Internship Series part 3: 5 ways to gain experience without an internship

Unfortunately, the world requires internships and it’s not fair, but I have yet to give a realistic way to get around that. So to conclude my internship series, here are my top 5 tips for getting the experience of an internship without actually being someone’s bitch:

1. Meet people. I already talk a little about how networking is a big plus regarding internships, but this is easy to do by joining professional organizations, using social media, contacting potential “mentors” (alumni offices are awesome for this exact purpose) and abusing any and all connections.

2. Freelance. A lot of young people don’t even think of this as an option because it’s something more seasoned professional do, but getting freelance work through friends, using Craigslist and contacting your dream company directly puts the big names on your resume, generates contacts and builds up an impressive portfolio (which is always handy).

3. Use social media to get your name out there and establish yourself in the desired professional community. This entire blog is a result of me getting a job after college, where I used Twitter, Facebook and said blog to get people talking. This resulted in a full time job, but also a ton of freelance work (NY Times, HarperCollins and various authors).

4. Temp. Interns are really just glorified assistants, so might as well get paid for the work you’d be doing anyway. Many temp agencies can set you up with part-time gigs in the field of your choice and being a paid employee of a company is always more impressive than being an intern. This also gets around not having the “mandatory” internship on your resume.

5. Become an expert. Read the top publications in your field, get books, watch webinars, make friends with bloggers – not only does this create contacts and integrates you into the professional community, but slowly establishes you as an expert (basically, all the things you can get from an internship).

Tagged as: creative ideas, facebook, freelance, Internships, networking, resume, series, Social Media, tips, twitter

http://twitter.com/marianschembari/status/7370731798 Marian Schembari
The last post in my internship series! — Internship Series part 3: 5 ways to gain experience without an internship http://bit.ly/7jDWnW
http://twitter.com/universityboy/status/7399273972 Martin Hughes
5 ways to gain experience without an internship: http://bit.ly/6nlUGT (@marianschembari)
http://twitter.com/universityboy/status/7399273972 Sahar Mirhadi
RT @universityboy: 5 ways to gain experience without an internship: http://bit.ly/6nlUGT (@marianschembari)
Nic Boshart
Great series, Marian. Unpaid internships are ridiculous. I was lucky enough to get paid by BookNet Canada (who are ridiculously awesome people) but I know people who are on their second, third unpaid internships. It’s hard enough to get jobs in the industry, but to be expected to work for free?
Interestingly enough, almost all of the small presses I know pay their interns, however all the big guys usually give out a $1000 honourarium at the end. How crap is that?
Nic Boshart
Great series, Marian. Unpaid internships are ridiculous. I was lucky enough to get paid by BookNet Canada (who are ridiculously awesome people) but I know people who are on their second, third unpaid internships. It’s hard enough to get jobs in the industry, but to be expected to work for free?
Interestingly enough, almost all of the small presses I know pay their interns, however all the big guys usually give out a $1000 honourarium at the end. How crap is that?
Pingback: I still hate internships, but sometimes free is smart | Marian Schembari
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Wisdominthemind
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Melissa A Hui
It’s been a while since the post’s publish date, but I absolutely agree with your statements from this series. It’s terrible how many companies are offering “Credit Only” or unpaid internships! Many companies are also saying that they’re not offering relocation assistance. In fact, even top technology companies are withholding some form of assistance in transportation for out-of-town or flying their out-of-state interns to their new place of living and work. And with pay scales dipping, how’s an interns suppose to live on a shrinking pay check? And if they’re unpaid, do companies really expect them to live out of their car for the summer? Absolutely unreasonable and ridiculous! There are plenty of ways to gain experience without an internship and you summed them up quite nicely in this post. I was on the fence about doing internships for this summer, but your posts have encouraged me to take my education and talents and do something more with more meaning and impact instead of being subjected to “slave labor”. Thank you!
- http://marianlibrarian.com Marian Schembari
  Amen sister! Thanks for your great comment – I love when people leave them on the older posts :)

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