The Early Bird Gets the Internship

By: Randy Dotinga It's the beginning of the school year, and the thoughts of journalism students are turning to the most unlikely of topics: their 2004 summer internships.

"It's unnatural," said Indiana University senior Cory Schouten, who just left an internship at the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. "I don't want to think about the next summer. I want to think about the upcoming school year."

Students like Schouten don't have much choice in the matter. They face decisions as soon as they return to campus. At stake is the chance to get enough experience and connections to skip the low rungs of the journalism profession after graduation.

But even the most prepared student can make a mistake and lose a chance to snag a high-profile internship. Here are some tips to improve the odds:

* Think fast: Don't sit around until the spring. "The deadlines are earlier and earlier," said Lanita Pace-Hinton, director of career services for the graduate school of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. "We have our first recruiter coming to campus on Sept. 11, and the first deadline hits in October."

Major metropolitan dailies started the trend of moving back application deadlines, and smaller newspapers are following suit, fearing that good candidates will get gobbled up.

The Portland (Maine) Press Herald recently moved its deadline to Feb. 1 from March. "I ratcheted ours back," said Business Editor and internship coordinator Eric Blom. "It was clear to me in the first year I did it that people had already committed to places, particularly the best applicants."

You could try to send applications in March and April, but remember that the only openings may be at newspapers that are as disorganized as you.

* Ignore the deadline: Get your application in weeks ahead of time.

Last year, the Press Herald received 225 applications for two internships, and the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News got 150, also for a couple of spots. The St. Petersburg Times received 1,000 for 27 internships in the newsroom and other departments.

If you want your application to sit in a pile with all the others, then send it right at the deadline. But Pace-Hinton, who advises students to send out at least 50 applications each, has a better idea.

"Get your letters of application in well in advance of the deadlines," she said. "It gives the recruiters more time to read your clips. We all tend to be deadline oriented, but for folks seeking internships, that does not work to their advantage. The recruiters have less time to really sort through your materials. If you apply early, you'll get one or two looks, as opposed to coming in on deadline when they've got 400 or 500 other applications."

* Know your target: A big newspaper isn't likely to hire a student whose only journalism experience has been in the classroom. If that description fits you, try for a small daily or weekly instead.

"We're not a beginning newspaper," said Nancy Waclawek, director of internships in St. Petersburg. "We're looking for that candidate who's had a couple of professional experiences and has been doing something at a college publication, typically a college paper, for a number of years."

* Get everything right: Double-check names and addresses. Then triple-check them. Don't forget to call to confirm the details: Is the recruiter still at the newspaper? Does she have the same job? Does she have a new last name?

"It's a test," said Waclawek, who reports that applicants sometimes get everything wrong. In the worst cases, they send her cover letters that read something like this: "Dear Ms. Miller, I'd love to work for The Miami Herald."

"Those kinds of things say it's a mass mailing," Waclawek said. "I know that, but you hope care will be taken."

Students also make mistakes by writing long cover letters that never get to the point or by bragging too much, she said. Saying you're the best reporter ever will impress no one.

Waclawek has seen another problem: cover letters with no signatures. For some reason, plenty of students forget that simple step. "I interpret it as, 'It's a batch send and I don't have to sign,'" she said.

* Make yourself easy to reach: If a newspaper can't find you, an internship may go up in smoke.

"A lot of [students] apply while they're at school, yet they might leave off their parents' number, which is sometimes where they'll be at the beginning of the summer," said Kathleen Macknicki, an editorial assistant who handles internship applications at the Anchorage paper. "We need all of their contact information, at school and at a home, cell phone, e-mail. The more ways we have to contact them, the better it is."

To make things easier for recruiters and editors, Macknicki suggests that students put their phone numbers and e-mail addresses on their cover letters. "So often I have to go wading through clips to find their resume. It's nice just to be able to have their contact information right up front."

* Stick with staples and paper clips: Don't bother with a fancy looking package. Editors have seen them all before, and they'll probably put your clips in a simple file folder and throw away that $8 portfolio. "All that agonizing should go into the clips and the stories that they choose," Macknicki said.

Whatever you do, she said, don't send an application by e-mail without clips. Editors want to see what you've written, and a cover letter just isn't enough.

Remember: dozens or hundreds of other people want the same internship. Don't stand out for the wrong reasons.