Internships

It's getting to be around that time where we start looking for summer internships. When I studied in London last semester, I was lucky enough to get an internship at Objective Productions. They're a pretty big company in central London that produces everything from magic to comedy, creating hits such as Peep Show and Tool Academy. While it is a great thing to put on my resume, it wasn't the best experience. I was the only unpaid intern (and the only American, they laughed at me every time I refused to drink tea) there, and being such a big company, it was very easy to be forgotten. I spent a lot of time waiting around for my boss to give me an assignment, and an equal amount of time shifting around after someone stole my desk. Since they weren't very prepared to work with me, I somehow ended up spending a month looking through every single local British newspaper with a website finding stories on con men in the repair business to use as evidence in a new reality show they were working on. To feel better about that, I ended up stealing a couple of pens from the supply closet after I got locked in.

It was a good experience, and I definitely learned that being a research assistant really isn't my thing. I think that, overall, it would be a better learning opportunity to intern at a smaller company. Free from a crazy hierarchy, small business encourage everyone to contribute; making everyone, even intern, more productive. Hopefully, this would also allow for more interaction with the founders and directors and more hands-on experience, making it much easier to network. Not to mention, there is less competition when you are gearing for a spot at a small company because there is such an abundance of them. I was looking at the internship information for national companies in Boston such as ABC and NBC and the jobs descriptions were very specific and only in certain fields. What I've seen of some of the smaller companies in the town, they give you more of an opportunity to work where you are interested in.