This fall, like any other semester, hundreds of internship listings went up on Ed2010. But unlike other semesters, the demand for interns is outweighing the supply. Magazines that typically attract dozens of strong applicants, from CosmoGirl to The New Yorker, are now struggling to fill fall spots, and some positions are still open. “I’ve never had such a hard time finding interns before,” says one women’s magazine internship coordinator. “I asked friends from other magazines to pass along resumes of potential interns that they didn’t have room for, but none seemed to have any to spare!” It begs the question: What happened to all of the interns?
In this economy, working for free is just not an option for many students. “I can’t afford to have an unpaid job anymore,” says one college student who has done back-to-back unpaid internships for the past five semesters. Now she’s pursuing a part-time job outside of the magazine industry to make ends meet. “The vast majority of students don’t come from privileged backgrounds, so they need a weekly paycheck to survive,” she says. Many of her friends are opting out of interning as well, and a couple have even given up on the magazine industry entirely because of how tough it is to make it.
Other former interns are pursuing freelance magazine jobs instead. Despite the seemingly dwindling amount of full-time jobs with benefits these days, temporary project-based jobs are a dime a dozen, and college students are snatching them up. “I stopped interning after junior year and started taking freelance projects instead,” says one college student.
Or perhaps the lack of interns is due to the fact that students are pursing internships earlier and earlier. While students used to wait until at least their junior year to intern, many are now starting freshman year and allowing themselves to take semesters off between internships. “I’ll still graduate with 4-5 solid internships under my belt, but I can hold a part-time job and focus on school during the semesters I’m not interning,” explains one college student who started interning the summer between freshman and sophomore years.
Internships also ask more of their interns nowadays: Tasks that were formerly reserved for salaried editors are becoming the responsibilities of unpaid interns, thanks to widespread layoffs of salaried editors. A recent post on the Ed2010 message board alluded to this dilemma – jobs are turning into internships. And because internships have become more demanding, prospective interns worry more than ever about whether they’ll be able to balance an internship with school. One student who interned last semester was often stuck at the office until 8pm and pressured to skip class to work a full day. “That magazine that had 10 editorial interns and only one editorial assistant,” she says. “There’s something very, very wrong about that.” While she appreciated the experience she gained, she felt so overworked and overwhelmed that she decided to take this semester off.
No matter what the reason, one thing is clear: If you’ve been holding off on applying for an internship, there’s no better time than the present.
