What It Means to Be an Intern in 2015

Intern. It’s a word that of nostalgia for some who remember their days of copies and coffee runs. But as Clyde Group Associate Laura Beth Ellis points out, today’s internships aren’t just a good way to get experience, they are many PR hopefuls’ only chance to get their foot in the door.

“What does it mean to be an intern in 2015? Is it any different than when our parents started working? In some ways, yes, and in others ways, no. Our parents still had to get summer internships and work experience like we do, but they weren’t working for seven or eight months before finally getting hired somewhere.

Today’s internships are more competitive than ever, especially in big cities like DC, New York, Atlanta and Chicago. And good PR firms know that they can now hire an intern for a couple months (or much longer) and give them great work experience, but pay them $10 an hour or less. And some firms know they can get away with unpaid internships by offering school credit instead. From my experience, today’s intern will have do whatever it takes to put the most substantial experience on their resume and to ultimately get hired.

But let me be clear: the firm you intern for may never hire you. There may never be that window of opportunity you have been hoping for, and your intern experience will end up being just that—an experience. Many PR firms offer you a deal where you can intern for anywhere up to six months and have a “chance” of getting hired anytime in between. But what happens when you’ve done your time and still don’t have the salary to show for it? Or when family friends ask how your new life after college is going and you respond, “Yep, still an intern!””

See the full article at PR News.