Answering Internship-Related Questions

Earlier today, I saw a bunch of internship-related questions pop up on my Twitter from my former professor and "Big Daddy CABBIE", Anthony Kalamut a.k.a. @southsideadguy. He's put out a bunch of questions for the Internet at large to answer so that he can relay that information back to his advertising students, who are all required to complete an internship before graduating.

I know it's scary being in his student's shoes, because I was there just a year ago. I've received a lot of help along my relatively successful journey in the advertising industry so far and I actively try and pay it forward. Answering a few of these questions is the least I can do to help my fellow adlanders score their internships. Jump through the cut to see my answers to Anthony's questions relating to internships.

If a company rejects you, would you apply again for their program at a later date?

Absolutely. Just because a company says no to you once doesn't mean that they'll say no to you forever. As time passes, circumstances change, people change and people change their minds. If you go for an interview and they don't hire you, I would recommend at least adding the people who interviewed you as contacts on LinkedIn or keeping their email on file. That way, you'll have the ability to ask if there are any new opportunities available or, even better, they'll have the ability to contact you first if another opportunity were to arise. Also, the people considering you the first time around might not even be there the second time you apply, which would leave you with a clean slate. While I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket and focus all of my efforts into one agency, I wouldn't write off an agency that has said no before, either.


What's most important in an internship? Atmosphere/culture, opportunity to be hired, experience or compensation?

While they're all important, I can rank those from top to bottom what are most important to me:

1. Experience
2. Atmosphere/Culture
3. Opportunity to be hired
4. Compensation

Experience is key because experience is the biggest indicator of your value. You can also consider your experience as an investment to yourself. Regardless of how your internship ends, that experience will stay with you forever, which you can use to leverage yourself into a paid agency position. Atmosphere and culture I put at #2 because a good working environment is extremely important. If you're going to spend 8 hours a day and 5 days a week, you're going to want to spend that time in a place where you're comfortable and enjoy the people you work with. Having worked in both a large agency and a small agency, I can tell you that the atmosphere is very different in comparison, but I enjoy both for different reasons. Finding an agency where you "fit" in terms of skill-set and in personality will go a long way towards a great internship and possibly bigger things in the future.

I ranked opportunity to be hired and compensation at the bottom because there are factors beyond your control at play there. You might be hire-worthy, but if your agency doesn't have the money to keep you on, you're out of luck. Also, most agencies don't pay for interns. If you're holding out for a paid internship, you could be waiting for a long time.


What challenges have you faced when trying to acquire an internship?

The lack of experience and the "lack" of opportunities. I'll start with experience first.

Student work helps, but employers definitely prefer to see real work, even from prospective interns. If you come across any opportunities to do any sort of "real" advertising work that you can put in your portfolio or resume, go for it. One of the other things you can do is find another way to demonstrate what you have to offer. For me, my solution was starting up this blog, which actually did help me get my most recent job. However, every person is different and I'm sure there are countless other ways to sell yourself.

There are opportunities for internships everywhere, but as a student who doesn't know where to look, it can be daunting. To overcome that, I often consulted with my teachers who had information on openings and I conducted as many informationals with industry professionals as I could to not only learn more about the industry, but also to build a contact base that could possibly help me out in the future.


How did/would you find your internship?

My story is actually really weird. I had applied to a bunch of ad agencies and done a few interviews, but nothing had panned out. During my final semester at school, we had an assignment to come up with an advertising pitch for a small business. My girlfriend/partner on the assignment, Stephanie, chose an organic candy company called Pure Fun.

During our research, we found the President of the company on Facebook. We sent her a message telling her what we were doing and we sent her a mini brief containing info that we'd gathered so far. The President of Pure Fun loved it so much, she wanted to meet us in person. From there, Stephanie and I polished up our presentation, got a bunch of advice from our teachers, and we pitched the President of the company in a school board room. Before we had even graduated, we had essentially won our own account, which then turned into our internships.

There are a lot of ways to go about acquiring an internship other than sending resumes to every agency under the sun. In a time when the economy hit the absolute bottom, Stephanie and I created our own jobs by expanding our horizons and putting in the extra effort. Other advertising students have the capability to do the same thing, if not bigger.


Would you consider relocating to a different city for an internship?

If the circumstances line up in your favour, yes. During my radio career, I did my internship in a city I'd never been to at a station that played country music, a genre I knew nothing about. Through that experience of being in a totally new environment, I learned a lot about radio, the world and myself.

There have been a few opportunities for me to do my internship outside of the country through school, but there were other life factors involved that prevented me from going. If I were a student again and all the stars aligned for me to take that step, I totally would.


At what age, if any, are you “too old” to be an intern?

If you can prove that you have the ability to handle the work of an intern, I don't think you can be "too old". There are people in every industry that are entering their respective fields at different ages because they decided to change their career path or what have you. If you're happy with what you're doing, then your age shouldn't matter.


Much respect to Anthony for putting in the effort of getting this type of feedback for his students. His students are really lucky to have a professor like him who is willing to go the extra mile like this. I'm still very much a student of advertising myself with a lot more to learn, but if my answers help even one adlander find their way, then this was totally worth it.