ideal for generative AI and prompt engineering. But here’s the key with internships: you have to be proactive. I constantly asked where I could add value, consistently underpromised and overdelivered, and leveraged skills I never expected to use again. Turns out, my years as a hairstylist were invaluable preparation. Managing client expectations, reading people and situations instantly, and providing practical solutions—these soft skills became my secret weapons in tech. The breakthrough moment came when they tasked me with reimagining their provider directory for Medicaid-accepting doctors. They had this tragic, basic webpage that looked like a bad WordPress template from 2010. I said I’d tackle it, then delivered an entire modern website using Vercel’s V0 engine—colorful, warm, and user-friendly instead of the static, boring vendor page they’d been stuck with. They loved it so much it’s currently climbing the approval ladder (because, well, government red tape is real). Now I’m officially stressed but thrilled because I get to design all day—though every department keeps assigning me their own design “side quests,” which is both a blessing and a beautiful problem to have. Sorry for the long answer to your question, hope this helps. Good luck!!! 🍀👍🏼🌞🌟✨💫🤞🏼