An Intern Veteran's 4 Key Lessons To Success

Well, Edsters, I did it! 

Week one has come and gone and although I spent the majority of the week transcribing interviews, I still left with the impression that this is going to be a fantastic experience. 

I spent a bulk of my time mentally noting differences between internships. It was hard for me not to since it had been a mere three days between the two of them, and I honestly feel like a little bit of time off between them would have done me some good. As difficult as it was to mentally arrive in new internship mode, I think I'm finally there. Taking a step back, here are a few guidelines that I think could be helpful for you all as you transition between jobs.

1. Take the opportunity to ask questions. At the beginning of internship #1, I was nervous to ask questions because I didn't want my editors thinking they'd made a mistake hiring an airhead.

How To Prepare For An Internship At A Mag You've Never Read

Hey Edsters,

I feel a little bit like I’m in the middle of finals week. Notebooks and pens are piling up around my house, and suddenly my Facebook newsfeed is 10 times more interesting than usual. But I took my last final three weeks ago, so I’m not preparing for exams. I’m preparing for my internship. 

The major difference between this and finals week is that once I actually do get down to business, I don’t want to stop. I’ve been scouring the back issues my editor sent me and immersing myself in all things the mag covers. I find it really interesting, which is handy since there's quite a bit of material.

I'll admit though, the magazine I'm interning at didn't always clutter the floor of my room.

3 Things Fashion Interns Need To Know About Rocking Your First Day

Happy Monday, Edsters!

I start my internship this week and I am ready to hit the ground running! Thinking back on how I started my last internship so sheepish and timid, I can’t stress how important it is to start off your summer smiling and eager to work! Between racking my brain on what to wear and how to do my hair, I also thought up three important things to remember on your first day of your internship (or any job, really).

1.    Smile, make eye contact, and have a firm handshake.

Putting Everything On The Line To Achieve My Dreams

After college, things haven’t turned out the way I envisioned. 

By now, I thought I would be living the dream: a thriving career at an award-winning magazine and my own place. Instead, I’m living at home, juggling two part-jobs to make ends meet and (barely) pay my bills. It might seem crazy to take on an unpaid internship at this point in my life, but I feel like it’s now or never. Better to take a risk and go out on a limb instead of playing it safe and daydreaming about the life that I want for myself. So, here I am, putting everything on the line to learn the ropes again and have a second chance to achieve my dreams.

I came pretty close this week.

Thrown In At The Deep End: Fact-Checking 101

Hey there Edsters!

Good news: I have survived my first day of work at the Regional Mag. And nothing really went wrong! Well, not really…

After stressing over what to wear—my editor had given me a cryptic “business casual” guideline—I decided on a skirt, sweater and black heels, something I regretted on the rather long walk from my parking to the Mag’s offices. I was walking, trying to keep my head held high as I gave myself little pep talks, when I looked over to a woman handing out flyers on the street corner. As soon as I turned, my heel went straight into a crack on the ground.

Getting Over First Day Internship Jitters

Well, here I am, Edsters. Sitting in my student housing room the day before my internship, and trying to figure out how to make these first week jitters go away. This isn't my first internship, but I'm still just as nervous to walk into the office for the first time tomorrow as I was last semester. Maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself, but is it rational to feel this nervous the second time around as well?

Before starting my first internship, I had more questions going through my head than I could keep track of. Would my bosses like me? Would I catch on to my responsibilities quickly? Would I do anything embarrassing? Am I even prepared to live in New York City? Luckily, I was able to quickly fall into a routine at my last internship and felt that I was able to have a very productive experience, but I can't help but wonder about how this job will differ from the last.

How A Country Gal Adjusts To The Big Bad City

Alright Edsters, before we go any further with this relationship, there is something you should know about me: I’m from the country. I own a pair of cowboy boots and I know all of the words to a disturbingly large number of country songs.

Now that that’s out in the open, there’s something we need to discuss. Lately, I’ve felt like I have to justify living in New York. People here love to tell me what I’m going to hate about it, namely the sky-high prices, mean people, and lack of green space. I know I might look back on this post in August and laugh at how naïve I was, but I just got back from a quick weekend trip to the city (still two weeks until the big move) and I didn’t find much of that to be true. Here’s the current impression I have of New York, after my third trip there.

3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Fashion Internship

Getting an internship in the fashion department of a prestigious magazine can be exciting. It can also be very, very overwhelming. After ending my first internship at Fashion Mag number 1, I realized there was so much I didn’t know when I started out. So, for all you people who are just about to begin your internship, have already started and are still fuzzy on what to do, or are looking to wedge your way in, here are 3 things I had wish I had known:

1. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Seriously. I wish I had found this one out sooner.

Introducing..The Post-Grad Entertainment Intern Ready To Pay Her Dues

This past Monday was unlike any other Monday before it. It marked the beginning of a new, positive change in my personal evolution: I started my summer internship with an entertainment magazine. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to work for one. When I was growing up, instead of learning makeup tips from Seventeen, I was absorbing pop culture analysis from Entertainment Weekly.

I began my day at the crack of dawn for the long trek across town to my internship. Rather than heading to the freeway to journey into the heart of Los Angeles like other commuters, I boarded the early morning light rail train. I want to arrive on my first day not only on time, but also early enough so that I can scope out the amenities of the area. Luckily, I found a Starbucks in the same vicinity as the office.

