I Love Interns

I think I am annoying. Recent posts are incredibly self-involved and existential... so let's talk about something wonderful. Something interesting. Something UTTERLY FANTASTIC!

INTERNS!

Everyone loves interns. In the work place, interns are the BEST. I think I've discovered my newfound love for interns because for once, I am not one of them! In college I had three serious internships. One was at Us Weekly in New York City (big surprise, right? Celebrity obsessed girl works at celebrity obsessed magazine--they were a little shocked when I could recall covers from three years prior, and I was pretty disgusted with myself when I realized I could recognize celebrity children), then I followed with an internship at W Magazine and Women's Wear Daily while I studied in Paris (this sounds a lot more glamorous than it was. I wrote obituaries for fashion designers who hadn't croaked yet, cleaned the fashion closet, stuffed envelopes, and had to terrifyingly sit at the reception desk and in answer the phones... in French) and lastly I worked at Weber Shandwick as a PR intern. The Weber internship was the closest to a real job (in some ways more realistic than my job now... hmm...) and I was treated a little more like a team member than my days at Us or WWD (I even had my own email... with my own name! My current job's email doesn't even contain my own name! I've digressed, hurrah!)

The common thread about being an intern is this--you are often times treated like crap, relegated menial tasks, and ignored by most. However, an internship is not permanent, and therefore job performance doesn't mean as much. For example, near the end of my days at Weber I was sure that a career in PR wasn't for me. So I did what I had to do but was okay with not loving my job. I knew that come August, I was a goner. Internships are a nice glimpse into the working world but are never permanent. Imagine if your current job was done in three months! What an incredibly liberating thought.

The major downside to being an intern (besides when I worked at Us and was forced to wander into Times Square in the middle of the hot, humid, smelly summer and ask annoying tourists whose child was cuter, Angelina Jolie's or Madonna's? Oh the shame!) and the real bummer about your temporary career would be the little pay, or lack of compensation altogether. Ah but life is easy as college student, when the internship is more about the experience and the extra padding to your resume.

Let's be honest though. I didn't love being an intern. Interns have to do all the crap that no one else wants to do. Now, however, I love interns. Love, love, love. I don't feel like filing? Make the intern do it! I don't want to reorganize the script library... that's okay, I don't have to--that's what interns are for! Scan a 400 page book? Call the intern! Even better than semester interns are summer interns. They are ripe, fresh, and ready to kick ass so they can get a good recommendation out of you for their first real job (at least that's what I was like). And they are plentiful. Ready, willing, and able to do the stupidest shit. Interns are the best.

Please keep in mind that as I write this we don't have any interns. So I am the one doing all that menial crap right now. Ooooh but in just a few weeks this place will be TEEMING with them. I can't wait! The stacks of files on my desk are just overflowing in intern anticipation. Oh what fun we'll have.

Let's be honest... another reason I love interns? It's fun to know that when you are at the bottom of the totem pole, there's always someone lower. Interns, I walk all over you, and I love doing it.