How to Find Internships and Be a Great Intern

Reuben Stern who is the director of the New York Program at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. His background spans many different newsrooms including being the managing editor of the Columbia Missourian as well as experience at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Budapest Sun, and the Los Angeles Daily News.

Reuben made the pivot to education to teach the next wave of journalists by running its program to teach and support Mizzou journalism students interning in New York each semester. He’s an expert in internships – what to do and what to avoid.

Reuben and I talk about: How to find internships, how to succeed in your internship and how to pursue your passion even early on in your career (yes it’s possible). We also talk about new and emerging fields to look for future opportunities.

TOP TAKEAWAYS

What you should and shouldn’t do in an internship. There are so many good highlights but some of the biggest that stuck out to me:

    1. Be about the work. Spend your time focusing on doing good work. Don’t worry about what it will lead to. BE really good as an intern to make everything else sort out.
    2. Ask help if you get stuck 
    3. Volunteer and be willing to help out. 
    4. Engage – people show up at an internship. They are ready, but they are not actively interacting with people around them. That can be a problem for the perception fo you as an intern. They don’t know that. Ask for things to do. Say hi. Interact with people around you.
    5. Use downtime to make yourself better than getting distracted!

LINKS AND MORE:

For More on Reuben visit:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/reubenstern/

For More on the University of Missouri School of Journalism: https://journalism.missouri.edu/