Fortified with invigorating caffeine, I held my head high as I entered the building. The magazine office is sparse, yet trendy. The space reminds me of a converted art gallery, with wide airy windows and bare concrete floors that echo everyone’s footsteps. The lady at the front desk (not sure if she was the receptionist or just someone filling in) instructed me to have a seat while she summoned my editor. Waiting in the lobby, the seconds felt like hours. 

Introducing...The Regional Intern At Her First Mag Job

Hello Edsters!

After applying to a whole slew of magazines, getting rejected from some and never hearing back from most, I am proud to say I will be spending this summer working as an editorial intern at a lifestyle magazine in California. I’m expecting to be doing lots of copy-editing and fact-checking, but hope to do some writing too. I am beyond excited to finally get the opportunity to pursue my dream of being a big-time magazine writer.

I had pretty much given up on finding a magazine internship until I stumbled upon the listing on Ed. I e-mailed the editor with my resume and cover letter and heard back within a few hours. The catch? They wanted me to do a fact-check test and a 150-word restaurant write-up by the following week. I had never done fact-checking before, but I went ahead and wrote up the best questions I could think of, like she had asked me to. I also happened to be leaving town the next day for a weekend trip, but somehow it got done. I had one more Skype interview, and there ya go—hired!

What is there to know about me?

Introducing...The Intern Veteran Taking Over Lifestyle Magazines

The first semester of my sophomore year I was enrolled in an introductory writing class. During our unit on magazine writing, my professor spent an unhealthy amount of time talking to a room full of tired college students about the beauty of magazines as a publication, and how anyone, no matter who you are, can find some kind of magazine written just for them. It started off interesting, but he lost all of us when he started talking about his AARP subscription.


Fast forward about 45 minutes. He's up out of his chair now and suddenly pencils are back on paper as everyone tries to find their way back into the "conversation." But he's got something in his hand. A magazine. AARP? Could be.


"And that's why they're so great. Even ferret lovers have their place in the magazine world," he explained in his monotone drawl before holding up the cover of, you guess it, a ferret magazine.
There were chuckles in the class as he regained the attention of us tired students. But wait...what is that I see? Tucked carefully inside the centerfold of the ferret magazine there appears to be...


Oh, no, it can't be. It couldn't possibly be...

Introducing...The Campus Mag EIC At Her Dream Edit Internship

Hello there, fellow Edsters! 

I'm here to tell you about how I landed my dream, and I do mean dream, internship this summer. Four years ago, back when I was an even younger whippersnapper than I am now, I found an internship program online. I quickly realized there was probably no better opportunity out there for aspiring journalists. I was much too young to apply, and I also thought there was no way that I would ever (ever, ever, ever) be able to land something like that. But I bookmarked it anyway and about once a year, I reviewed the intern qualifications. I wanted to make sure that I was building my resume to their standards, thinking that if I prepared myself for something of that caliber, then maybe I could land something similar.

Well, you already know how this one ends. A few months after sending in my application (so maybe patience isn't my strong suit) I found out that I got the internship. These days I'm busy doing highly productive things like counting down the days until I leave for New York and stalking program alumni on Twitter. I also occasionally take a break from that to do some school work.

Speaking of school, I'm a junior in college studying magazine journalism and new media.

Introducing...The Fashion Internaholic Going On Her Second NYC Internship

When I was four, I insisted on always dressing myself because I told my mom I had better fashion sense than her (I needed that creative freedom. Sorry for insulting you, Mom). Though lime green floral leggings paired with a red, white, and blue striped top and my mother’s expensive red lipstick may have been a low point for my young fashion savvy self, I pranced around in that outfit as if I looked like a million bucks. 

From there, my passion for fashion only flourished with age. I would, and still do, sit for hours watching all the red carpet events for award shows and judge each celebrity’s outfit. I never even thought my love for clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry, and beyond could ever be turned into a lifelong career.

I am sitting in my intern apartment in Herald Square finishing up my spring semester internship. As I look back on the last five months I have seen my life transform from 19-year-old college student to 20-year-old New York City based fashion intern; from sheepish and apprehensive to assertive and confident. I moved to New York, literally, not knowing a soul.

Stay Tuned: Ed's Intern Diaries Are Back

Hey Edsters,

The summer days are heating up and you know what that means: our clandestine intern bloggers are back and better than ever. Check back tomorrow to meet our newest cohort: Ed's fashion, lifestyle, regional, entertainment and edit intern have a lot to share!

Happy Interning,
Ed

From New York, In Tears, And How To Make A Lasting Impression

This is it, Edsters--the farewell I've been dreading all summer.

I'm in much the same situation now as I was when I wrote my first blog--sitting in my room,

surrounded by mounds of clothes, this time trying to figure out how to pack everything I brought with everything I bought. It probably won't work well.

Leaving is the last action I want to take right now. I've really taken a step back this week, and thought about everything I've experienced. Who can say they've worked at the men's magazine, seen the Macy's 4th of July fireworks from the riverfront, filled in for their boss, mastered the subway system, gone home with their boss and freelanced into the wee hours of the morning, found the one famous Halal food cart in the city (it's on 53rd and 6th)? I've looked out my window every night at the most incredible, sparkling cityscape. I've buid relationships with editors and writers.

I am really excited and amazed at my own accomplishments thus far, Edsters. I was scared I wouldn't be. I was scared I was just going through the motions and not getting anything out of the experience. But now I'm training new interns and my bosses are asking me if I "can please stay forever." It's surreal. And I feel so blessed to be here, even though it must end with me being so sad to leave.

But I cannot end this incredible summer on a sullen note, Edsters. Every second counts in this bustling industry, so I plan to make the best exit I possibly can, as you should, too: