It’s best to work on your applications sooner rather than later, and to find ways to make your application stand out from all the others. Crafting a strong application takes time, but it’s worth it if it lands you an internship — and possibly a job later down the road.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when applying for
internships.
Start looking now. If you haven’t
looked into newsroom internships or at least started researching deadline dates
and application materials you’ll need, you’re behind. There’s no reason you
can’t start researching possible newsrooms where you’d like to work, even if
the application deadline isn’t until early next year. Start now, so you’re not
scrambling later.
Become reacquainted with your cover letter and resume.
It’s the season to update both of these items. Get a friend or mentor to
proofread them and make sure they exemplify your qualities and qualifications.
Read your resume and cover letter out loud to make sure the writing sounds OK
and to check for typos. You wouldn’t want an editor to put your application in
the trash bin just because of a small typo.
Get in touch with your references. Look through your
list of contacts and get in touch with former editors to tell them about your
plans for the year ahead. Ask them for advice on what you should be applying
for, and goals you should be trying to accomplish this school year. If you
don’t have references, try to get at least three of them.
Stick to the professional experience you want to have.
Don’t apply to be a design intern if you really want to be a reporter. If you
know what you want your internship experience to be, apply for the exact
position you want. Once you get the internship you want, you can ask to get
experience in other areas that interest you.
Look locally and nationally. Don’t confine
yourself to your hometown or the city you go to school in. If there’s a
publication or station you like in a different city, see if they have an
internship program and apply for it. If they ask you why you want to work out
of state, be ready to explain why. Sometimes, the best way to get to know a new
city is to be a reporter or photojournalist in it; you get to visit different
parts of the city while on assignment, and you meet a lot of people in the
process.
Keep your (paid and unpaid) options open. Despite the criticism surrounding unpaid internships, I don’t think you should discredit them altogether. My philosophy has been: don’t turn down an opportunity until you’ve assessed the offers on the table. Apply for a combination of unpaid and paid internships and see which ones come through. If you don’t have at least one newsroom internship, it’s going to be difficult to land a paid summer gig. Don’t put yourself above an unpaid internship. It might mean taking on a part-time job, especially if money is tight, but experience is experience. A small weekly or daily could give you some great sink or swim reporting experiences.
Have a Web presence (beyond social media). Google
could be your best friend or worst enemy when applying for internships.
Recruiters will Google your name to see what comes up first. Ideally, your
blog/digital portfolio would pop-up first. Update it with new clips from the
summer, and make sure the blog entries are current. If you’re a broadcast
journalist, upload new videos to your YouTube/Vimeo accounts. Take a weekend to
sit down and create
a digital portfolio. It also looks good when you claim your domain name.
Clean up your social media. Plain and simple: if you
wouldn’t want your parents and grandmother to see what you post on Twitter or
Facebook, then either don’t post it or change your privacy settings. Show
prospective editors that you know how to use social media to promote your work,
build an audience and engage with others. In addition to being on Facebook and
Twitter, you should have a LinkedIn account that details your experience and
the opportunities you’re looking for.
Regardless of the outcome, find ways to practice journalism. If you don’t get an internship, that’s OK. There are steps you can take to make up for it. Find a news site you could freelance for, write news and new analysis on your blog, grab a camera and do your own stand-ups and packages, teach yourself skills like coding, infographic making and Final Cut. And join your college newspaper, if you haven’t already. Create a learning opportunity for yourself and run with it.
I wish you the best in your pursuit of an internship and a
long-term media career!