Emma received funding through CSO for her unpaid summer internship at the Department of Education in Washington D.C. A similar opportunity is now available with the same supervisor as a Winter Term internship, deadline October 9. Read on to see if this is something that interests you, then apply directly on MOJO.
Literary Publicity Department Intern with PICADOR New York, NY
Intern will be responsible for providing administrative support to Director of Publicity, Director of Marketing, and two senior staff members. Responsibilities consist of both administrative and project work. Special projects include assisting Publicity Director, researching media, writing press releases, supporting book publicity campaigns, and assisting Marketing Director to execute marketing plans. DEADLINE: October 1
New England Review Winter Intern Middlebury, VT
This for-credit internship will help students gain an informed, inside view of the nature and demands of literary magazine publishing. This internship will help to prepare students to participate professionally, as writers and as editors. DEADLINE: October 9
Publishing Intern with the U.S. Department of Education Washington D.C.
The intern(s) would be an integral part of a 10-person team comprising a full cohort of publishing experts, including writers, editors, artists and printing specialists. The interns would: Contribute to the editing and publishing of manuscripts about education at all levels. DEADLINE: October 9
Film Development Intern with Georgeville Films/ CBS Studios Los Angeles, CA
This is a great opportunity to learn in a fast-paced, open-door environment. General office support, covering scripts, meet with executives, give feedback on projects in development, etc. DEADLINE: October 9
Production Intern with Bunim- Murray Productions Van Nuys, CA
Some projects interns have worked on in the past include: observing and working with off-line editors, compiling scripts from the Director’s notes for the Story Department, reviewing music to be used in future episodes, developing material for Bunim/Murray websites, handling the distribution of fan mail, reviewing and sorting casting applications, and MUCH more…. DEADLLINE: October 9
Programming Intern with WMUD 89.3 Bridport, VT
WMUD Programming Interns will learn the day-to-day inner workings of a radio station’s programming department including, but not limited to: music, air staff and production. DEADLINE: October 10
Research Analyst with Marketing Evolution New York, NY
On this project, the candidate will be a vital member of a small team which will analyze the effectiveness of media campaigns to in turn develop strategic media recommendations for Fortune 500 clients. DEADLINE: October 17
I applied to Cosmopolitan Magazine through a website called ed2010.com. I discovered the website through a google search for fashion internships. I have always had a strong appreciation for fashion and photography through magazines and I have had previous experience in the fashion industry. I have had two jobs in the past at retail establishments. In the summer of 2008 I interned at Tuleh as a general fashion intern and I was able to see the production of a complete fashion collection from the beginning with the thought process to production, and finally Fashion Week. By working as a fashion intern at Cosmopolitan Magazine. I was interested in experiencing the advertising and marketing techniques of the fashion industry.
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Throughout the course of January I worked for the Vermont Frost Heaves, doing a variety of different writing assignments as needed. The Frost Heaves are a professional basketball in their third season in Vermont. Alex Wolff, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated and a resident of Cornwall, Vermont established the team in 2005 and worked as the team’s General Manager and public relations liaison until this season when he began to distance himself from the team in an effort to do more work at SI. With Alex less involved the team needed someone who could write large portions of the team’s yearbook, in addition to game previews and summaries – this became my internship. I was able to complete the work from campus and communicated with my supervisor through emails and the telephone.
During the internship I wrote three different types of articles for the team’s website and yearbook. Much of the work I did was in the form of player and coach biographies for the yearbook and website. These pieces required research from a variety of online databases as well as communication with both the player and the team’s head coach. Much of the information used for the biographies was found in NCAA archives, college websites and databases like www.eurobasket.com or www.asiabasket.com – websites that contain statistics and information about players who played overseas in Europe (www.eurobasket.com), Asia (www.asiabasket.com) or South American (www.sabasket.com). The biographies were only about three hundred words each, and are posted online on the team’s website (www.vermontfrostheaves.com) and printed in their yearbooks.
I also did some other short pieces for the yearbook, including a “Where are they now?” component where I conducted research online to find where former Frost Heave players were now. I used online databases to figure out if they were playing overseas or with another professional basketball team, or like some, had retired and held other jobs.
