When I entered my junior year of college, I knew I had to consider what internships I wanted to apply to. Once I started to look at the requirements for several internships, I did not think I was ready yet.
Most internships in journalism are looking for recommendations from professors or bosses, a cover letter and resume, and examples of work that has either been published or may be coursework.
Junior year was during the height of COVID, so I was completely online and did not connect with any of my professors. I knew I had little chance of being considered for an internship, so I held off from doing it. I started to gain experience of what I could expect in a career in journalism during my senior year. I was taking classes we had to treat like a newsroom and was getting some work published in digital news publications.
I also took a podcasting class that consisted of my classmates and me producing a weekly podcast episode about current events in local and state government. My portfolio was building up, but I was drained physically and mentally by the year’s end. I planned to spend summer break doing nothing at my parent’s house because I needed a break. It was, of course, weird for me to see some of my classmates discuss their summer internships, but at the same time, I knew if I kept going, I was going to burn out before I even made it out of college.
I appreciated the break I had during the summer because once I returned to campus this semester, I was ready to get back to work. This semester is my final one in college, and while it has been challenging and extremely anxiety-inducing, it is also my most rewarding. I decided to take the class that allowed me to add published work to my portfolio again this semester. I loved the newsroom-like environment, and the professors are some of the best I’ve met in my time at college.
I was not planning to apply for internships because I was still scared of the idea. I deal with many negative thoughts sometimes that causes me to have self-doubt about my abilities. So even though I had experience under my belt, I did not think I was internship candidate material.
One of my professors from that one class sent me a message on Slack saying that Georgia Public Broadcasting had a Democracy and Elections fall internship that they thought I would be the perfect candidate for. I looked at the requirements and was shocked that I met all of them.
They were looking for someone with experience reporting on politics, audio and written work, pitching stories, and a little more. Knowing I had all the skills they were looking for drove me to apply for this internship. My professors proofread and edited my cover letter and resume and were very generous to be listed as references for me.
I looked through what was in my portfolio so far and selected some of my best work that ended up being picked up by established news organizations in the past year. It felt amazing to do something that I spent the longest time being afraid of, so I felt so accomplished turning in the application.
It was another two weeks before I heard back from GPB and they were letting me know that they wanted to have an interview with me. Both of the women who interviewed me were very nice and welcoming, so I wasn’t nervous as expected.
Before the interview, I looked up questions to ask employers in internship interviews and found a few I planned to ask. I showed them that I was very knowledgeable about their work, the processes within state politics, and about working with audio and print. Basically, I had everything they were looking for as an addition to their newsroom.
It took almost three weeks before I heard back from them, which, I’m not going to lie, was a little nerve-wracking for me. I finally heard back from them this past week to learn that I did indeed get the internship. This whole time of applying and interviewing for the internship was over a month-long process that I was finally glad had paid off. I am very excited to start my work with them and continue gaining experience before I graduate in December.