[Life after college is hard. Like really hard. But it's not so hard that you should curl up in a ball and watch E! marathons all day long. Not only are we covering the experience from a first-hand perspective, but we're now covering it from a how-to-survive-it perspective. Every week, we're going to bringing the best advice to getting through your first post-grad year. Because sometimes, your grandmother's "just go to law school" advice just doesn't cut it.]

If I were to say “post-grad internship,” would you shudder in disgust or tackle me with five different copies of your resume and a cover letter proofread by Katie Couric?

Much like cilantro, the notion of working for a small stipend (or…gasp!…for free) tends to separate people into two groups. You’ve got those who wholeheartedly support it, and those who can’t run away fast enough. And, unlike happy hour at Dos Margaritas, there’s rarely tequila around the office to help you chase away the taste of shame that comes with being a post-grad intern.

Despite how it may sound, I actually do in fact think internships are a worthwhile endeavor, even after graduation. But you’ve got to be smart about where you accept a spot, if you can financially afford to do so, and all that jazz. So before you tell me I’m crazy for suggesting you throw away your first summer out of college working for peanuts…or before you jump into an internship that might not be right for you…see how things measure up for you in my handy dandy pro-con list: Read More »

I learned a long time ago that if I want to break into magazine writing I would have to get some internships under my belt. And after searching high and low, I later learned those internships would most likely be unpaid. Did I want to make big money while working full time at a job? Of course, but if working my patootie off to pad my resume required a financial sacrifice, then I was more than willing to do it.

But some people don’t agree and actually want to make unpaid internships illegal! Worried that many companies are illegally using students for free labor, many officials in Oregon, California and other states want to change the rules and require companies to pay their interns.

Honestly, this is something I never really thought of before.  In my eyes, the benefit of my unpaid internships has been the experience gained on my resume. I always just accepted that unpaid internships were something everyone had to have if they wanted to move up the ladder. Sure, it wasn’t ideal, but that’s just the way things were, and if you were learning something about your future career then it was all worth it.

But then I started thinking about all those bullsh*t internships out there. You know, the ones where you’re making copies, fetching coffee and answering phones. The ones that have literally nothing to do with your future career interests, but you take because you think it will still look good on your resume. Like an NYU intern at a Manhattan children’s film company who was assigned to the facilities department to wipe the doorknobs each day to prevent Swine Flu from spreading through the office. I don’t know what the job listing was, but I’m pretty sure that student didn’t plan on adding “door knob cleaner” to their resume. How did he benefit from that? Read More »

Learning the ropes of an internship is one thing, but becoming accustomed to a big city for the first time while starting an internship can make those first few days all the more nerve wracking.

After scoring two internships in New York City last summer, I couldn’t have been more excited – and then the realization of living alone in a city I didn’t know anything about terrified me. From the moment my plane landed at La Guardia, I was a nervous wreck until I made it through my first few days.

By the end of my time as a summer intern, though, I had the interning and city gag down pat. In fact, I couldn’t get enough, so I decided to come back to New York in January to intern again. With three different internships under my belt in one of the biggest cities in the world, here are some tips that helped me become a big city intern faster than I thought was possible. Read More »

Is the spring semester half over already? Sadly, it’s true. And while some of our peers will be looking forward to spending the summer at one pool party after another, many of us are currently scouring job listings for summer internships.

Internships are a great way to add experience to your resume, make industry connections, and discover what kind of career path you really want to follow. While school’s in session, it can be hard to fit an internship into your schedule; in the summer, however, you can devote more hours to the gig.

Unfortunately, just because you sign up to work a 40-hour work week from May to August, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get paid like a fulltime employee. Read More »