In addition to player and coach biographies I also wrote many of the team’s game summaries. Unfortunately my own basketball schedule at Middlebury College conflicted with a few Frost Heave games, so I was unable to cover all of them. When I was assigned a game, I watched the webcast on the team’s website and in addition to taking my own notes, I utilized the live-statistics feature on the league’s website. Following the conclusion of the game I had 20-30 minutes to file the story and send an email to my supervisor, the team’s general manager, Mike Healey. Mike would then read over the piece, make editorial changes, post the summary on the team’s website and send it out to local media. The summaries were part press release, part newspaper article as they had to be appropriate for the website, and for local newspapers as well.
Finally I was also in charge of writing some game previews that were printed in game day publications available at the games and a few of which were published online. These were simple, concise articles comprised of information gathered from the opponents website.
After completing my internship I realized that the work I produced was much less important than the connections I made and the relationships I built with Alex Wolff and Mike Healey. When I graduated from high school I knew there were two possible career paths for me – journalism, whether it had to do with sports or not, and some sort of environmental profession involving field work. For the past two summers I have worked for the park service conducting field research and this fall I realized that I hadn’t done anything to increase my journalism prospects. This internship was essential in establishing connections and references in the world of journalism.
That said, the assignments, while basic, also expanded my horizons in a journalism sense. While I have written extensively for Vermont newspapers I have never written anything on such a tight deadline. It takes a different approach to cover a game and then file in 20 minutes – one that requires you write and summarize the game in your head almost before it is complete. In addition, writing player biographies also poses a certain challenge, as they must be concise, creative and informational, and only a few hundred words.
I do wish that I had been more involved with the website as Alex Wolff and I had discussed in our initial meeting. However, I also realized that because I was only going to be around for such a short portion of their season it didn’t really make sense to teach me everything. Perhaps had I been able to work with them for a longer period of time I could have been more involved with the inner workings of the system. Additionally, it was frustrating that my personal basketball schedule conflicted with many of Vermont’s games and thus I was forced to watch all the games online and was never actually able to attend them in person.
Overall, the internship was definitely a worthwhile experience, I only wish that it could have been longer and thus I could have gotten more involved. I was amazed at how much leeway Mike and Alex gave me and how much they trusted my ability to complete the articles they assigned and how understanding they were of my basketball schedule and academic commitments.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.
During my Winter Term internship at Welcome Books I was thoroughly introduced to the workings of a publishing company, a three-decade-old company, which is connected to the historic publishing house, Random Books.
Welcome Books, Inc. has multiple divisions, but it is renowned for its coffee table books: The Constitution and The Farmer, for instance. These books have large photos, but what I like in particular is the informative nature of each book. I wanted to intern for the company because of its small size and good values. Everyone was very thoughtful to explain the company’s inner workings, as I was hoping they would be. I took it slow, as I have not walked into a situation with so little background in a very long time. I think it is great that I’m ending my college career with an opportunity to experience something different – a liberal arts education at its best.
I had no experience in the book business nor in a small company so I requested to be sent around and help as many different people and projects as possible. I was able to sit down during brainstorm meetings: meetings for book ideas, illustration ideas, cover ideas, pitching ideas, etc. I looked a many mocks to see what issues there were with text, image and layout. I had to double check finances of the company, help go through bills and projected income and also go through financial possibilities with the economic crisis. I took notes at meetings regarding negotiations of contracts and staff assignments. I assisted with events to help promote upcoming and existing books.
I learned that it is all about ideas. Good, unique ideas. What is the book that no one else is going to think of? What coffee table book does not exist yet? What is a children’s book that will be of interest for generations to come? What children’s adventure has someone NOT written about yet? What type of photos or illustrations have not been on the market that should be? It is an inventive industry, to say the least. It is about pitching an idea to an author to have them agree to do business with you. You’re a sales person who must have unique ideas. This was not something I’m used to. I’m not a creative person. I am a person of logic. I think analytically and therefore am better at working with an existing problem, rather than coming up with one. This is what Winter Term is all about – experiencing something, you otherwise might not ever experience.
