How to choose a good internship (and avoid the crappy ones).

To intern or not to intern, that is the question.

Some believe an internship is modern day equivalent of slave labour. Others reckon they’re your golden ticket to a better job, and a must-have on your resume.

In my opinion, internships are invaluable. The experience you gain will teach you so much more than a lecture ever could. If you have the time – and the funds – to intern, by all means for it.

However, not all internships are created equal.

I’ve interned at four different places in my time. One seemed exciting, but was ultimately worthless. One was pretty much a scam. One lead to a job four hours into my first day. And one (my current one) is a dream come true.

It took some trial and error to land a good one – and believe me, I’ve trialled and erred  I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did, fellow interner. So here’s my advice, for what its worth, on how to pick a good internship.

Where will you be working?

This might seem obvious, but it is a crucial element. If you are not working in the head office, get out. Ditto for being locked away in a corner where you interact with nobody. Ditto for working at reception. Ditto for working in their store.

I once agreed to an internship – in Essex. I lived in London. Great move Alex! One week in, and it became pretty clear that I was only there to create content for free – without learning a damn thing. Except, of course, a lesson in avoiding internship scams.

How long will it go for?

Make sure you and the company have an agreed upon end date. This doesn’t matter so much if you’re working the dream internship, but it is VITAL if this is simply a resume-filler, need-to-have-before-I-graduate type internship. Otherwise, they will lap up the free labour and keep you on until all of your spirits are crushed.

That being said, if you love where you are, this isn’t as important. I’ve been with Mamamia now for about three months, and to be honest – it’s flown by. I’d be happy to stay there for another three months. Maybe more.

Never underestimate how much you soak up by being in a great workplace.

Will you be getting coffee?

Once in a while is fine. Intern or CEO, it shouldn’t matter; if you’re getting coffee, it’s polite to see if anyone else would like one. However, if it’s gotten to the point where you’ve memorised everybody’s orders, it’s time to leave.

What will you be doing?

It’s a fact of internships that there will be some crappy tasks. Nobody likes filing, but somebody has to do it, and unfortunately that person is you. Take it with good grace. There’s a time for getting on your high horse and this, my friend, is not it.

However, there should be a significant part of your day that is spent learning about the company and increasing your skill set. Filing does NOT increase any skill set except your ability to hum the alphabet song.

For example, I currently intern at an online publication. This does NOT mean I spend my day writing stuff for the website (although I get to do that sometimes). Instead, I do a bunch of other things, like sourcing content and images, uploading posts, tweeting, and monitoring comments (our site has a bucketload of commenters). It might not all be writing, but it’s all important. It’s amazing what you learn about online publications that way.

Where have previous interns ended up?

If they slinked back to university/their weekend bar tending job, you may have a problem. If they are currently interning elsewhere, there may be a problem… or they may simply be gaining valuable experience elsewhere. If they are working paid jobs in their field, you’re on to a winner. And if they currently work at the company, YOU HAVE HIT GOLD!

This is still no guarantee you will get a job. Still, it’s something to consider.

Is this a company you can see yourself working at?

Is this even the right internship for you? Do you actually want to be a part of this company or are you simply desperate for an internship? Fashion companies are notorious for being ‘propped up’ by interns, who spend their day in the fashion closet. Just because you like the brand doesn’t mean you will like the company.

At the end of the day, a crappy internship can be a stepping stone to a better internship. Suck it up, stick it out for a short time, and then leave. Never get complacent.

And one day if you work hard and wish upon a star and don’t step on any cracks, you’ll have a role that pays.

What would you recommend to someone seeking an internship? Have you ever had an internship disaster?

The Twenties Gap (Part II)

A few months ago, I wrote a post called ‘The Twenties Gap’, where I made history and created a new phrase that will come to define our generation. *You can hear the sarcasm, right?

What is the Twenties Gap? Glad you asked!

Ever since, I can’t stop thinking about other ways my teenage self would be severely disappointed in the way things have turned out. So here it is, the second instalment of The Twenties Gap!

