| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Beginner Issues > Topic: quitting an internship? |
Topic: quitting an internship?
| Author | Message |
| priya.r.rao | Posted – 1/15/2008 3:45:15 PM | show profile | email poster I worked as a reporter for two years before moving to nyc. I haven't been able to find a "real" job, so I decided to temp and intern while I looked. I'm interning at a well-known weekly mag in the city...mostly fact-checking and researching, some painful administrative stuff, etc. The work is mind-numbing - I could fact-check and research in my sleep, and the occasional sidebar thrown my way is far from challenging. I did expect, however, to learn a little bit more about how magazines are run, the editorial process. etc. I even thought this would be a good networking opportunity. Instead, I'm sequested in a little cubby and handed pieces to fact-check about every hour. I'm far away from the editorial staff, which makes learning/networking difficult. All in all, I'm thinking this might have been a bad idea. I'm resentful that I'm losing two paid days of temping to be this mag's monkey...Is quitting an awful idea? How valuable will this internship be? I haven't had an internship since college, and I had forgotten how pointless they seem. It's hard to believe future employers put any stock in them...But they do. |
| SeeKatyWrite | Posted – 1/15/2008 5:12:46 PM | show profile | email poster Priya, I sympathize!! It sounds like you are experiencing the height of intern drudgery -- and props to you for continuing to take internships after you graduate. I did the same, although I was slightly frightened of the potential stigma since I was no longer in school. My advice would be to hang in there for as long as possible. Is there any way you could make an opportunity to network? Can you ask someone a question about a piece, or merely stroll by and see how everyone is doing? Also, if you think your boss can be a valuable resource, it's best to continue to cultivate your relationship as a hardworking, ambitious individual -- s/he is more likely to help you, post-internship, and that could be invaluable. Perhaps, too, if you think your editor would be receptive, you could schedule a meeting to let him/her know that you're available for other work, if needed, and that you're interested in learning all you can about the magazine process -- maybe that will get you a bigger variety of assignments. Good luck! ~Katy ------ ----- katy ryan editor | freelance writer | blogger www.KatyWrites.com |
| InsomniacNOT | Posted – 1/15/2008 6:04:13 PM | show profile Is this kind of thing legal if it's not for college credit? |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 1/15/2008 7:12:08 PM | show profile No, it's not legal if you are not getting college credit...some may argue that it is, but it is not. If the company is gaining any value from the internship in the form of completed work, it is illegal. There are very few intern/apprenticeship situations that are legal without being paid or receiving college credit. |
| Marie | Posted – 1/15/2008 7:48:23 PM | show profile If you're not being paid, you're being exploited. You can get $25/hour to do this work for any major magazine. You're obviously good at it. Make sure you have one good reference, and look for paid fact checking work--there's a freelance market for this. I would call and e-mail every research director/chief at every major magazine and line up freelance work. |
| getmeoutofhere | Posted – 1/16/2008 12:02:19 AM | show profile so if it's not legal...what are the consequences that mag faces? |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/16/2008 1:00:16 AM | show profile | email poster Okay, hr and recruiter view here. This 'internship' is not benefiting you and could in fact be harming you. Normally, one puts an internship on a resume in lieu of professional experience, to help land that first job. How do you think you will be perceived if you put it on your resume, after you've worked for two years as a reporter? It will look as though you've taken a huge step backwards and the perception frankly will be that you weren't good enough to get a permanent job so you settled for an internship...and this hardly instills confidence in a highly competitive field. I'm being blunt and brutally honest with you. This does not reflect well on you in any way, and on top of it, you're not being paid or challenged. Here's my advice. Quit today. Pick up more temp assignments, and angle for temp assignments at the places you'd like to work. You're far more apt to get on permanently if you start there as a temp....and in the meantime, keep your resume circulating, network like crazy, and since you have the reporting experience, why not do some freelancing on the side while you temp? You should have plenty of clips to use with queries. Try for some informational interviews if you're not getting real interviews at the places you want to work. You will have to step out of your comfort zone a bit, to do it, but it will pay off as will any networking if you make a concerted effort at it. I posted some information here yesterday on how to get an informational interview and exactly what to do and say. Take a look at that if you'd like additional info. Good luck, oh, and don't put the internship on your resume! Pam |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 1/16/2008 1:08:16 AM | show profile I agree with the above post. After two years as a reporter, I don't see what value an internship will be where you are doing mostly clerical work and fact-checking.. To me, it would better to put on your resume you've been freelancing, and to spend the two days a week either tempijng or looking for freelance work. |