The competition between publishing houses is worse than ever with this failing economy and I learned about how a publishing company works, but more so, how a publishing company works when there is no money. So one of the challenges is not finding the people and books, but to get them under contract as soon as possible. I understood the negotiation process, but not the lingo. There are standard fees and times for new writers, a certain amount of money for a year’s work. The corresponding time spans and prices I still can’t remember. I like the negotiation side of it – the chase, the challenge. It seems that is what I have found most enticing throughout learning about the industry. Even though I think it is important to exercise my very little creative side, I find that I gravitate towards the business end of publishing.
Last J-term I worked for Diane Sawyer at ABC News, an enormous corporation. Working at a small company has shown me that what a successful small company needs is a group of hard workers and self-motivators. This business is full of very well educated, thorough workers. Everyone has his or her own specific expertise, but at the same time, everyone checks everyone else’s work. This has been my first experience in a small office. I’m not sure if my work style is best for this environment, but it is without a doubt interesting.
At the end of this internship I realized that I’m more of the independent type, and therefore not one to work in a company that is “family style.” I did without a doubt need this experience. I needed to know what it is like to depend on members of the team and to have to have many people check your work and to have many voices on a topic rather than a single boss.
I knew before I entered that the publishing world was not for me, but it was important for me to see it as a student of international relations. I read books – all the time – and these books go through a business to before their final product. I wanted to know the capitalist tweaks (or something along those lines) it goes through during the publishing process to make it to the public eye. It was all fascinating, but professionally, not for me.
Wanting to know the process of what I consume was the same with ABC News. I watch the news all the time; I depend on it for my professional and personal life. I wanted to know what the filters were, the economical benefits for certain frames, the relationships between news corporations and other businesses. I think it is very important to understand the business of a product that one consumes on a regular basis. It could even be like reading, Fast Food Nation, for meat-eaters (I’m a vegetarian). I like to know the details of an organization or company, what are the pressing issues, what are the small issues that the public does not know. It all gets complicated and I think the only way to really get to know something is to throw yourself in the middle of it. And that is what I did.
I now have greater knowledge of the book industry. I also have greater knowledge of a small business. The two combined were so informative because I was basically starting at ground zero. I took in as much information as I could get and at the end of my internship I made an assessment of what I learned and compared and contrasted that to who I am. Neither of the two, the publishing industry, nor the small business, seemed to work well with me, but I would not have known that had I not been able to do an internship during Winter Term.
This was an accomplishment. What I believe, J-term is all about. Experiencing. My final college experience, a new one, a never done before, what a great way to lead into the real world.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship!
During my time at Rogers and Cowan, I essentially worked for the 5 publicists in my music-sports department, who all gave me different projects consisting of: clipping newspaper articles about our clients, calling up and booking shows for clients, asking for invitations to Grammy parties for our clients, creating a celebrity hit list for our department’s Miles Davis exhibition opening night, creating a media hit list for that exhibition, calling everyone on the hit list to attend the party, putting together press kits for clients, writing press releases, scanning and cropping magazine/newspaper articles about our clients, mailing out client demos, researching celebrity contacts, and even escorting celebrities at the Grammys. Of course, I did do some of the tasks that are expected of interns too, such as ordering the publicists’ lunches, making copies, preparing the meeting rooms, and even getting them coffee from time to time.
On my last day, I really felt that I was walking away with one of the most valuable experiences of my life. I can honestly say that this was one of the most active internships I’ve ever had out of my pretty long list of past internships. I really got into it and did what publicists actually did. My supervisor(s) really wanted to expose me to their world, and so basically, they gave me portions of the jobs they actually had to do. I feel I did really well because I was really passionate about my job. I was really efficient with, fast in performing, and willing/wanting to do many of the tasks given out to me
From this internship, one of the most interesting things I learned was that we have to take advantage of all the resources we have. In the middle of my internship, a new spring intern started working in our department on Tuesdays and Thursdays, who would take my place after I left in February. He became very valuable because of one thing: his British accent. The week before our exhibition event, I had to call all the celebs and media on the hit list I compiled. However, I saw that I really wasn’t getting anywhere and really detested calling the grouchy publicist assistants. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. When I shared this with one of my supervisors, she told me to split the list with the other intern. I was to only call the males, while he called the females. This small tactic worked amazingly. Not only did we both get really good responses from the people we called (sometimes we were on the phone with these people for up to 10 minutes, which was pretty significant), but the people we called actually showed up to our event and came looking for us to put a face to the name.