On My Friends

Teenager Me: We’re all gonna stay best friends, right? I mean, how could we NOT stay friends? We’ll hang out every single day, except instead of playing the EyeCube and eating junk food (that’s so childish), we’ll meet in cool urban bars and drink those cocktails like they drink on Sex and the City. I think they’re called a Cosmopolitan?

Twenties Me: Instead of an EyeCube, we now play Nintendo Wii. I rule at Mario Kart. From my group at school, I probably see two of them on a regular basis. That’s okay though – I’m friends with loads of people that I hadn’t even met yet.

There was a smaller group of five of us that used to be really close, but trying to get us all to meet up takes months of preparation and someone usually bails anyway. There comes a point when it’s just not worth it anymore.

Twenties Gap: 5/10

On My Drinking Habits

Teenager Me: So those cocktails I mentioned before? The Cosmo type things? Yeah, I’m going to ONLY drink those. And other cocktails, of course. I like the ones with fruit best.

And vodka cranberries, because that’s what people drink, right?

Twenties Me: DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A COCKTAIL COSTS? About $20, that’s how much. And that $20 could easily get me two or three cheaper drinks, which in the alcohol content + price – calories equation, works out a whole lot better. Come at me happy hour!

The exception to this rule is when I make them myself, because I am fantastic at making Pimms and I think I still have some duty free.

Twenties Gap: 9/10

The Five People You Will Meet At Every Festival

Festival season is almost upon us! Who doesn’t love a good festival? It’s that one special time a year you get to exchange body sweat with a thousand people just by jumping around in a mosh pit.

The people you go with can make or break any festival, no matter who’s playing and what the weather’s like. You’re also likely to meet a few, erm, characters along the way. To help you spot them, I’ve compiled a list of the five characters you’re most likely to meet this festival season.

1. The Set List Guy.

Set List Guy has figured out how to maximise your enjoyment. How? By printing out the festival’s set list and consulting it every 20 minutes.

Is there an overlap of two acts that he absolutely has to see?! Never fear! Set List Guy will work out the precise moment you can leave the first act and head to the second, while factoring in time for shoving through crowds. Fun to be had by all! Unless there is someone you are just desperate to see, leave Set List Guy to his timetable and just go with the flow.

2. The New Best Friend.

You will likely find your New Best Friend dancing next to you in the mosh pit. This person will have probably have little regard for personal boundaries, but that’s okay. This moment in time is so amazing that it’s nice to share it by hugging someone – depending on your level of inebriation and the other person’s level of attractiveness/hygiene.

Cue attempting to get on someone’s shoulders, taking fifteen identical photos and having a badly timed deep and meaningful (like, right during your favourite song).

New Best Friends can make for an amazing day, but judge it wrong and they could easily become the Creepy Stranger.

20somethings profile: Where I talk about figuring out what you want to do in life.

When I grew up, I wanted to be an actress, author, astronaut, architect and finally in advertising – in that order. I was 22 when I realised that all of those professions started with ‘a’.

My profile is up on 20somethings in 2013! I talk about why it’s okay to be change your mind about one of the most important decisions in your life, and how I figured out what I want to do. You should probably check it out here.

Why nobody cares that Cara Delevingne was caught with cocaine.

Oh, Cara, you saucy little minx you. Miss Delevingne was caught by the paparazzi two weeks ago dropping a ‘packet of mysterious white powder’ outside her Belgravia home.

The giggling Victoria’s Secret model and current face of H&M tried to discreetly cover it with her foot, but London paparazzi caught the moment the (almost empty) packet went flying from her hands on camera.

And then, everybody kind of… forgot about it.

When a certain other Brit super model was caught with cocaine back in 2005, the tabloids had a field day. Kate Moss – who at the time was also the face of H&M – was swiftly dropped by the brand and later made a public apology to “all the people I have let down.”

So why didn’t the same media storm follow Cara?

Five awesome female characters that would make terrible friends in real life.

Effy Stonem // Skins

This list was pretty much invented for Effy. She pops pills and smokes spliffs like she just don’t care, trudges through Bristol in clothes your mother wouldn’t let you out of the house in, and just generally has an attitude of casual social supremacy.

Her life is one huge adventure that you only get little glimpses of – and it’s addictive.

