Externship Spotlight - Perfomer Magazine
Class Year: 2010
Hometown: Ligonier, PA
Major: Theater and Management, Dance Minor
Campus Activities: Theater Productions, Theatre Department Public Relations TA .
Goals: To perform after I graduate in any way or form possible
Hobbies: dancing, performing, and singing, cooking, traveling
Other Interests: sports, both collegiate and professional, especially the Steelers
Externship: Performer Magazine, Somerville, MA
My Experience
Important events included meeting everyone within the company. Sometimes I found myself standing around so I just went and talked to others in their offices. Presenting yourself is very important and meeting as many people as you can is also very important! I had many special tasks like making a trip itinerary and setting up flight times and bus times etc for the head of the company, so I needed to be sure to be accurate in what I was doing! A great part also was just talking to my sponsor about the industry; I learned a lot about it. My sponsor showed me around the area and took me around the town and talked about great places to go and eat and things to do in Boston and outside of Boston.
The Schedule
10:30 A.M. each day I would arrive and my sponsor would give me the first task of the day. The first day however, a new editor started so he showed both of us how to use a specific program their company used. It was great! I could take a break whenever, but I tried to limit myelf so that I was able to learn more. I had the freedom to go out and get something to eat anytime I wanted, usually 12 noon for lunch. There was really no specific itinerary. I would just do different things throughout the day according to what was occuring at that time.
How did this experience help you make decisions about your future career?
I was able to solidfy from this experience that I am not specifically interested in journalism itself, but more so the entire entertainment media industry. I want to perform, whether on TV, on film or on the stage but also I am interested in the behind the scenes work in the business like the organizational and design aspect part. The externship helped me the most in the sense that it taught me the procedures for entering and establishing the business.
What questions should I ask my sponsor?
The most important things to ask are:
– What did you study in college?
– How did you get where you are?
– What does your company look for on resumes?
– Whats the best way for me to get my foot in the door?
What other comments or opinions that you would like to share?
The externship program was an excellent opportunity for me to network with some important and well established people within the business I want to go into. I learned that the most important thing within the business is NOT what you study in college and how well you do (even though that is important) but it is networking and making connections and putting yourself out there and getting as much experience and talking to as many people as you can about their jobs and their journey within the business.