confessionsofsuperintern-blog

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As someone who has literally never been the “boss’s favorite” I can’t say I relate to this article at all – but it’s a fascinating conundrum! 

[confessionsofsuperintern-blog]

5 Times Work = Camp

1. The buddy system is real. Gotta have a buddy. Gotta watch out for your buddy. Don’t let your buddy drown in the lake. 

2. When someone comes back from vacation and dumps the contents of a food package on a the free table. Contraband!

3. When the person who hired you is replaced by Tony Perkis. 

4. You’re homesick, wandering around the office for a quiet place to maybe shed a tear because you’ve got three more weeks (er... hours) left in the day.

5. You wanted horseback riding but got 3 PM meeting instead. 

[confessionsofsuperintern-blog]

Secret: Sometimes when I walk to and from the subway I talk to myself while pretending it’s someone else on the phone, complete with salutations, questions, pauses, emphases and laughter. 

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SELF-CARE = SELF-PRESERVATION

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Super Intern Tip #23: Be Early, Leave Late: An Inconvenient Tip

Dear Super Interns, 

George Bernard Shaw, a great curmudgeon, once said “youth is wasted on the young.” At age 20, time is an open road with the GPS turned off. A blank white page with no deadline. The flip side is that people expect you to have more energy, zest and physical stamina to tackle inordinately dull work that they themselves detest. 

Anywho. The best course of action is to try to get to work early and leave late; i.e. before your boss and after your boss. 

Do not expect recognition. 

But here are the 3 best reasons to do it: 

1. People 100% notice, even if they don’t have a ticker tape parade for you every time you come early. Your colleagues (and boss) will simply like you more and want to help you. (Major key alert)

2. You’ll build up the confidence in yourself to have a voice and in turn, you’ll feel more comfortable and more entitled to ask for opportunities. 

3. You’ll have extra time for B.S. chit-chat (i.e. networking) where it won’t look like you’re goofing off. 

When I was an intern at a news program during college, my hours were a fixed 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. But my show’s morning meeting – where the whole staff would gather to plan out the day – was at 7:30 a.m. in a different building. It wasn’t convenient. I wouldn’t be paid extra to come in early, I lived an hour away from the office and had to catch a 6:20 train to make this “extra credit” meeting. But simply being there early, showing people that I was in the trenches with them, I earned their trust, got more responsibility than the other interns and gained lifelong contacts literally without doing anything other than shift my sleep schedule. 

[confessionsofsuperintern-blog]

5 Phrases It’s Not Okay to Say to Your Intern

1. “Ugh [interrupts you in a meeting] not this again."

When Roger Klotz grows up to be a middle manager.

2. “We all know what’s going on with you." 

Really, Susan? How much do you charge for 10 more minutes? 

3. “You’re not cut out for this.”

Remind me: cream or no cream? 

4. “I’ll give you one thing, you’re persistent!” 

Wipes brow over printer.

5. “You work here?” 

Kudos. To you. 

[confessionsofsuperintern-blog]

Welcome, super interns

Bring us your tired, your hungry, your unpaid, your overworked, your office food binge regrets, your tears strewn in Duane Reade aisles during what we’ll call your “lunch break,” your work-appropriate sandals that turn your feet into oozing purple nubs by the time you get to Penn Station and watch your train pulling out and check your phone to see a text from your Mom aggravated that you are late for dinner and did not tell her 24 hours ahead of time. Again. 

Full disclosure, I am no longer an intern. But I spent many years as one. And in the ever-growing gig economy, where the definition of intern has lazed out into other agonizing work agreements like “permalancer,” “freelancer,” “part-time freelancer” and “weekend nights social editor” – this is for my fellow underpaids who just want a good job. Damnnit, a first job! 

This is our passive aggressive battle cry: a place to tell those awkward, joyous, shame-filled, victorious and foolishly self-righteous moments that are all part of the modern intern/freelance/work bullshit experience.  Enjoy and go forth!