In seasons 1 & 2 she was simply Tony’s little sister. Audiences loved her so much that in the third season, the writers created an entire plot line out of three – three! – boys being in love with her. At the same time. Cue drama and lots of sexual tension!

Normal 17-year-old boys don’t tend to wax lyrical about loving a girl so much that they write it over and over in their school notebook, but that is the power of Effy. (I swear, I think her character brought back 90s revival and the whole grunge look.)

Plus, I mean, LOOK at her. That girl has won the genetic lottery.

She’s fascinating to watch on screen, but in real life? This girl would be the worst.

She’d just run around, doing her own thing, and you’d be all “Hey! I need help! I’ve had a massive fight with my mum / my car’s broken down / I think I saw a spider in my room and now I can’t find it,” and five hours later she’d come back saying, “I told you. Life sucks. Let’s get fucked up.” And then she’d be dancing by herself with a bottle of vodka.

Effy doesn’t have friends. She just has admirers.

BEST EFFY QUOTE: “I’m officially off the rails. You should try it.”

RUNNER UP: (After JJ admits he loves her.) “Well, everybody loves me.”

___________________________________________________________________________

April Ludgate // Parks and Recreation

Oh April. How can you not love her? She’s like the ultimate moody teenager, who hates people and doesn’t care about stuff and says whatever she’s thinking. She once booked 93 meetings for her boss on March 31st, because she thought March 31st didn’t exist.

Her favourite things to do are make fun of her co-worker Jerry, and make out with her husband – sometimes at the same time. She rescued a three legged dog and called him Champion, which in my opinion makes her champion of the universe.

In real life? April would be the most annoying friend you’ve ever had.

You couldn’t even really be friends with her, because she would just glare at you from underneath her bangs and probably say that whatever you’re thinking is stupid.

If somehow you and April did become friends, you would turn into a paranoid version of yourself because you’d constantly be thinking that she hates you, which she probably does.

Normally this would make you run away, but she’s so awesome that you would persist anyway. In the battle to win April’s friendship, you’ll probably lose whatever traces of self esteem and dignity you once had. On the other hand, you’ll almost definitely have a laugh.

BEST APRIL QUOTE: “I don’t care about that prize, but I’m gonna win because I want his happiness to go away.”

RUNNER UP: “To be perfectly honest, Mouserat’s music isn’t really my thing. I really only listen to German death reggae, Halloween sound effects from the 1950s, and Bette Middler. Obviously.

___________________________________________________________________________

Cersei Lannister // Game of Thrones

How do I begin to describe Cersei Lannister?

Cersei Lannister is flawless.

I hear her hair’s insured for $10,000.

I hear she does car commercials… in Japan.

Just kidding. Unlike Regina George, Cersei is one badass queen. In other times, she might be ruler of the free world, but in the land of Westeros, women can’t rule. She’s learnt to play the game of thrones using her womanly charms, cunning, and her family name in a world where men and swords dominate.

HIPSTERS: “I liked it before it was cool.”

It’s a phrase we use in mockery of hipsters everywhere. Adopt a sneer and say in your most patronising voice: “I liked it before it was cool.” BINGO! We have a hipster.

I haven’t always sided with the hipsters, but now I am.

I’m just going to jump right in and say, in defence of hipsters everywhere, it is THE SINGLE MOST ANNOYING THING WHEN SOMETHING YOU LOVE BECOMES, LIKE, TOTALLY MAINSTREAM.

I mean, props on you for jumping on that bandwagon before the zeitgeist, but when an entire crowd totally gets your love for this one band / brand / weird anime cartoon, it can kill your soul a little.

When we like something, and I mean really like something, it doesn’t matter if anyone else thinks it’s cool or not. It says something to us, it becomes part of us. Maybe our souls are just made up of an entire collection of things we like and the memories they protect. Suddenly when EVERYBODY likes it, it doesn’t mean as much anymore. It’s protection is gone. It’s like a little helpless kitten that still has its eyes glued shut and keeps bumping into furniture. And what do we do to little helpless kittens? We protect them!

Cue all the “Yeah, but I liked it BEFORE it was big,” statements. You can hear yourself saying the words, knowing how they sound, but dammit, you DID like it before. And people should know that it is a part of you, and not just blip on the outside.