My internship life at ThinkTalk has been more than two weeks. I moved in a new house near Dupont Circle Station (it’s easy to take DC circulators via K streets I really like that location) and I got a good Colombian roommate. Everything was okay to start my DC life.  

My name is Sean and I just finished high school. I'll be off to the University of Mary Washington in the fall but until then I plan to make the most out of the next couple of months, starting with this cool little internship. That being said, don't get too attatched; I'll only be here until June 10th. Until then, read and enjoy. By the way I live and breathe movies; I reviewed them for my school paper and I own 100+ DVDs. This means I might be throwing some obscure references around here and there, so consider yourself warned.

In the last Indiana Jones film, Indy yelled to a group of students, "If you want to be an archeologist, you have to get out of the library!" Though that was just a line from a movie that had mixed reviews, I think that statement certainly applies to anyone studying to become a professional in any given field. Many students often wonder why they should even bother taking on an internship or even just an extracurricular activity. In my opinion, if a student can't handle the classwork load, then it may not be a good idea. However, if a student is getting decent grades, then going beyond the classroom is a wise decision if they want to put their skills to work. There's only so much a class can teach you.

This is my second go at college. In 2002, I graduated from Clarion University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Speech Communication & Theatre. My decision to move to Washington was motivated after I did a radio broadcasting internship in the summer of 2001. I moved to the Washington area in 2002 but upon arrival, there weren't any radio jobs available for a 22 year old. I stuck around and ended up getting jobs that didn't require a college degree in fields such as market research, childcare, and tourism. The skills I obtained from those jobs were useful but I wanted something more.

In 2008, video editing was nothing more than a hobby but members of my family and a couple of friends encouraged me to try to get a job in that field. That's when I shopped around for schools in the area and ended up enrolling at the Art Institute of Washington. In my opinion, the instructors act like employers by treating their students like employees. The coursework and project deadlines are often a wake up call for students that think show business is all glitz and glamor.

I ended up getting involved in the Visually Wired Film Festival, an annual film festival that showcases the most creative films made by students that attend the Art Institute. After one professor showed us films from previous Visually Wired festivals, I decided to pitch my idea before the faculty. After they accepted my pitch, I felt like a million bucks but had no idea what I had gotten myself into.

I produced, wrote, and directed a documentary about swing dancing titled Swing Night. I'm glad I got to work with a reliable crew of student colleagues. The challenges we faced included having to pay a permit and location fee to the National Park Service to shoot the Spanish Ballroom in Glen Echo Park. One of the group members took a money order out to cover the location fee and I paid the permit fee. Good man. This documentary was going to be made.

An instructor told me it was a good thing that we were facing such challenges because it was giving us valuable experience. We still had to get additional footage and gather archival footage of swing dancing in the '30s and '40s but post production was still a down to the last minute success. Our DVD was handed in on time and now we await the verdict from the faculty jury. If our entry is accepted, Swing Night will be screened at the Visually Wired Festival, on May 5th at the E Street Cinema in DC.

Considering this is a ThinkTalk blog, it would be crazy to think that I wouldn't mention how much I enjoying interning here. I found out about ThinkTalk when they came to the Art Institute to gather questions for Kevin Heffernan that aired on Directors Cut. Internships are beneficial but only if the intern is willing to light their own lamp. In my experiences, I found that if I do the footwork and maintain a willingness to learn, I will gain the necessary experience and more. The bare minimum is never enough.

Do you have a Spring internship yet?

That's right, a Spring internship, not a Fall internship. Hey, it's never to early to start looking, right?

Maybe you don't need to have interviews for Spring lined up yet - after all the semester just started. But it's probably a good idea to start thinking about next semester's work goals.

But if you were planning to find an unpaid internship, Entrepreneur and Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban says think again. Cuban cites the Department of Labor's (which, for the record, when I clicked through took me to a dead link) criteria for an organization offering an internship without compensation. According to Cuban the work provided by an unpaid intern cannot offer "any benefit at all to the company."

Pardon me, but that is pretty damn broad. Cuban outlines some examples. To wit:

Examples of internships that have been legal are where the job is a “dummy” job. For example, there was a case of an internship for working on a train. The company had the interns driving trains from one end of their yard to the other under close supervision. The moving of the trains was completely unnecessary and was just being done to train the potential employees. As such, no “work” was being performed, so the internship was legal. On the other hand, if the workers were moving the trains as part of the regular re-positioning of the trains, but were still performing it under close supervision, they would be required to be paid for the work.

