Adjusting to the 9-to-5
By Isabella Sayyah ‘16
One of the great things about interning at the L.A. Times is that they have a really established internship program that aims to give interns the opportunity to learn everything they can in 10 weeks. Though I learned a lot at my previous two internships, there tended to be less structure because the internship programs weren’t as large.
One of the cool things about the
L.A. Times’ program
is that, in addition to every intern’s individual duties, there are unique sessions and field trips for interns throughout the summer. The person in charge of the program plans optional events that are often an interesting hour away from the regular workday and a good opportunity to catch up with some of the other interns, most of whom I don’t see day-to-day.
A few weeks ago, I joined other interns (and some local middle schoolers) on a tour of the L.A. Times printing press, the largest press in the country, where they print the Times as well as a host of other papers daily. I had never really gotten to see what happens to a paper after its done being designed so I really enjoyed this. Even at the Daily Trojan, we simply send our pages over to the press in Glendale that prints it, and that’s the last we see of it until it appears on campus the next day. Actually getting to see the massive machines and technology at the press was pretty amazing.
This week, I got to go to two hour-long educational sessions. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend an intern meet-and-greet with some of the masthead editors – in other words the big guns at the Times. To be able to sit there and listen to the editor-in-chief discuss his own time as an intern at the paper was quite amazing. All of the editors there had really good advice for the interns and answered their questions, most of which were about the future of journalism in the digital age and the Times’ own future plans.
On Thursday, I attended a social media workshop conducted by the head social media editor. I’m the absolute worst person about using social media, which is bad because social media, especially Twitter, is often a professional tool for journalists. In this day and age, journalists are expected to develop a personal “brand” with a following. How many Twitter followers you have can actually be the difference between getting hired or not. To many, a journalist’s Twitter feed is their sacred, curated newspaper, and what will cause people to follow them and actually read their articles — no matter what paper they work at. I got some really good tips on social media dos and don’ts (remember: nothing on the Internet is truly private!) and left with a newfound determination to start regularly tweeting.
Other than these occasional happenings, the L.A. Times’ approach to interns seems mainly to be a “let’s throw them in the deep end and see if they can swim” sort of deal. My bosses gave me some training the first week, and though they are continually teaching me how to do new things, I spend most of my day just actually doing work. I’ve had internships before where I didn’t feel like I was really contributing, so I love the feeling that my internship is a real job and what I do is truly useful.
Another thing that makes the experience feel like a real job is the whole “working 9-to-5” deal. I’ve had a lot of different jobs and internships in the past, but never a “full-time” gig. Though my schedule is usually 8-4 or 10-6, to try to avoid the worst of traffic (or at least convince myself that I’m doing so), I still end up working eight-hour days. While it’s a lot less than my schedule while at school, it can be very draining. I guess this is what they call “The Real World” (though without bills, kids, mortgages, debt and all that other fun stuff).
I must say it makes me appreciate the constant running around at school. Though I often got tired of the constant treks between my apartment, classes, the Daily Trojan newsroom, my internship and everything else, it was nice to be able to move around and constantly change what I’m doing. My 90-minute classes haven’t completely prepared me for sitting and working for eight hours. Although I’m lucky enough to have an internship where I get to do a variety of things throughout the day, I can still get restless. I’ve even started climbing 11 sets of stairs, all the way up to the roof, when I need a 15-minute break. It works even better than coffee!
