Binghamton University got the royal treatment this Monday night when Lauren Berger, the Intern Queen, paid a visit to campus. Students flocked to the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center at 7 p.m. on Monday to hear the Queen talk about landing internships, breaking the rules, and going after your dreams – no matter what.
“I’ve followed the Intern Queen on Twitter and seen her webpage; I’ve used her website when finding internships and found it useful,” said Lauren Appel, a junior English major. “I just wanted to see what she had to say and see what knowledge she could give me.”
The talk opened unusually, as Berger gave out her personal email address to all students in attendance, insisting that they email her with any questions. It’s this personal touch that makes her website, InternQueen.com, stand out among the sea of websites available to students. Her tagline, “Find Internships. Get Internships. All With a Personal Touch.” demonstrates her passion for her work, and her desire to truly give students an advantage she did not have years ago when searching for her own internships.
The Intern Queen used her many connections to begin her site, and these days, the page is filled with PR agencies, television networks, magazines, sports agencies, and more. Students simply have to fill out a profile, upload a resume, and select the internships they want. Resumes are then sent, and employers can choose whether or not to call the prospective intern for more information.
The site has had great success, with over 1,000 employers posting on the site, and over 60,000 students seeking jobs. Employers have a 95% success rate finding interns on the site, so while it is not guaranteed that students will get an internship, they do get the power of Berger’s recommendation behind their application, and they can get access to postings they might have otherwise never found.
Berger made a name for herself as the Intern Queen by landing 15 internships during her 4 years at college. She began as a freshman, finding internships that she was told were impossible for a freshman to get.
Many students find her drive and ability to juggle so many internships an inspiration, like Sarah Brobta, junior English major and graphic design minor.
“I’m going on my fifth internship,” said Brobta. “I decided to take this chance to go see her. A lot of the things she’s done really relate to what I want to do.”
Berger found her first job at the Zimmerman Agency, a public relations firm based in Florida in an unconventional way.
“Everyone always told me to never cold call a company, that’s the kiss of death. So what did I do? I cold called the company and said ‘Hi, can I speak with your internship supervisor?” said Berger.
It is this kind of bold action that has given her an edge in her career. Berger is unafraid to ask for what she wants, and it is this take-charge attitude that she advocates all students to have.
“I learned very early on not to take no for an answer,” said Berger. “It’s kind of cheesy but that’s [at my first internship] where it all clicked for me.”
Berger went on to intern at many other renowned companies, including MTV, Fox, and NBC, but her most memorable experience was at a different kind of entertainment company. In a true example of her ‘ask and ye shall receive’ philosophy, Berger shared the story of her employment with US Weekly with the awestruck room of students.
Her dream for years had been to work at the celebrity tabloid magazine, and she got a very lucky break when she happened upon a Mr. Ken Baker’s business card lying on the floor of her internship at BWR, a public relations firm based in Los Angeles. Baker, now the head of E! news, was the West Coast editor of US Weekly at the time.
“The right thing to do would have been to leave the card on the floor…but that’s not what I did,” said Berger. “I decided I was going to send my new friend Ken an email.”
Berger fired off an email telling Baker it was her dream job to work for US Weekly, and heard nothing for months. The next part of her story had BU students green with envy.
Baker called this audacious young intern back on Thanksgiving Day and told her he needed her to fly out to Barbados right away to cover a story on a fight between Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen. She was flown out to the island paradise, picked up in a Bentley, and delivered her first story to Baker before she had even reached the resort.
More recently after establishing her company, Berger decided that she wanted to pen a book giving advice on internships. Publishers told her that books on internships were generic and no one would buy them.
Once again, she proved the naysayers wrong. Her first book, “All Work and No Pay” comes out January 3, 2012.
It was these examples that showed students at the event that if you are bold enough to ask, you may just be rewarded with opportunities beyond your wildest dreams.
After regaling the room with tales of her successes, Berger opened up the floor for questions, and tackled students most pressing internship questions.
Her main suggestions?
Handwritten thank-you notes after interviews are of utmost importance, especially for PR and entertainment jobs. Always keep your resume to one page. Ask questions and don’t be afraid to network with the higher-ups.
But most importantly, she advocates to follow your dreams and to throw away your fears of rejection.
Berger emphasized her point that if she could be “this weird chick that calls herself the Intern Queen,” and make a full-time living that way, there was no excuse for students everywhere to not take a second and think about what drives them.
“Think about what that is that you like and focus on it. Get excited and don’t take no for an answer.”