Use Your Head, Interns!

The prestigious summer internship. Or just any internship at all. Nowadays, it’s basically necessary to gain some sort of “professional” experience during your college years in order to make yourself a viable candidate for a job post-graduation.

Having lived in NYC the past two summers and spent my days happily as a lowly intern, I know what it’s like to be unpaid, exhausted, and basically melting in a non-air conditioned housing situation. But, I have noticed one recent trend lately that I think could be really damaging for an intern’s future. And that is “complaint blogging” or posting your misery all over the internet. Employers do notice these things and it really can come back to bite your ass in the future.

Case in point: Jossip recently reported on a newsletter called the Intern Memo where a certain student named Rachel Berman kind of ragged about her position and its certain duties.

Now, this poor girl has been mocked on a media site that is read daily by industry insiders, not to mention what her boss might think of the disclosure. This is not the only recent case in the media either.

Eric Hielscher, a Google intern, has started a blog about his time in the big city, and it has been noticed and written about on Gawker, a snarky, addictive media blog. Not that he really says anything too bad, but now, his personal and work life are broadcast all over the internet.

I know that being an intern can totally suck sometimes, and it helps to commiserate with others in similar situations over the internet. But really, keep your frusturations off websites, blogs, etc. because you never know who is reading and it is just getting tacky. Get a journal or just vent to your friends and family (not on the office phone, obviously).

But seriously, you will live through it, I swear.