I'm not sure that clears anything up, but let's suppose it does. Gradspot chimes in and agrees with Cuban. Maybe, according to GradSpot, this is what makes it so hard for college students to find internships. This would be a pretty good excuse for not finding an internship ... if it weren't complete BS. I'm no lawyer. I don't know the law. But Cuban seems to be drawing a rather large assumption from one specific criteria, which is also quite vague.

The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;

Well, what qualifies as immediate benefit? Financial benefit? Intellectual benefit? If I simply enjoy the company of my intern and she raises morale in the office is that a benefit? See this rabit hole? Let's not go down it. This criteria seems so vague that perhaps most companies just ignore it.

Because I would certainly argue that there are plenty of unpaid internships to be found, especially if you are a college student. Cuban himself states that these are still common, just unenforced. And I have some examples.

Exhibit 1: The New Republic. From a recent internship posting on their blog just two days ago: "Internships are unpaid but offer substantial experience in both the production and marketing of a daily online publication. Interns must be able to work in our Washington DC office, and a full-time commitment is preferred." Is The New Republic violating fair labor practices? I have a hard time believing that such a large company would be so brazenly ignorant of the legal ramifications of its labor practices.

Exhibit B: Me. I worked plenty of internships in college for no pay. I worked five days a week, forty hours per day for an entire summer for a very large film production company that was an extension of an even larger entity for zero compensation. And let me tell you, they received many immediate advantages from my activities (though maybe my supervisor would disagree).

Ok, so where does this leave us. Don't be discouraged if someone tells you that you cannot find an unpaid internship*. Take it from me, they exist. And if an employer is hesitant to hire you because of this perceived violation, perhaps you can try to explain away the "immediate advantage" line as vague and circumspect. I wouldn't advise you to do anything wrong, I'm simply pointing out that this issue is not as clear as illegal or legal based simply on the abundance of these positions. So don't be scared off when someone tells you that you can't find an unpaid internship.

*And maybe I should have pointed this out earlier, but when I say "unpaid" I mean without compensation. It goes that if you receive credit for a course you are receiving compensation in lieu of pay (which is bunk, if you think about it, because not only are you working for free, you are paying for the course credit!)

"Doctor Stephen S. Wise, Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, Has Become a Laborer in the Shipbuilding Yards of the Luder Marine Construction Company, at Stanford, Connecticut" Photo (seriously) courtesy of The U.S. National Archives via Flickr Creative Commons

ThinkTalk Wants YOU!

We are looking for dynamic and outgoing campus reporters to help with our ThinkTalk programming.

For every accomplished professional that we interview about their career, we need student questions from schools around the country. As campus reporter, you will be responsible for gathering student questions from peers at your school.

Responsibilities:

We are looking for super-special ThinkTalk interns. You will get experience behind the scenes of ThinkTalk programming and polish your communication and networking skills. Not only will you see what it takes to a make an educational TV show, you get to work with us - the brilliant and incredibly good-looking ThinkTalk staff!

(Oh, and did we mention humble)

Your Workload:

• Helping to shoot, edit and distribute ThinkTalk programming
• Researching upcoming ThinkTalk guests and topics
• Taking out the trash
• Collecting student questions for interviews
• Fetching drinks and acting as footstool for important guests
• Writing blog posts and press releases
• Updating mailing lists and files
• Running top-secret documents through paper shredder
• Promoting ThinkTalk to schools and media outlets

Qualifications:

• Must be enrolled as a student in an accredited university
• Ability to commit to 10 hours/week
• Interest in TV production, journalism, news, marketing or entertainment
• Strong writing and communication skills
• Stellar sense of organization
• Access to large amounts of cash and or gold bullion
• Comfortable interacting with high-profile professionals
• An incredible sense of humor and outgoing personality
• Wacky personalities and coffeeholics are encouraged to apply

We are flexible and will work with your crazy class schedule. This is not a paid internship, but you will be more than compensated in praise and cookies (and college credit, if ya know, you're into that kinda thing). We also provide lunch and cover your Metro transportation costs. Speaking of Metro, we're locate in Washington DC, so if you aren't that could be a problem. But hey, shoot us an email, we're always hiring for campus reporters too!

This is a great opportunity to meet amazing professionals from a wide variety of fields. And not to brag, but we look great on a resume!

To apply, please email us a cover letter and resume. If you have any questions, stop over-thinking things, and just shoot us an email.

Internships are great. Internships give you great experience that can help you pick and get into your best career. They will help you find networking contacts and give you material to beef up your recently-graduated resume.

Yes, internships are great. But (most) internships have a downside: no pay. Unfortunately, since even cheap-as-heck college interns need money for basic needs (rent, pizza, cable television), you might have to juggle a paying job and an unpaid internship at the same time. I balanced an internship and a part-time job (or two) all through college. It’s no easy feat. My daily planner became my best friend (I know, it's sad).

