Internships

Interview frustrations-as mentioned in Doghouse Diaries

So a few days ago I was asked to attend an interview for a “marketing intern” position. After speaking to the recruitment agent and doing the initial research I was a bit apprehensive about going. Various alarm bells were ringing-it was a start-up, they only had one luke-warm product and the money was awful.

But I decided to go just in case I could find myself a mentor that could teach me the ways of marketing in a hands on role. I also liked the idea that it was a small company so you may even be able to do some real stuff that’s not just getting coffee and dishing out post.

Internships have a bad reputation and this is pretty much my experience with them. I had done a “work experience” before in a PR agency in London and although I got to do some tweeting and ringing journalists, I did feel a bit abused as I was given quite a few menial tasks like sticking samples in envelopes and transporting six cases of samples to up three flights of stairs to the loft. So not the best first experience of the working world literally after I graduated. What made it worse was the newsagent next door told me outright that this is what this agency did, “every month a different girl comes”.

The placement after that was not much better.  They were a start-up and in retrospect, it seems they were just trying to see if we researchers were worth the money and in the end deemed us unworthy of the £200 a week they had to give each of us.

So needless to say having been stung for free labour I was reluctant to go to this interview. But I still went because I’m a sucker and not jaded to the point where I’d give up on believing. Almost.