Last week, I was sent over to the fashion closet to help the style interns on a busy day. They had just finished shooting a story on the perfect pair of denim for every body (curvy, boyish, apple shaped, etc.), and now the remains of the project were stuffed in bags that popped out of every corner in the room.

Over 500 pairs of jeans had been surveyed in order to find the perfect few that would appear in the magazine, so you can imagine how much material I’m talking about here. I, along with the other intern I work with, was informed that all these jeans had to be separated by brand and then put in separate piles. After this we would send the jeans back to the PR companies that sent them to us.

Thus began my day of physical labor – if you think carrying huge piles of denim around in your arms all day isn’t heavy and tiring, you’re wrong – and I didn’t sit down until about 5 pm. I realized that these fashion girls were doing this every day as I sat placidly in front of my computer typing and web surfing! This got me to thinking about some of the jobs that require you to stand/lift/push/pull things all day long, and I decided to ask my friends with labor-intensive jobs for some funny stories.

Amusement Park
This summer, thanks to the totally sh*tty economy, one of my friends is working at a water park in New Jersey where she has to lift little children on and off a miniature waterslide all day long. The other day, a three year old peed on her in mid-air, and then the mother (standing behind the gate) proceeded to yell at my friend for making her daughter cry. Not to mention the fact that these water park pools and rides are probably filled with pee anyways, since little kids think its okay to let it all out wherever and whenever they please. Awesome. Read More »

Dear Upper East Side,

I’m writing this letter with sadness in my heart and hot fudge in my hair. I’ve spent the last two months scooping your ice cream and ringing up orders and now its time for me to go home. But even though I must leave, I wanted to spend a few final moments reflecting on our time together.

Like remember all those times when you came in with your Blackberry in one hand, your Bugaboo stroller in the other, and you didn’t even look up from your phone to place your order? I always respected you for your determination to complete your conversation, even if it sometimes meant you couldn’t make eye contact with me.

Or haha, I’m cracking up about that time I gave you two cents in change and you held your hand out waiting for it so you could put it back in your Prada wallet, which you shoved into your Fendi bag instead of the tip jar. That was a great time. Read More »

There’s no question about it: finding somebody to pay you is hard. In some cases, it’s even hard to find somebody to not pay you but instead give you something that’s supposed to be equivalent: college credit, for instance, or a big-ticket line on your resume.

Yeah, I’m talking about the Real World.

I’m far from a career counselor, but I have picked up a lot of helpful tips along the way. Since it’s sometimes hard to know where to start when looking for a job or internship, let me offer a few things that I know to be helpful:

• Work those connections. Connections, connections, connections. Have I made my point clear yet? CONNECTIONS! If you know somebody whose friend knows somebody whose brother knows somebody… well, what are you waiting for?! There’s only two degrees of separation between you and that person, and nobody else is going to do the legwork for you. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that a ton of industries are based on connections, and at some places it can be impossible to get your foot in the door unless you physically plant it there. Talk to people, ask questions, and be proactive. Networking is far more important than you think. Read More »

I experienced the real meaning of the saying “April Showers bring May Flowers” the other day as I walked through a part of Manhattan I hadn’t visited in two weeks and suddenly realized it was now home to green tree branches and blooming tulips (…as well as a homeless guy who kept trying to get me to make out with him…).

New York City is in bloom. And it’s fantastic. And will only last for about three more weeks and then summer will roll in and burn everything to a crisp and cause me to sweat so badly on the subways that I become concerned for my own health.

BUT. Before summer truly has us in her hot, hot choke hold, we are being blessed with May. Sweet, little, darling, beautiful May. It could be my favorite season. And not just because it signals the end of school and the beginning of constant barbecues and awesome hippie skirts. To me, May always represents rebirth. Nature’s ability to forgive and forget. Our ability to move on. Brighter things to come.

And the freaking beach.

What are your May plans, dear awesome readers? Graduating? Finishing up finals? Heading home for some much needed R and R before an internship / job / summer classes start? What exactly ARE you doing for a summer internship or job? Have any hot tips to pass our way?

Oh yeah, and also…what’s your favorite summer treat?

[Questions, Comments, love letters for CollegeCandy? Contact J directly at jess@collegecandy.com]

So, I realize that a lot my peers have a strange fixation with this thing called “the summer hook up”. As my friend and co-blogger Sol so eloquently, (actually she just corrected me, it was belligerently) put it;

Solgurl88: IT’S THE SAME THING AS HOOKING UP IN THE WINTER

Solgurl88: how come people never say

Solgurl88: ‘winter hookup!’(?)

I added that question mark in there for ya, buddy. But poor AIM grammar aside, I have to agree with her. A hook up is a hook up, why the classification?

Well, I suppose for people who vacation in a foreign country, or somewhere other than where they normally reside, the ‘summer hook up’ symbolizes the opportunity for a no-strings attached ‘relationship’ of sorts. (Those people are not to be confused with me, I am doomed to work endless summer jobs with either all females or no attractive co-workers for all college eternity.) Read More »

Summer — a time for barbeques, trips to the beach, and some serious drinking. So where the hell does waking up at the crack of dawn fit in?

Not long ago, 1 p.m. was an acceptable hour for me to drag myself out of bed. My roommate would often upstage my extreme sleeping habits by dozing into the late afternoon. We would shudder collectively at the thought of waking up at the extreme early morning hour of 10 a.m.

However, as soon as the summer began and I moved back to a land free of all nighters in the study lounge, loud parties across the hall, and most importantly, the incessant overbearing stress of school, I began to wake up at 7 a.m. on a daily basis for my internship and job.

I’m not going to pretend it was easy. The first few days the morning sun burned my eyes and I had to physically throw myself out of bed. I cursed myself for having responsibilities and stumbled around my house like a wounded animal. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Despite this rocky start, it wasn’t long before I began to recognize the many benefits of rising at a decent hour:

Breakfast: Let’s get real. Breakfast food is some of the best stuff out there. Bagels, pancakes, cereal, fruit- it doesn’t get much better than that. Having time to actually eat it is a precious opportunity. Not only is breakfast food delicious, it’s part of a nutritionally balanced diet. Read More »

Today I woke up at home, in my childhood bed, after two consecutive all-nighters, a killer three – hour essay exam, and being told I had to move from my apartment building with one week’s notice to find two emails in my inbox:

1. I had been rejected from Random House’s Summer Internship program, and 2. I had been rejected for a summer fellowship from the New York Historical Society. There was also an email from jcrew.com, which I would usually delete, but today I found myself reading about argyle sock sales just to take the edge off the two other stingers.

I don’t get it — I’m a perfectly desirable candidate. I look great on paper. So where’s the summer love (in the form of a paid internship in my desired field)?

Last February I decided that I had to move to NYC for the summer and work somewhere awesome. So, I applied to about sixty places, no joke. I only heard back from five, and was flat – out rejected from two. So who are these bionic college students that must be my hidden competition? Read More »

I am the queen of summer jobs and internships.

I have done everything from chase kids around in nurseries to waitressing to getting covered in dirt in a greenhouse to working in a tiny cubicle in a Manhattan talent office to running errands for a crazy agent to making pizza for one day.

Looking back, there are so many things I wish I could have told my little 19 year old self during her first foray into living alone and interning in New York City. One of those things would be to never eat the coleslaw in any restaurant (they totally reuse that shit), but I would also tell her how to deal with completely psychotic bosses and why it’s okay to lie to certain part time employers. Read More »