I learned was that remembering a name and giving people, who aren’t necessarily celebrities, a level of respect, go a really long way. Because I was the one who actually created the guest list for our Miles Davis exhibition, I was able to remember most of the guest’s names. So, when I let people in without even looking down at the check-in list and talked in such a way that seemed like I actually really knew who they were, the guests (more so the ones who aren’t actual celebs, but those who are usually the ones backstage) really appreciated it and would later come back to ask what my name was. In this way, I was able to boost my networking skills and mingle with more people in the music industry.
Rogers and Cowan helped me realize that I actually do belong at a PR firm. I felt really comfortable in that scene and felt that I really did contribute to the firm. Through this experience, I was able to think on my feet quicker and became more creative in my approaches to different projects.
Overall, this is an experience I would recommend to anyone. The firm was awesome because of how they really integrated me into their work instead of pushing me aside. The events were a lot of a fun too because I got to directly interact with the people who were usually behind-the-scenes. Through them I learned a lot about the industry. And besides experiencing the life at a PR firm, it was terrific to be able to work the red carpet at the Grammys.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship!
During my January term, I interned with Remezcla, a Latin media company that focuses on local Latino culture in five different cities, including: New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Unlike other Latin media outlets, Remezcla covers the local Latino scenes of these cities in addition to up-and-coming artists, musicians, filmmakers, and other Latino movers and shakers. As an intern, I researched events relevant to Latino culture in those five cities. I also wrote about music shows and other happenings across the country and in New York City in their blog called “El Daily Remix”. I also contributed content to the Myspace Latino music page, where they feature new up-and-coming artists every week. I greatly enjoyed interning with Remezcla because they provided me hands-on experience in the Latin music and media industry, while giving me space to use my own creativity. In my five weeks at their Williamsburg office, I learned a few important things.
Firstly, in order to stand out, you must provide your audience with interesting and original content. Remezcla has been successful because they filled a void that existed among younger Latinos. Remezcla in itself arose when two Colombia University friends, Nuria Net and Claire Frisbie, realized that there was no outlet that listed or talked about local Latino concerts or events. Before the days of Remezcla, media giants like Telemundo, MTV, Univision dominated Latin media, but provided a very limited scope of the culture. Therefore, they joined forces and have been developing Remezcla ever since as the website’s co-editors-in-chief. Most often, Latino culture is misunderstood; so most people think that it consists of Shakira belly dancing, Ricky Martin’s living la vida loca and Chipotle burritos. In reality, a fresh scene of emerging Latino musicians, artists and writers is alive. Remezcla audience consists of young bilingual Latinos professionals and students who refer to Remezcla for their smart and hip content. The recent culture that has been developing among young Latinos (who are often first-generation American) is interesting because if combines aspects of their Latin American culture with their own experience living in these bustling cities. Now other companies, like MTV, which recently launched MTVtres (a Latino oriented music channel), has picked up the trend.
In my five weeks interning, I recognized that the best way to develop news and discover rising movements is by exploring your own environment. Remezcla produces original content through contributors from all five cities. My best ideas for blogs and articles came from attending concerts or taking a closer look at what I saw around me. As part of the internship, I surveyed the Latino culture of two different neighborhoods, El Barrio in uptown Manhattan and Jackson Heights, Queens by spending afternoons in those spots. I looked out for places where people were hanging out; parties, concerts, and performances in neighborhood venues; and any circulating publications. In checking out the neighborhood, I discovered the El Barrio has a strong environmental movement already in place among its Latino inhabitants. Moreover, I also wrote about a Brooklyn-based band called Contramano, who I would have never discovered without attending their show.
