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Topic: great internship... but no writing
| Author | Message |
| jaxx | Posted – 6/25/2007 10:33:20 PM | show profile Hey everybody, I just graduated from college and moved to New York for a summer internship with a top entertainment magazine. I'm so happy to have this opportunity, because I've done a lot of odd internships just to keep up with writing and gain experience. But obviously, working as an intern at a large magazine diminishes the writing opportunities, and at my magazine, I just learned, it's pretty normal for editorial interns to leave without a single clip. This is pretty distressing, since my last internship was two summers ago and I spent a full year on the editing side of my college newspaper. My friends who work in the magazine industry tell me that having good writing samples is paramount, and I feel like I'm setting myself up for failure when I look for full-time jobs here in a few months. I'm really confused about how to reach my goals. I want to be an EA at a national magazine. I'll have five internships under my belt by the end of summer, and I have a journalism degree from a top school. But I won't have any current writing. Freelancing is obviously an option, but I've never done it. Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm thrilled to be working at a top magazine, but I feel like it's going to hurt me in the long run. |
| UrbanMuse | Posted – 6/26/2007 7:53:31 AM | show profile I feel your pain. If, by some miracle, the magazine where you're interning has an opening in a couple of months, then you could luck out. In case that doesn't happen, I would try freelancing. ------ www.UrbanMuseWriter.com |
| bjoconnorfla | Posted – 6/26/2007 9:07:03 AM | show profile You don't need anyone's permission to write. Keep your eyes and ears open, figure out what they need and do it on your own time. Carefully and gently enlist the aid of staffers you get to know after a few weeks and ask for suggestions. Look for some part of the magazine that is a true pain in the butt for one of your editors, and find a way write something that works there. There's usually some standing feature, often in the front of the book or section intros, that just becomes drudgery, such as a top 10 list or some bullet-point box of items. If you can do a couple of those your editors will love you. Then you can ask for a chance to write something more substantial. Clips are important in an internship, but relationships are more important. After you leave, you want to have the support of several staffers who you can call later when you are job-hunting, either for advice, tips and job leads, or for references and networking. That will be much more valuable than clips. Good luck. |
| JimmyG | Posted – 6/26/2007 11:31:53 AM | show profile The above poster gave some great advice, and you really should go that route. But don't feel too discouraged if all you get for your troubles are a few captions and compiling a contributor's page or the occasional column item. Unless a magazine is hopelessly understaffed, interns usually don't get writing assignments, especially on large national magazines. Probably the same with the entry-level editorial staffers. A few editors might go out of their way to ensure your internship is a complete learning experience, but most are just too busy to deal with more than handing a list of names and numbers over to fact-check and some copy to proofread. Stick it out, make connections, and get the most you can out of this and move on. Sounds like you'll be primed to get a nice staff job somewhere. |
| jaxx | Posted – 6/27/2007 6:36:09 PM | show profile Thanks for the advice, everyone. Any suggestions on where to freelance? Like I said, I haven't really done it, so I'm doubting the big mags are going to bite. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/27/2007 6:47:33 PM | show profile Most young professionals don't write until well into their first year on the job. I wrote for two years --columns--without a byline. Staff copy. So either go to a smaller publication for a staff job or you gotta find a big story and pitch it. But without bylines if it's a really big story you won't get an assignment, probably. I understand your frustration, but it takes time. Not many interns write anything anywhere I've worked. |
| jaxx | Posted – 6/27/2007 6:52:24 PM | show profile So it's pretty much impossible to get a job with a big magazine publishing group right out of school? |