If you’re struggling to manage your internship and job situation, then check out this article at College Jolt by the Intern Queen. The Intern Queen has plenty of good advice to share about fitting a job and internship into your busy schedule. She understands that not having an income isn’t an option, but she argues that internships are also vitally important because you have to be “properly prepared” for the real work world when you graduate.

One tip the Intern Queen gives is to make sure you know what you need. How much money do you need to make this summer? How many hours do you need to work per week in order to meet your goal? She points out that many internships are flexible, and understand that you need to work. Hopefully you can find somewhere that will work with you (or maybe you can find a night job and work around them. Waiters don’t make bad money). College Jolt encourages that you do find a way to fit an internship into your schedule:

If you excel at both [an internship and a job], that means double the letters of recommendation, double the experience, double the number of items to add to your resume. Your parents, employers, co-workers, and fellow interns will all be impressed.

Still looking for an internship? Willy Franzen at One Day One Internship has a guide to finding a (very) last minute position. "If you haven’t already found a Summer internship, the odds that you will are pretty slim. With that said, there are still opportunities out there, but you’ll have to work hard to find them." His advice: Keep on truckin' but know when to give up since these internships are only a couple of months long. It's never too early to start looking for something for the fall!

We're juggling some Links:

Secrets of the Job Hunt Suggests: Shoestring networking to help you find a job. Jessica Miller-Merrell says, "Traditional networking is about getting back to basics and streamlining your networking in a creative and cost effective sort of way. My concept, Shoestring Networking, is all about high octane networking and developing relationships for the budget conscious."

Lindsey Pollak Needs: Students in NYC to volunteer for a focus group. Lindsey will be moderating the research group studying student opinion on marketing (great chance to meet a career expert and gain a new contact, perhaps?).

The Recruiters Lounge Offers: Suggestions for a job seeker from a human resources director. This chunk of transcript from “Effective Interview Techniques” has some commonsense, tried-and-true tips for impressing at your next interview.

FrugalDad Has: Resources to help beginners build a personal finance magazine portfolio. He lists several newspapers and magazines that will help you bulk up on your financial know-how.

"Fire Juggling Color (14)" courtesy ky_olson via Flickr's Creative Commons.

One of the strangest aspects of writing a daily roundup of career links around the web is that each day you are never quite sure the type, quality and quantity of links you are going to find. Some days are quite barren and some are quite bountiful. It's interesting reading my RSS Feed each day and relying almost exclusively on the mercy of what topics are being discussed to formulate that days topics.

This is has been one of the more challenging aspect for us all at ThinkTalk since starting the blog. None of us had blogged daily before, so a major concern was finding the motivation and the content available to come up with new topics each day. It certainly has been a learning process, and with the shear ubiquity of personal, professional, and corporate blogging that happens everyday, it may be something every student should try out, just to learn how to do it. One day this week, I promise to post all the helpful and relevant resources I have found to start blogging ...

But today is a bountiful day, and thus it is straight on to The Links ...

Keppie Careers Explains: The difficulties job seekers face in this market ... and how to overcome these hurdles. One interesting point briefly raised is the concept that we are now facing a "career jungle gym" as oppose to the traditional "career ladder." How have I never come across this idea? It makes perfect sense, with Gen Yers swinging from jobs in a more tangential (but upward) manner as oppose to simply moving directly upward withing the same company. This may be the best description yet of the new paradigm of a successful career path.

On The Job Offers: 10 tips for college students, from the professionals that will be hiring them. If you are graduating in the next few weeks, you want every advantage you can for finding a job. Well who better to offer you this advice than the very people who will be hiring you.

Bulls Eye Resumes Career Blog discusses: How the recession is changing the way companies hire. These are some very interesting out-of-the-box ways company hiring has been affected, beyond "they are, uhhh, hiring less." For example, more companies are hiring more contract and freelance positions. Companies don't have to fork over benefits for these positions, but freelancing and short term employment could be a good way for new grads to get a variety of different experiences in a relatively short time that can help give them a well-rounded resume for when this recession does end and hiring picks up (whenever that may be ...).

Alexandra Levit Reviews: Path 101, a service that is "all about helping candidates figure out where they want to go and how to get there. There are plenty of places to just find open jobs, but it's not as easy to figure out what you're looking for in the first place. Via personality tests, resume analysis, and industry profiles, Path 101 provides direction and career insight before you start the application process."