Finally, by observing the co-editors-in-chief and CEO at work, I realized that the best way to conduct business is by making relationships with people wherever you go. Remezcla works at different levels. They often feature small restaurants, businesses and unknown bands, while working with large giants like Microsoft and Myspace. Making connections with others you come across is important because you never know when you can collaborate with them in the future. Putting yourself out there and going out to events in order to meet people is crucial in the music and entertainment business. Every day and event is an opportunity to meet new people and learn about what they do. No matter how talented you are, you also need to promote yourself and get your name out.
Overall, I had an amazing time at Remezcla. I feel extremely grateful for the opportunity they gave me to put myself out there by contributing to their website. I have developed an eye for looking at people and projects and seeing the bigger picture. Most importantly, I have found a new appreciation for my own cosmopolatino culture in New York City. The cosmopolatino scene in these five cities and throughout the U.S. will only continue to thrive. Check it out for yourself by going to www.Remezcla.com .
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.
I decided to apply for the internship after seeing the job posting on MOJO because I was interested in English and American Literature and wanted to explore different career choices. Although I am an economics major, I was very interested in how new writers are published. I expected not only to learn about how a literary magazine is run but also to experience an actual workplace environment.
I had been a part of publishing team my senior year in high school but was surprised to find the internship so much similar to my previous experience. All the jobs-from screening manuscripts to galley proofing and putting the templates together-were distributed among the managing editor and the office manager.
I made sure that I finish the assigned tasks and fully prepare for the meetings with my supervisor. In most occasions, I was a fast learner and had no problem with working in the office.
One of the most difficult parts of the job was copyediting. Although it was not particularly complicated, I found close reading the manuscripts for commonly made spelling and syntax errors tricky. I tried my best to learn the necessary skills for copyediting. I familiarized myself with the New England Review style and perused manuscripts for possible typos and format errors.
The most exciting part of the internship was reading and evaluating submitted manuscripts. I was able to have a look at a wide range of writings and develop a discerning eye. Weekly meeting with the fellow intern and the supervisor about the readings was very helpful in getting a sense of “good” prose. By the end of the internship, we had come up with a smaller pile of candidates for publishing. While reading and evaluating these submissions, the number and range of prose writers submitting manuscripts to the magazine surprised me. Also, I found it interesting to evaluate prose rather than reading a given text for a class and taking its quality for granted.
I enjoyed doing other tasks as well, although they were a little tedious compared to reading manuscripts. About two to three days a week, I was assigned to day-to-day office tasks, such as screening, logging and photocopying. Also, I was assigned to do research on magazines at Abernathy Collection at the library outside the office to compile information for a literary magazine database. Organizing the information about different literary magazines enabled me to obtain a better understanding of the history of American literary magazines and contemporary literature.
Furthermore, assisting my supervisor in every step of the publication of New England Review got me interested in publishing as one of my possible career fields. Although I may not necessarily be interested in editing in the future, the internship experience definitely drew my attention to the publishing industry, especially in marketing.
After the internship, I made up my mind to pursue a double major of English and American Literatures and economics. I believe that the internship I had at New England Review has not only trained me necessary skills such as managing InDesign and FileMaker, but it also has broadened my perspective that would help me greatly in the future.
I found it enjoyable working in a relaxed and friendly environment. My overall reflections on the experience are that it was more than just an interesting one-time experience. I learned so much more than I would have in a classroom. I feel very lucky to have had such a great supervisor who helped me have such a great learning experience this January Term.
I believe I performed well throughout this internship by completing everything thoroughly and to the best of my ability. I read each submission carefully until I finished it, or until it became utterly apparent that its quality did not match the standards of New England Review. After each reading, I wrote down a couple of sentences to a paragraph of the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the submissions and cited evidence to back up my opinions. In creating the literary magazine database, I tried to read through several issues of the magazines I was researching in order to get a feeling of the goals and characteristics of a particular magazine, and in the office, I did my best to work quickly and efficiently.
Carolyn did a wonderful job of exposing us to the whole production process of a literary magazine. I am very grateful that we did everything from the basic office tasks of logging and sorting manuscripts, to reading through the submissions to copyediting, and to working on InDesign; we truly explored all aspects of producing a magazine, which enabled me to formulate a holistic view of the process and impacted the direction of my career.
