Thursday, March 25, 2010

A skype date with Erica Hendry

Past Editor in Chief of the Ithacan and President of SPJ, Erica Hendry, joined club members at Monday's meeting from her apartment in Washington, D.C., via Skype. Currently, Hendry is interning at the Smithsonian, where she primarily updates one of the four blogs sponsored by the website.

In the past, Hendry said she also interned for a local newspaper in high school, a reporter from the Boston Globe and The Chronicle of Higher Education. As such, Hendry was able to offer current students priceless advice in securing their own internships in the following years. Here were some of the major points.

  • Follow directions! Only include the number of clips or references that are called for in the application.
  • Make your cover letter stand out with anecdotes or eye-catching design.
  • Don't wait until you are an upperclassman to apply for internships - the earlier you get started the better.
  • Talk to students who interned at the publication or news organization in the past to get an idea of what they require of their interns.
  • Don't apply for all internships you come across, pick out the ones that you feel are best suited for what you hope to do in the future and focus on those applications. The more time you put into the application process, the more likely you are to be awarded that internship.
Erica also will provide a list of good places to find publications looking for interns that you can expect to see posted in the near future.