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To Intern or Not to Intern

Tanner Murri
24 October 2014

Prepared for
Dr. Karen C. Holt
Brigham Young University-Idaho

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Introduction: A Question
A young graduate, brimming with superficial confidence and a teeth-baring smile, sits
down and begins a job interview with a cordial business executive. The executive asks a question
somewhat like: So Mr. or Ms. Applicant, why should we hire you? The English graduate will
say, Well, Im a really hard worker, and I know how to write a page-long sentence. Afraid this
could happen to me, I have undertaken to research job specialty in the field of professional
writing. Ive learned that professional writers need experience with a technical subject like web
design or engineering (Bureau). Obvious questions have come to my mind in regards to the
content of my English coursework, and whether it will be sufficient to translate to a meaningful
career. I have thought about what skills I would need to complement my English major. Puzzling
at the diversity of the field, Ive begun to wonder: What other classes can be taken to become
better prepared for a competitive job market? While course work is valuable, my findings
suggest that an internship will be a great tool in gaining experience. It is important for
professional writers to gain supplementary skills before entering the field; therefore, internships
are essential for English undergraduates who wish to make a career out of writing.
Growing up, I was told to find something that I love to do. My peers, I am sure, were told
similar things. It is a daunting task to sift through all the possibilities that the world holds in
regards to vocation. Internships are becoming a commonplace expectation for employers as they
seek people who are experienced in a given field. This does not only benefit employers, but also
the graduate who is applying for a position. If a student has completed an internship they are
more likely to have already developed a liking for a given field. Sometimes an internship can
help a student make a decision of what career they may not want to have as well (Adamczyk).

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Personally, I did not know that I did not like sales until I did a sales job for three months. I feel
that rings true in this case as well. Therefore, an internship can be of great benefit to an
individual seeking a specific career path.
Not only do internships help students understand career fields, but it helps them get ahead
with employers too. When I asked Quinn Grover, a long-time proposal writer for the Idaho
National Laboratory, he responded, Just as a general rule, I think internships are incredibly
wise. His position in his career gave him the ability to hire editors, and he continues his point by
saying, If I was to choose between somebody who is coming out of college and has an
internship versus somebody coming out of college who has only done course work, Im going to
lean toward the internship every time. On the subject of hiring, Melissa Benca, director of
career services at Marymount Manhattan College says that, Graduating students with paid or
unpaid internships on their resume have a much better chance of landing a full-time position
upon graduation (qtd. in Herring).
Grover also told me of benefits of an internship as he talked about the differences
between the expectations in a professional environment versus the expectations in a student
environment. An undergraduate is somewhat handicapped by the discipline they choose to
study. Students are treated like students. Conversely, in the professional field, even interns are
treated like professionals. Grover suggests that there is a psychological difference and that an
internship can instruct a student in the dichotomy between the two (Grover).
A Debate
Recently, increasing amounts of debate are surfacing regarding the value of internships.
Some, like Mr. Grover, say that internships are still important for specialization and experience.
Contrarily, others think that internships are becoming more competitive and less productive. Part

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of this is due to an economy which has been dealing with recession (Williams). Alex Williams, a
writer for The New York Times offered a view that I had not considered before when he related
me to a generation of people who are locked out of the traditional career ladder and are having
to settle for two, three and sometimes more internships after graduating college, all with no end
in sight (Williams). Most of these internships are unpaid, and therefore require a decent sized
bank account for already poor college students. Not only are they unpaid, but there are many
instances where interns are only being used to fetch coffee. Even though this seems like an
archetypical generalization, I see Williams point. In other words, interns arent getting the onthe-job training that they need, and are being used for menial chores.
Williams furthers his argument by using anecdotes of real college graduates who are
facing dead-ends in the professional world. This has become such a widespread problem that
there seems to be a subculture, of sorts, forming around the movement of the unemployed intern.
For example, Alec Dudson, an exasperated former intern has started a bi-annual magazine called,
Intern. His reason for starting the magazine came after a few years of trying to make it in
Londons publishing industry, as he illustrates, I was working 30 hours a week at odd jobs, on
top of 40 hours a week at internships, and I knew there wasnt a job at the end of it, Alec
continues, I needed to do something of my own (qtd in Williams). The magazine focuses on
the struggles of interns, and explores networking groups and opportunities for those seeking
internships. This outlook is shared by many people as the struggle to find placement in a
competitive job market continues. This kind of difficulty led me to ask myself if an internship is
actually worth the time and effort.
Most of the negative press about internships seems to be centered on unpaid internships
and their collective inability help people get jobs (Henderson). Maureen Henderson, a

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contributor to Forbes magazine illustrates this point in her article Internships Arent Worth it
Heres Why. She uses a statistic from the National Association of Colleges and Employers
which is graphed and pictured below:

(Fig. 1) Do Internships Lead to Jobs? Internships arent worth itHeres why. Forbes. Feb
2014. Web.
She uses this data to suggest that only 1.8% of students who do an unpaid internship are
more likely to be placed afterwards. Given the personal and financial sacrifices required to do an
internship, Henderson suggests that they arent worth it. Especially since a majority of
internships are unpaid (Couch).
An Answer
While I understand the struggle that interning is for so many people, and the fact that
working for free does not seem fair, it is hard to imagine an internship being destructive. I think
an unemployed intern network group is much more capable of being destructive to morale.

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With blogs like Interns Anonymus designed to stick it to the man, so to speak, interns must get
discouraged hearing sob stories about other struggling people. Conversely, I feel that internships
are constructive, and the reality that these people try to portray about the internship world seems
opposite.
Consider the feelings of a student who regrets not doing an internship. Tyrel Murri, a
current student at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, is working on a Master of Fine
Arts. An English undergraduate himself, Tyrel wishes he would have been smarter about
obtaining professional experience earlier in his education. He says that an internship, would
have prepared [him] far better in getting an inside edge for the job [he] want[s] (Murri). Now he
is scrambling to land an internship right before he graduates. Furthermore, when asked about his
undergraduate coursework, he suggests that it was good because it introduced him to the world
of writing. However, he also feels that his English classes did not sufficiently prepare him for
any kind of career. An introduction was great, but he now wishes he had more than that.
In Conclusion
While there are many variables which could discourage me from doing an internship to
further my professional skills, I feel that the benefits are much greater. The professionals field
and the students field are two different worlds with expectations juxtapose to one another, and
the benefits of doing an internship can outweigh the value of the work in the classroom.
Envision the job interview again. The young graduate is sitting confidently as a professional.
When asked the question, Why should we hire you? The applicant can reply, I completed a
ten week internship with a local news company, and Im already versed in the technical aspects
of this field.

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Works Cited

Adamczyk, Alicia. "Salary Sacrifice: Are Unpaid Internships worth It?" The Michigan Daily.
N.p., 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 201415 Edition, Technical Writers. Web. 8 Oct. 2014
Couch, Robbie. "Nonprofit Work A Non-Option For Some Young People, As 57% Of Industry
Internships Are Unpaid." The Huffington Post. 01 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
Grover, Quinn. Personal interview. 8 Oct. 2014.
Henderson, J. Maureen. "Internships Aren't Worth It -- Here's Why." Forbes. Forbes Magazine,
26 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Hering, Beth Braccio. "Why Are Internships so Important?" CNN. Cable News Network, 14 Apr.
2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
Murri, Tyrel. Personal interview. 24 Oct. 2014.
Williams, Alex. "For Interns, All Work and No Payoff." The New York Times. The New York
Times, 15 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.