| Marie | Posted – 1/16/2008 1:48:57 AM | show profile I agree, but I think you'd be better off seeking paid freelance fact checking work on a magazine than temping. It sounds like you're just in a bad place. Fact checking will likely pay more than temping, it's not administrative clerical and you'll be better able to make contacts with editors. In most places you work with a lot of people and you're not isolated. Quit the internship if you're not being paid. It's absurd to undergo that drudgery for no money. Your reporting experience gives you the experience you need to freelance fact check, so you don't need to mention the internship. But I don't think it's so terrible to include the internship on a resume, provided there's one person there who will say good things about you--you can say you did it to see how magazines worked. If you worked on a newspaper previously, to me that would make sense. I'd be sold. Good luck. |
| puddypop | Posted – 1/16/2008 2:02:54 AM | show profile feeling nervous about my own internship now... after reading pam's reply, i am feeling a little nervous about my own recent foray into interning. i am not a recent graduate, and have over five years of full-time work experience--however, none of it is journalistic or publishing experience. since i recently changed my career direction to focus on copy editing, i have put money-making on the back burner and taken on two internships because it seems to be the best way for me to gain the experience i need. i was under the impression that putting these internships on my resume would eventually propel me forward in the field. after reading this post, though, i am fearful that the internships will not do me any good, since i am taking a step backwards professionally...yet, i need the experience! what do i do??? |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/16/2008 10:06:01 AM | show profile Divina, I think it's different if you're shifting gears and looking to do something very different. In that case an internship can make sense because it can help you enter a different field. In the other poster's instance I was under the impression she was continuing along in a very similar field, and in that case it doesn't make sense and seems like a step backwards instead of forward. If you feel you're benefiting from it, keep with it. |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/16/2008 10:13:09 AM | show profile In response to Marie's comment on temping vs. freelancing Marie wrote, "I agree, but I think you'd be better off seeking paid freelance fact checking work on a magazine than temping. It sounds like you're just in a bad place. Fact checking will likely pay more than temping, it's not administrative clerical and you'll be better able to make contacts with editors. In most places you work with a lot of people and you're not isolated." Be careful not to generalize. You want to get the best possible assignment and when I refer to 'temping' it means any kind of assignment where you are paid, it does not have to be administrative only. Obviously if higher paying fact-checking assignments are available and you wish to do that, jump on it! Otherwise think about where you want to work and all the skills you have to offer. In some cases, you may be better off with a temp assignment at a company that intrigues you if the job puts you in contact with a lot of people or is in a department that is interesting, say in marketing for instance. As an example, I once had a candidate who graduated from a great school with a degree in architecture. But by the time she graduated she wanted to go into marketing not architecture. She wasn't getting any interviews for marketing because of her background, but she had great skills and we were able to put her into a marketing assistant temp assignment in the marketing department of a great company. She went above and beyond in the job, came in early, asked for more work, volunteered to do things no one else wanted to do, and made it clear she wanted a permanent job in marketing. She wowed them, and they created a job for her. Happens all the time. Just something to keep in mind. The temp or freelance job might not be your 'dream job', but it might get you into your 'dream company' and lead you to a great permanent job, or to other connections that will get you there. Pam |
| Marie | Posted – 1/16/2008 2:10:13 PM | show profile I think this person wants editorial, and I had the impression that this person needed to earn money, and so might not always be able to pick and choose a freelance fact-checking assignment. Magazines differ in how they treat in-house freelancers, who now are technically temps, and staff, what the fact checker actually does, etc. What's important is that you get paid. Take assignments as they come, build a roster, and then pick and choose. |
| InsomniacNOT | Posted – 1/16/2008 5:01:33 PM | show profile I don't think anyone who's been in the workplace for more than a year should take a non-college-related internship. To me it indicates a lack of seriousness and self-worth. At a certain point, you're just too old and too experienced for this type of thing - period. Both you and your employer should value your contribution enough that you are paid for it. |