Before the internship, I had toyed with the idea of pursuing a career in literary magazines. After going through the experience, I realize how difficult it is to run a small magazine. Money is always a problem and there are thousands of literary magazines with new ones being created all the time and only a few that survive. It is not as glorious a career as one imagines; the editors who discover a famous writer early in their career are few. In the meantime, the deluge of sub-par manuscripts that you have to sift through is quite wide, and the editor’s job encompasses more than just reading. There are a lot of menial tasks the editor has to perform too, like the layout and managing subscriptions. It seems that more and more, the editors who run the magazine are expected to do everything that is needed. While there was quite a variety of submissions and while I enjoyed reading everything this past month and discussing the selections in the editorial meetings, I have come to a realization that this is not something I could do for extended periods of time; I am not sure I could have a job as an editor at a literary magazine for more than a few years. However, I think being a part-time reader would be not only manageable but also enjoyable. I guess what I had not realized prior to my internship was how much of a desk job being an editor really is. The copyediting was very meticulous and after doing it for the New England Review, I do not think I have the patience to pore over every comma and every dash.
Overall, while editors are exposed to a lot of creative material, most of the tasks editors have to perform are managerial; they are not the one actually creating. If I were to become an editor of some sort, I think I would have work at a more art-centered magazine, where the layout itself involves a lot of design and creativity. At the New England Review, I’m really glad that Carolyn allowed us to work on the computer and try creating the layout; however, because the New England Review has a pretty standard layout which doesn’t allow for much innovation, it was not as exciting as I thought it would be. Layout and design is a big interest for me, so I think that if I could find a magazine where the design is as much of a concern as the writing represented, I would be more comfortable working as an editor.
Even though I have discovered that perhaps being an editor is not as exciting as I had previously imagined, I think the internship was very valuable in another respect; I got to see how the selection process works and what goes on after you submit to a literary magazine. As an aspiring writer this was invaluable to me. Before the internship, I had always been at a loss of how to submit to a magazine, what format the cover letter should be like, what goes on after my manuscript is received, etc. But now, after reading countless cover letters and participating in the editorial meetings with Carolyn, I understand the process a lot better; it is no longer such a daunting mystery to me. Carolyn also gave us a lot of outside readings on literary magazines and their editorial processes, which was helpful in seeing how other magazines are run.
Overall this was a really edifying experience. It gave me a glimpse into the publishing industry which I really needed to determine how to shape the rest of my career plans and, as a writer, I now have an idea of what my own writing is up against when I submit to magazines in the future.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.
Throughout the month of January 2009, I had the opportunity to intern at Karsh\Hagan, a highly regarded and innovative advertising agency located in Denver, Colorado. Before beginning my internship, I knew little of what to expect. Because Middlebury does not offer courses in the communications arena, I was relatively unaware of the workings of an advertising agency. Nevertheless, my goal was to work in an industry that would reconcile my interest in business and art with my Psychology major. In the end, I happily believe that this is exactly what I got, and constantly found uses for both left and right sides of my brain. After this brief but incredibly rewarding experience, I think that advertising is a career that I will continue to consider as a future career option.
At K\H, I gained exposure to the advertising business as a whole. Specifically, I interned in the account services/management sector of the company, which is often considered the sales arm of the company. Employees in account services are responsible for meeting with clients, conducting market research, and developing sales goals, among other activities. While interns are often assigned to one person and assist them and only them, I ultimately was an intern that was available mostly to account managers, but also to anyone else throughout the company that needed assistance. As a result, I was able to work on projects in all the different divisions of the company, which allowed me to learn a great deal about all aspects of the advertising industry and greatly enhanced my experience.
Everyday, I spent a portion of my day conducting competitive analyses for different clients. K\H clients that I did work for included Colomer’s hair products (specifically American Crew, a specialty hair product line designed specifically for men), Pinnacle Bank, TD Ameritrade, and Visit Denver. As a result, I was able to spend my time researching and learning about many different industries at the same time, from hair products to tourism trends. This is one of the aspects about advertising that I really came to like-the work is sometimes hard and time consuming, but it is almost never monotonous and I always felt as though I was learning something new. Specifically, I spent much of my day researching Karsh\Hagan’s clients’ competitors, and made several presentations about competitor’s product lines, packaging and distribution information, market trends, etc.