The New York Times Relays: The message of reading the fine print in a student loan. "The range of interest rates on fixed-rate loans was wide — 7 percent to 12 percent — and the larger lenders charged the highest rates. In the fine print of the promissory notes, he discovered that some lenders — Chase, PNC Financial and SunTrust Bank — can raise interest rates by two to three percentage points if a borrower is late with a single payment."

The New York Times Analyzes: Job-Search Networking. "While people have flocked to social networking Web sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, growing numbers of job seekers are building grass-roots offline communities, too, and sometimes use the Internet to arrange to meet people face-to-face." This is a great article, with some great ideas on how you can build up your off-line network to share contacts and leads.

Gradspot Details: How to get the most out of your summer internship. This is a very comprehensive list of maximizing this important career-shaping experience. Tips include arriving 15 minutes early, asking a lot of questions and eliminating the word "No" from your vocabulary.

"In the jungle gym at a park" courtesy of heiwa4126 via Flickr Creative Commons

It's internship week at Forbes.com!  No time like the end of a semester to start prepping for the next one. And Forbes has an excellent run down of some great topics on internships to help you move beyond just making copies:

• How To Land The Internship You Want

• From Intern To Employee

• Interning When All They Ask You To Do Is File

For more information on how to score the perfect internship, let's hit The Links ...

College Recruiter Warns: Poor references may hurt your chances of finding a job. But, there is a solution: "Founded in 1984 by Heidi Allison-Shane, Allison & Taylor, Inc. is a firm that conducts reference checks to help job seekers either ensure that they will get positive references once they start applying for positions or to discover if the reason they're not getting job offers is due to negative references. Allison-Shane started the firm because she saw a need that wasn't being filled."

College Recruiter Offers: Advice on writing a good followup "Thank You" note after an interview. It's important to follow up with a note, so that you stay fresh in the mind of the interviewer and also to show that you are considerate and know how the game is played. CR has the fundamental basics in this post.

Mashable Profiles: Glassdoor, "a Web service that allows users to anonymously share information like salary, workplace reviews, and their honest opinions." A pretty cool concept, indeed. Check out Glassdoor before an interview ... or after to let everyone know how things went. And good luck with your internship search.

"Throw away that copier!" courtesy of jonrawlinson via Flickr Creative Commons

On Monday I linked to a New York Times article on public libraries and their role during the economic slowdown. Well, it seems the increased visitors the libraries are seeing is impacting more than just circulation. Apparently the stress of the evolving role of libraries in effecting librarians.

But in some cities, this new popularity — some would call it overtaxing — is pushing libraries in directions not seen before, with librarians dealing with stresses that go far beyond overdue fines and misshelved books. Many say they feel ill-equipped for the newfound demands of the job, the result of working with anxious and often depressed patrons who say they have nowhere else to go

The stresses have become so significant here that a therapist will soon be counseling library employees.

“I guess I’m not really used to people with tears in their eyes,” said Rosalie Bork, a reference librarian in Arlington Heights, a well-to-do suburb of Chicago. “It has been unexpectedly stressful. We feel so anxious to help these people, and it’s been so emotional for them.”

Sheesh. This economy really is effecting everyone. So remember, next time you are in the library - either the public library or on campus - keep in mind what some librarians are going through. And also, as I said the other day, remember that you are going to be dealing with longer wait times for computers and resource books. So plan accordingly.

To freak you out some more, we have The Links ...

Cheezhead Profiles: The new job board Voolkan. I have to admit, I have a hard time saying this word without using some strange accent and thinking of Star Trek. Anyway, I checked it out. Nice, streamlined site, but not a lot of postings right now (25,000 or so nationwide). It may be something to check in on, but right now it isn't a go to resource.

College Recruiter Laments: The rise of the pay internship placement service."The University of Dreams is one of several intern placement services that are now available to students who are willing to ante-up big bucks to have someone else find a summer internship for them. While not all of the internships are unpaid, many are, and some universities also charge students a semester of tuition if the student wants academic credit for the experience." Paying to work for free makes me ill (Wait. Nope, that's just my breakfast).

Secrets of the Job Hunt Weighs: The positives and negatives of hiring a professional resume writing service. Paying money to help with your job search? Uh oh ... here comes that breakfast again.

Keppie Careers Offers: Advice of what to do after losing your job. Now, I know you're college students and you haven't even found jobs yet to lose ... buuuuuut, this is a good post that has useful advice for anyone starting the job search. There are certainly lessons in here that you can apply to looking for your first job out of college.

"stressed" photo courtesy of rick via Flickr Creative Commons. (Seriously, how did my man score "rick" as a username? Was he, like, the first Flickr user ever?)