Washington Comes to Denver: Part 5, Intern!

Being an intern means doing grunt work. It means being star-struck at the sight of real journalists. It means jumping when you hear “jump.” It means blogging until you can blog no more (no more blogs.. please!). It means wondering what to say when a senior staff member joins you in the elevator. It means no pay and less sleep.

Mostly it just means you’re at the bottom of the food chain.

But let me let you in on a little secret: it’s cool. I’m not joking. It’s an incredible experience. Heck, I’m just happy to be ON the food chain for once. That’s more than most people can say. And way more than I could say three weeks ago. You can’t start climbing a ladder without the first rung anyway.

You know what else is cool about being an intern? You can screw up. You can ask questions. You get do-overs. At this point nobody really expects you to know what to do or what to say or where to go, so it’s awesome to take advantage of that. After you’re in the industry a while, you don’t exactly get that luxury. The people I’m with know I’m an intern and know I need help so it’s the perfect opportunity to ask.

Plus, I’m getting the chance to do some low-key assignments and I’m THRILLED. An experienced staffer would probably roll their eyes at the idea of writing what I’ve been given to write – which is probably how I got the assignment in the first place. You don’t get to be choosy as an intern. Well, you can be, but your employer will probably not be terribly happy with you. And you never know where any of these bizarre assignments could lead you. You could find you absolutely love a particular subject or beat you never thought of before or you could stumble upon something major completely by accident.

It sounds crazy, but professional journalists have said over and over again that it’s days like these – where you’re flying by the seat of your pants and messing up left and right and fumbling your way through – that become their fondest memories of the job.