"When you have a boyfriend, it's much easier to find a boyfriend. It's much easier to find a job when you have a job. You talk the talk. You're more involved in that industry. You're running into people in the building. You have the internal contacts with human resources. Your confidence level is up."
-Parents magazine editor-in-chief Chandra Turner, explaining the benefits of continuous internships for recent graduates who cannot find media jobs. There are so many metaphors in here I don't know where to start. [Via]
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
30
"You're like a serial killer, once you get started, you're on a roll. Don't stop killing until you're caught, by which I mean, hired full time."
She's also provided the most insightful reason yet as to why I don't have a boyrfriend. Thanks, Chandra.
When you work for free, it's much easier to find unemployment.
"When you show people that you are willing to be exploited, they will be happy to exploit you."
We all have a little whore inside, you just gotta spend the time figuring out your rates and when to dole out freebies.
I interned for-fucking-ever and now have a job in the media, she's not entirely wrong.
But then again, I prefer 'escort.'
Finding a boyfriend is IMPOSSIBLE though.
How do you feel about long distance relationships?
My dick isn't THAT long, sorry.
First you have to get one Then it's easy.
It's true.
So wait. Does this mean I shouldn't be discouraged if he has a girlfriend?
It is true that it is easier for me to browse HR websites, now that I have Internet access at work.
Are you looking to get married, because I have a wife.
I'm confused. Where does chlamydia fit in to this formula?
The Weinstein Co.
I got my first media job because I was working as a temp. This is like being an intern, except (a) not as pretigious and yet (b) at least you get a meager paycheck! You still get the chance to show that you are smart and capable, though.
There's a big, big difference between temping and being an intern. I'd rather see someone had temped at an unrelated job than that someone had interned (academic-type internships excepted). At least with the former it meant someone thought highly enough of you to actually pay you money.
Remember, she's an editor-in-chief: she makes her money off of interns.
Or that you're dedicated enough to take a less-than-glamorous sounding temp job. Internships tend to reek of nepotism.
... in that they seem to be the first step in a series of steps toward "justifying" why the sons and nephews of the company's elite always seem to end up on the fast track.
They actually give temps stuff to do. Most of the interns I see at companies just sort through old files looking for dust bunnies.
This article really struck a chord with me. My first gig right out of vocational school was an unpaid internship with a self-employed one-armed bartender. A Vietnam vet, Eddie Willoughby was tough as nails to work for but always fair; as long as you answered his phone in a fake foreign accent and pretended not to understand the creditors who called he would give you a beer. This happened seven or eight times a day. The rest of the time we mostly watched the Betamax while he poured whiskey shots for himself and periodically yelled at the "goddamn sandwiches" to "stop chasin' my donkey 'round the goddamn frisky snake." At least that's what it sounded like to me. Remember, I was just an intern.
One day a man driving one of those hybrid Jeep pickup trucks like in the show Simon & Simon showed up at the office and parked outside but didn't get out of his truck for a long, long time. He just sat there, staring. Eddie said to ignore him and that he was probably just a "Frito ball rummer." Still, I was nervous. It was my first job and I wanted to fit in, so even when the man backed his truck hitch up to the office and began towing us toward town I didn't say anything to Eddie, who was busy trying to fix the "goddamn Betamax" and yelling at me to clean up the whiskey that was spilling out everywhere "before it turns goddamn wrinkle butter."
After that day I never saw Eddie again, and always kinda regretted jumping out the office window and into the river without saying goodbye. Still, like the original article points out, if I hadn't taken that unpaid internship I never would have made it to where I am today. That's something to think about. Every morning when I wake up and go outside to shave the cats and inflate the office tires, I thank Eddie for showing me how to run a business the right way.
We have all had internships like this. It really tells you something about an employer when they choose not to pay for work that needs to be done. (and it isn't: "They are important and successful!" Quite the opposite.)
Let it be known that you, my friend, are no Frito ball rummer.
More Eddie Willoughby stories, please. Like, a long book's worth of them.
Hmm.. Do I need to explain Ms. Turner the importance of being able to pay rent? Or eat? It's quite telling how all of the students mentioned in the article relied on mom and dad to finance their internships and provide health insurance.
Must be nice.
I had no health insurance and worked part time / interned part time 60 hours a week for six months.
When you have a boyfriend, it's much easier to be a total bitch.
Sarcasm is lost on the unattached!
I'm so canceling my subscription to Parents.
when you have a boyfriend, it's much easier to find a boyfriend. you just walk into the bedroom and there he is, the dumb lump. why doesn't he ever leave the house?
"Jobs! You always find them the last place you look!"