As you saw in my previous post, I participated in a summer internship program, University of Dreams (now called Dream Careers). This program is an eight week program where you pick a city and use their staff to help you find that dream internship. When I was a sophomore in college, I noticed that in order to complete my major, I needed to compete two “internship courses” which could be considered like a co-op while still taking other courses. I started researching internships and came across University of Dreams (I’ll abbreviate to UofD), where they guaranteed an internship, room and board, and an assortment of activities for your weekends.
Being the city girl that I am, and knowing that New York would be the best place to find work in the music industry, I picked the NYC2008 UofD program. I had a great career coach (as I would call it), whose name was Cody. He sent me emails to help build my resume, updates on where he had sent my resume, and tips for performing the phone interview. UofD is an expensive program; I believe it was around $8,000 for the entire package (plus spending money of course). Being that UofD is affiliated with an accredited college, they were able to help defer the costs with student loans. At first I really had to think about this, should I take out another loan so that I can work for free or should I just get a summer job at home that will actually pay. I knew that in the music industry it is definitely more of who you know, rather than what you know, so I decided to take a chance and sign up.
Personally, I’m glad I did, I will always remember that summer and the people I met along the way. My internship started off in the publicity department, then by chance I met the assistant to the GM of the label (who was also an aspiring A&R) and she was looking for a replacement for her current intern while he was working in another department at the label. Actually our first conversation was her telling me I was another one of the useless publicity interns, and my response was “Oh, well that’s nice” and I just walked away. She liked that I wasn’t afraid to show that her opinion didn’t matter to me (I honestly didn’t realize who she was at the time) and she offered me the job the next day.
My point about my unpaid internship is that I know it shows the company that you are willing to do the work for free because it is something that you really want, and that shows real passion. If you are in college, I highly suggest participating in an internship whether it is required or not (whether its paid or not) because it is the best way to network and to show off what you are willing to do for something you want. And networking is what it is all about in landing that dream job.
“Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” – Confucius
-K
Being the city girl that I am, and knowing that New York would be the best place to find work in the music industry, I picked the NYC2008 UofD program. I had a great career coach (as I would call it), whose name was Cody. He sent me emails to help build my resume, updates on where he had sent my resume, and tips for performing the phone interview. UofD is an expensive program; I believe it was around $8,000 for the entire package (plus spending money of course). Being that UofD is affiliated with an accredited college, they were able to help defer the costs with student loans. At first I really had to think about this, should I take out another loan so that I can work for free or should I just get a summer job at home that will actually pay. I knew that in the music industry it is definitely more of who you know, rather than what you know, so I decided to take a chance and sign up.
Personally, I’m glad I did, I will always remember that summer and the people I met along the way. My internship started off in the publicity department, then by chance I met the assistant to the GM of the label (who was also an aspiring A&R) and she was looking for a replacement for her current intern while he was working in another department at the label. Actually our first conversation was her telling me I was another one of the useless publicity interns, and my response was “Oh, well that’s nice” and I just walked away. She liked that I wasn’t afraid to show that her opinion didn’t matter to me (I honestly didn’t realize who she was at the time) and she offered me the job the next day.
My point about my unpaid internship is that I know it shows the company that you are willing to do the work for free because it is something that you really want, and that shows real passion. If you are in college, I highly suggest participating in an internship whether it is required or not (whether its paid or not) because it is the best way to network and to show off what you are willing to do for something you want. And networking is what it is all about in landing that dream job.
“Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” – Confucius
-K
