bizMe

As spring fever builds up and the semester winds down, my internship at a leading women’s health magazine is coming to a close. Although not as glamorous as I had hoped, it was still a great experience, and one that I tried desperately to get.

After what I thought was my third failed interview, I was extremely discouraged. My first interview had been so nerve-racking that I blacked out. The second one, I thought I aced—my interests fit the content, the editor and I got along great, and I had prepared really good questions. Holding my breath as I read the email from the editor, skimming quickly for the acceptance sentence but instead learning that she had gone with a better candidate. And my third interview with my current magazine had ended awkwardly and left me wondering if I’d ever hear back.

Luckily, within just a few days, I was offered the position.

I spend most of my Tuesdays and Fridays doing research about food and fitness related statistics and working on story pitches. The other part of my day was organizing press releases, beauty products, and fitness apparel. At times, my day was mundane and all I did was check my email, but that I must attribute to my supervisor being on maternity leave.

Commuting two and half hours each way for an unpaid position got to be tiresome, but in the back of my mind I knew the connections I was making and the impressiveness of “New York, New York” on my resume would be priceless. I had to keep my head in the game and not get discouraged when things got dull.

The journalism industry is funny. Everyone is pleased to meet you, and very friendly, but to get into the field after college, is what some might call “cut-throat.” From my impression, you get hired when someone is promoted, fired or retires. There are no new jobs created, only condensing of workload onto the few employees who survived the cutbacks. And with the print industry fading, I am a little afraid of what will be out there for me next May.

The best perk of the job was being invited to press events. In three and a half months, working just twice a week, I went to a fitness equipment showcase, a Post Cereal event where I made my own Grape Nuts, a Morning Star veggie burger tasting (and met the chef Ryan Scott), and a Reebok/Cirque del Soliel exercise class.

Trying to get a simple unpaid position sucked the life out of me. I had applied for about fifteen different positions, had my resume looked over, my clips carefully chosen—everything. This much rejection was not something I had anticipated especially having been so persistent. But I’m ready to do it again for the fall semester.

My advice to fellow college students on internships: get one—you will be able to, but it’s not always going to be easy. Make the best of it, even if that means going out of your way to learn new things. And it’s okay if you don’t know everything now. They won’t expect you to, but you can benefit so much as you learn and grow in the hands-on environment.