I’m a full month in to my time with At Home Memphis & Midsouth magazine, where I’m working as one of their three fall editorial interns. Thus far, the experience has been unlike anything that I would have even thought to expect. My work includes writing monthly articles assigned to me by the editor, interacting with PR agents on behalf of the magazine, and working alongside the graphic designer.
My thoughts on all of that are a bit of a mixed bag. To begin with, everyone I work with is incredibly easy going. Going into this internship, I imagined it would be filled with deadlines, stressed out coworkers, negative feedback, and lots of writing/rewriting. I never thought I’d be be assigned articles that would be published in a tangible magazine. I’ll see my name in print for the first time in October and I’m excited, to say the least.
I never expected the lack of feedback, however. My entire life has been essays, papers, articles, and stories that have been submitted to my teachers/professors, and I’ve always received feedback. The constructive criticism is something that I’ve come to expect and appreciate, and I was definitely thrown off guard when I submitted my first real piece, with hardly a word in reply. I’m assuming that’s just how things work, because it’s a job. You get assigned an article to write, you write it, and that’s that. Which is fine, just unexpected.
Beyond that, it’s interesting working on the opposite side of things. My position at the magazine has me writing to a multitude of PR agents, in order to acquire information for the magazine. It’s been an interesting experience to view my prospective career from the outside in, and seeing just how these practitioners handle press inquiries and various other requests. I think in the long run it will beneficial, because this sort of backwards position will help me understand the information journalists want, and the way they want it.
My thoughts on all of that are a bit of a mixed bag. To begin with, everyone I work with is incredibly easy going. Going into this internship, I imagined it would be filled with deadlines, stressed out coworkers, negative feedback, and lots of writing/rewriting. I never thought I’d be be assigned articles that would be published in a tangible magazine. I’ll see my name in print for the first time in October and I’m excited, to say the least.
I never expected the lack of feedback, however. My entire life has been essays, papers, articles, and stories that have been submitted to my teachers/professors, and I’ve always received feedback. The constructive criticism is something that I’ve come to expect and appreciate, and I was definitely thrown off guard when I submitted my first real piece, with hardly a word in reply. I’m assuming that’s just how things work, because it’s a job. You get assigned an article to write, you write it, and that’s that. Which is fine, just unexpected.
Beyond that, it’s interesting working on the opposite side of things. My position at the magazine has me writing to a multitude of PR agents, in order to acquire information for the magazine. It’s been an interesting experience to view my prospective career from the outside in, and seeing just how these practitioners handle press inquiries and various other requests. I think in the long run it will beneficial, because this sort of backwards position will help me understand the information journalists want, and the way they want it.