Internship Woes?

With the semester coming to an end and summer vacation right around the corner; students will have to decide whether to work 9 to 5 over the next 3 months as an investment in their futures or simply laze around their apartments watching morning cartoons.

Internships are as much apart of college life as oversleeping, and under-aged drinking. If you happen to have $20,000 laying around you can spend your summer as Donatella Versace's intern she'll even throw in a autographed T-shirt, signed bottle of perfume, and a single meet and greet with Donatella herself.

At the New School internships are of course a huge issue with many students complaining about internships from hell where they are tasked to fetching coffee and mailing packages. According to Jeff Feld Administrative Coordinator for Eugene Lang Advising, many students have come in with complaints, but their has been success with particular companies like Gawker Media. Students who currently don't have an internship can also go to the Academic section of the Eugene Lang homepage to take a gander at their list of approved internships.

Gawker media is one of the leading media & news companies specializing in blogs. They own several popular blogs that a leading authorities in the their field like video game blog Kotaku, technology blog Gizmodo and auto blog Jalopnik. The application process is strenuous and competitive with college attendance, and credit acquisition being a requirement for all interns. "Thats one students seem to enjoy, I hear good things about it" said Feld.

I have personally gone through this process, and been chosen to intern for Kotaku under Deputy Editor Stephen Tolito, at the Gawker Media New York office in Soho. The whole process elapsed over the course of 3 months starting in February. I sent the Kotaku office a copy of my resume, cover letter, and three clips which represented the range of journalistic writing I've done over the course of my collegiate career. This was followed by a phone interview in late February with an on the spot quiz about Kotaku writers and history and a impromptu pitch meeting. Upon completion I was assigned by Tolito to come up with three pitches by Wednesday that week with one being a weekly feature.

In April received the coveted call of affirmation having lost hope and interest with plans to live in London for the summer. Tolito had hired me for an unpaid internship to start in May.

Internships while good at heart sometimes turn into a sad repeat of the first half of Devil Wears Prada. They have received a particularly bad rap with law makers in recent weeks detailed in one New York Times article here.