Unexpected Learning on the Job

By Isabella Sayyah ‘16

The whole idea behind an internship is that it’s a learning experience. This concept, harkening back to the simpler times of apprenticeships, is really, I believe, what keeps the whole practice going. Well, that and the resume-building aspect.

But, in essence it’s a trade. For minimal or no compensation (save “class credit” that no one needs) a student or young adult has the opportunity to learn about a new company, field, profession for a short and finite amount of time. Hey, it could even end up in a job opportunity.

Now, a lot of companies abuse the whole system and use interns for labor and free grunt work, which is a whole other story. Luckily, it’s not something I have to worry about at the L.A. Times. In my last blog post, I talked about how the program was really designed so that interns can learn in a very hands-on environment. And learn I have. But, to be honest, it’s not exactly the experience I was expecting.

When I first got this internship at the L.A. Times, I was mostly just amazed that I would be working at such a prestigious organization and was excited and willing to do whatever they needed me to. At first, the internship was described to me as being heavily video and broadcast oriented, despite the obvious factor of working for a print publication. Somehow, between my initial meetings and when I showed up the first day, that all got changed. Honestly, I didn’t mind at all as I barely had a conception of what I was originally going to do in the first place and knew any video and/or digital experience would be good.

But, I also had no conception of my new responsibilities when I was told I’d be working as a “web intern.” While I quickly learned and picked up what this whole web producing business was (and I now also use it in conversation to feel fancy as no one has any idea what I mean when I say I do “web production” for the L.A. Times), it was a job at a newspaper that I hadn’t ever even considered before.

For me, working at a newspaper is inherently intertwined with reporting and editing. Despite the fact that I work at the Daily Trojan and know that a lot more has to go into it, having no experience with the web, I never stopped to think about all the work people do for a story to go online.

At first, as I struggled to merge my initial conceptions of working at a newspaper with what I was actually doing, I wondered a lot about what I was personally getting out of this internship. My future ambitions involve some sort of combination of law school and journalism, and while I like web production well enough, I don’t think it’s something I’ll go into after college.

Then I realized that I was letting my own preconceived notions get in the way of making the most of my summer experience. Because I wasn’t doing what I had expected, I also I wasn’t taking advantage of all the new skills and knowledge I could pick up with my job. At school, I mostly learn reporting in my journalism classes. Here was the chance to learn something completely different but just as integral to getting the news out. And, as we’re constantly being told in class, it’s the digital age and we must all learn to adapt to it. A huge part of that is learning how to be web savvy.

At our weekly Features web production team meeting on Monday, my boss told me that a project needed to be done that required knowledge of HTML and CSS, and he couldn’t find another intern who knew both, so I would have to learn them. I’ll be honest, for a second, I broke my personal first two rules of interning (Rule 1: Always agree to whatever your boss wants you to do, and Rule 2: Look happy about it). There was a momentary pause as I looked at him, surprised, before I resumed my normal smile and nod routine.

Afterwards, I was a intimidated. I know all the basics, but I’m not someone who is very tech-savvy beyond that. It seemed a lot to ask of me to learn these things just to complete a small project. But then I realized, this was an amazing opportunity. Knowing HTML and CSS nowadays is very useful for any field, even journalism. And I was being given the time and resources (well, Internet guides) to learn both, and the opportunity to then put that newfound knowledge to use. Not many can say their internship taught them that much in just the course of a few days.