Sunday, April 29, 2007

finding an internship

I've had a lot of people ask me lately about how to find an internship. Most magazines offer them, it's just a matter of doing a little research. Here are a few tips:

Determine which magazines are published from your area and which of those you might enjoy working at. How do you find them? To start, Magazines Canada offers an online listing of all their member publications (consumer), as does the Canadian Business Press (trade). Also check out the links to the right of major publishing companies.

Then contact each magazine to ask whether they offer internships. Either call the editorial assistant to ask who you should speak to, or contact the managing editor, who is most often the person in charge of interns. Some magazines also post information about internships on their website.

From there, follow the application guidelines, treating it with the same professionalism as when applying for a paying job.

One final note: Don't be picky. Internships at the larger and more well-known publications are highly sought after and very competitive. Apply to smaller magazines and trade publications as well. It may not have the impressive factor of working at a big-name mag, but you'll learn more. Smaller mags have smaller staff so often rely on their interns to fill in where needed. Editorial internships mostly involve fact-checking, but a good one will offer the the chance to write and get more involved with things.

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