5 Things Interning For a Major Media Company Taught Me About Blogging

When I last lived in Los Angeles I met someone who worked for a major website that I enjoyed while at a concert. When she got a promotion she needed an intern who lived in Los Angeles and I fit her criteria (know how to write, use photoshop and not be a psycho). I thought I fit, so I applied and interviewed. I'm not sure if my portfolio and resume got me the job or that I knew her boots where L.A.M.B without having to ask, or that I knew my music (since she was the music editor) or that we shared an avid love for tights. All I know is I was in and I discovered why she asked the things she did of her applicants throughout the year that I worked for this particular website.

My experience at this website was fabulous, trying, exciting but above all educational. I learned so much and I guess I never realized how much until I started blogging on my own. Here are the 5 things I learned from interning for a major media company:

Company's sent us stuff to give away and sometimes we got to keep some stuff. You know, for unwrapping thousands of individually wrapped bracelets and then putting them together with buttons, t-shirts, ect for prize packs.
 Perks of the job!

1. Write Well: My first assignment was to format an interview with a musician from some questions that were e-mailed to us. As in my music editor wrote out questions, sent them to this person's manager and the manager asked the questions and wrote back their answers. Some of these answers were extremely short. Open ended questions that were replied to with "I guess my white hat."  It was such a dry article and I didn't know I could spruce up the interview or how. So I copied the e-mail answers under the questions and published it. Then featured it. On the front page of the website. Without any formatting or anything. *facepalm*
   
   My editor calls me over and she called me over with that tone. You know, the one your mom uses when you're in trouble but she doesn't want to scare you from coming over and you walk over with your tail between your legs because you know this won't end well. I had to ice my derriere for a week after that talk. I fixed it within minutes but I learned a valuable lesson. Two in fact. I was an intern and inexperienced but you get what you pay for and that if you don't know something ask questions. I had no idea how to format an interview, I'd never done it. I'd never written a blog besides a diary in livejournal and journalism classes don't teach you blogging 101. Or they didn't but I see that they do now. But I learned. She showed me and told me what she wanted. From then on I did everything the way they showed me. I should have screen capped that first article the way I originally did it and then shown you my last article that I wrote for them so you can see how much I grew as a writer. What they taught me was invaluable. I'll carry it with me always.
   
   Oh and just so you know I had to find a picture of this artist in that damn white hat. That's all I had to go on was their name and "white hat" and guess how many pictures came up with them in a white hat? One. Only one and I had no idea if that was the hat. Their "people" never said anything so my guess is that the artist either never saw it or it was the right hat. Whatever.
   
   
2. More Skill Equals More Value: To know how to photoshop raw meat onto someone's face like they are Lady Gaga at the VMA's and turn them into zombies is to be genius at making viral content. To market an article about Hayley Williams from Paramore to fansites on Tumblr will earn you kudos on publishing an article that reaches 5000 page views in 3 days and will get your boss's boss to hug you. To then market a photo gallery of picture you took at a concert to fan sites and get 10,000 page views over a weekend will get your boss's boss to buy you lunch. The more skills you have, the more you can offer, the more valuable you are to the company and you will then move from being an unpaid intern to a paid intern. Well, maybe. Depends on where you work.
    
3. More Work is not equal to More Qualified: I left my internship because I needed a full time job. I did a lot of extra stuff, for pay, for free but I was everywhere. I was always early, stayed late. I always said I'd do weird things that needed to be done. Like stand outside a venue taking pictures of fans, interviewing them and passing out buttons and stuff for promotion. Coffee or lunch runs. Mailing out contest winners' prizes or sifting through thousands of entries for every single contest to pick winners. I had no problem with that. So I was extremely hurt when a girl who was there less time than me, who I trained was offered a full time job for a position I didn't even know existed let alone was available. I was crushed. Then after I left two more jobs opened up and there was no "hey would you be interested in...?" It hurt. Didn't I work hard for you? Didn't I do everything you asked of me and then some? I thought you liked me? Maybe they did like me and I did work hard, but I might have not been as qualified. At that time I didn't think about those things. I just felt rejected but then again I guess I was.
    
4. Know Your Place: During my internship I was actually brought into business meetings. It was so exciting and it made me feel special. None of the other interns went into the meeting. Things like Page views, unique page views, direct traffic vs referral traffic and Duration were discussed. I learned GA was not just Georgia's initials but Google Analytics. I learned terms like viral and SEO and seeding. But what I learned most of all was that this meant nothing. I was like a servant. I spoke out of turn once and my Editor was very harsh with me after the meeting by saying that I embarrassed her with something I said. So I stopped going to the meetings. I felt like all I was doing was taking up a chair since I never really contributed anything. And I mean that literally. I sat there and when it came to be my turn to speak I never had anything to say and the one time I did it was apparently awful. I had a lot of great experiences there but I learned that when you are an intern you either aren't taken seriously at all or it only takes one mistake to be cast in a bad light. No amount of page views will ever erase that embarrassing thing you said that one time in a meeting.
    
5. Blogging in a Business: Don't you forget it. Don't think for one second that you are blogging for fun. You are not. You're blogging for, at the very least, readers. I learned that page views aren't enough. You don't get to write for fun and writing for pay sucks. It isn't even remotely as glamorous as Carrie from Sex and the City makes it out to be. Advertisers want things. They want you to create things using their products and they want to make money off of you and if they pay for you to go to some event and they don't get what was promised out of them your in big trouble. I sat in multiple brainstorm meetings where we had to come up with fun ideas for what to do with a pack of gum or ways to style this brand or that. We had to come up with ideas for things to write about, things advertisers would like and capitalize on or to push up page views. I was passed over time after time not because I didn't work hard or not because they didn't like me but because perhaps I wasn't what was going to make the company money, because I was less qualified than another. Bottom line was they didn't believe in me enough to think that I would benefit them enough to hire me full time. Blogging isn't personal, it's a business but it all depends on what kind of business you want it to be. Even if it's no business, it's still a business.

That's what I learned. Hollywood is filled with a lot of smoke and mirrors and I love that I was apart of that illusion for a bit.  I hated the business part of it. I hated that I thought of my co-workers as my friends and it turns out only one or two of them truly cared about me but that has to do with the business aspect of it. I loved the opportunities that I was afforded, the people I was able to meet and the things I was able to do.
I hope that you take something away from this. I hope you apply to intern somewhere and learn more about blogging or about whatever you are passionate about. Whether the experience is good or bad is irrelevant. It's the experience that is the journey and if it is bad, well, at least you'll have something to write about!