In addition to competitive analysis, which happened to be continuous projects that persisted throughout the month, there were always other smaller assignments that I was asked to do in addition on a daily basis. These included such tasks as leaving the office to visit competitors’ offices and collect collateral (brochures, etc.) or take pictures of products of interest, assist the creative department in photo shoots, research the current AORs (Agency of Record) of potential future clients, among many other smaller responsibilities. In addition to my work, I also had the opportunity to sit in on a few meetings (not as many as I would have liked, unfortunately), which allowed me to get a sense of how account executives actually interact with their clients on a day-to-day basis.
While a month is a relatively short time frame for an internship, I believe that I gained a great deal from this experience. Working Monday thru Friday from 9 am to 5/6 pm, I well exceeded the 100-hour time requirement, and as a result feel as though I delved into the internship as much as I possibly could. Looking back on my time at K\H, there is nothing that I would change. I tried my best to be helpful and enthusiastic in all respects, and went out of my way to form relationships with the many amazing people who work at the firm. I worked hard, was detail oriented in my work, and went above and beyond at every chance I could.
I ultimately learned that there is much more to advertising that I initially anticipated. As I said before, I knew very little entering this internship, and as a result knew little of what to expect. I learned that advertising is an upbeat and exciting field that requires hard work but is also rewarding and enjoyable. Before my internship, I never realized how much research and detail goes into the formation of an ad, from the in-depth research and competitor analysis to perfecting a picture in creative. I now understand much more about this upbeat and interesting industry, and believe that it is absolutely something I can foresee myself pursuing in my future. I am appreciative of all the amazing people that I had the chance to meet and work with at K\H, as well as to those in the Career Service Office for allowing me (and all Middlebury students) the opportunity to have such a meaningful and educational experience.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.
I think that the most important thing that I learned while I was working at “The Unit” was just how unnecessary it is to go to a graduate program if you wanted to write for television as a career. Of the dozen or so writers working on the show, only two had post-graduate degrees, and neither had a post graduate degree in filmmaking or screenwriting. What I noticed was a field in which there is a ladder type system in place and you work your way up to being a writer. For instance, each of the show’s four writing assistants were given the opportunity to write an episode, and in some cases more than a single episode. This experience can lead to being hired on the staff of whatever show you happen to be working on (“The Unit,” for example), but you can also use that script to get a writing jobs on other shows. I was also told anecdotally that most show runners and producers are more willing to listen to series pitches or story ideas from assistants and other people who had been working for the producer than someone with no experience with the producer.
In my case I had been planning on attending film school or pursuing a post graduate degree in some area related to film, however I am now questioning how wise a decision that this is, especially given that I would most likely find myself in the same position that I’m in right now, only two years removed and short thousands of dollars. It is definitely something that I will have to consider on a going forward basis.
I think that, all things considered, I had a good Winter Term internship experience. I was careful not to set expectations for the job too high, which I think is important for any future students who go on the same internship. You won’t be writing anything, and the tasks that I listed at the beginning were tasks that I was assigned to do, but actually being given a task was something that happened rarely. I think that Shawn Ryan was really interested in having students who were interested in writing come out and see what the working experience is like. To be honest this is less like an internship (where you’re saddled with asinine, menial tasks) and more like an experience shadowing a writer, which was much more useful and I feel like I learned more the way Shawn has the internship set up than I would have at a more traditional internship where I was asked to do chores that no one else felt like doing. As I mentioned to a few of my co-workers before I left, coming into this internship I felt that my strengths as a writer lie primarily in my ability to write dialog and develop character, but the ability to plot compelling stories has always seemed to elude me. I think that, like all things, this skill will come with time and practice, but being able to sit and watch (and occasionally contribute) the room has given me a greater understanding of how best to develop those skills. The experience has also led me to revisit past work to re-evaluate strengths and weaknesses, and although there is no question that I still have work to do, it has also given me confidence in my ability to fix those weaknesses. So, all in all I’m very happy that I got to have this experience, and I highly recommend it for other Middlebury students in the future.
Please contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.