Ah, so, you've acquired the most malaria-infected-blanket job in the world, the one where you thank people for letting you work for them for free. The internship. You're constantly being pumped and primed, being told that THIS is your CHANCE and if you don't make the most of it you'll never make ANYTHING of yourself so you better not SCREW THIS UP. No pressure!

An internship is potentially good experience and can potentially open doors for you. Or, potentially, it can be a miserable waste of time. Here are a few tips on how to make the most of the time, though.

First, investigate. Hopefully, you've done this before you even applied for the thing, but go online, go to some writers' bulletin boards and find out if anybody has ever interned for the magazine/newspaper/company that you're working for. Any information you can get up front about dress code, who to avoid, who to befriend, and who may or may not listen to your ideas is obviously going to be an advantage. (And if you're dying for an internship that will give you the chance to write and find out that there are no opportunities to do so, none whatsoever, so don't even try, it's better to know this before you start out so you can bail if you need to.)

You have to be aggressive, as well. If you want anything: an opportunity to write, a recommendation letter, five minutes with a higher up, you need to ask how to get it because it's unlikely that someone will come up to you and offer it to you.

A lot of times, just remember, it can be a crapshoot. I've had a great internship experience and a crappy one and I like to think that I put the same effort into both of them. One, a local weekly, just had more opportunities for freelancers, whereas the other, at a TV newsmagazine, allowed me to pitch but also was rather unforgiving to newbies. If it's miserable and you're hating every single moment at the internship, just remember that you're not necessarily guaranteed a job being there. On the other hand, try to remember, no matter how wormlike you feel, that this is a good opportunity and somebody could notice you, so be professional. If you must instant-message famous television personalities, the way I did, keep it relatively quiet.

You can find some more general advice here and here. If this all sounds like generic advice, it's because it's impossible to say ahead of time what your environment or experience will be ahead of time so that's why you hear the same claptrap about taking initiative, coming up with ideas, etc. The one thing you should be able to get with no problems though is free advice. While you're at your internship, write down all the questions you have had about writing, reporting, editing, interviewing, anything and try to make sure you get them all answered by the time you're done, because even if you don't get clips, you can get knowledge. And knowing is half the battle.

Yeah, right.

Anybody have any advice for soon-to-be interns or horror stories from your own internships? Write in.