How To Deal With Intern Grunt Work

Greetings Edsters!

Last week marked my first month as an intern for the fitness mag, and overall I can say that I enjoy the staff members and think this summer will be a great experience. With that said, I’d like to explain my first day. Things we’re going great - I settled in to my desk area, met my editors, took an office tour - until one of the editors asked me to “lend a hand” while she was moving a few crates. Lending a hand turned into unpacking 12 huge crates worth of fitness equipment (think dumbells, weighted exercise balls, etc.) and arranging them by color. I believe “hope you have good organizational skills” were her last words before she left me to face the mounds of fitness products. But hey, no pressure.

If I sound ungrateful, let me give you a little bit of background information: This is not my first rodeo. I spent last summer interning for a national publication (with an hourly salary), was managing editor of my school newspaper, and have other internships and writing experience under my belt. So, doing grunt work all day had me a little depressed. Believe me, it’s not that I think I’m “too good” for intern work, but I couldn’t help but think that all of my hard work in college had only gotten me back to square one.