Last spring, I applied to 179 internships. Yes, I have an Excel spreadsheet to prove it.
I knew I wanted experience somewhere at the intersection of graphic design, marketing, and musical theater, which turns out to be a pretty specific internship search. After months of applications, interviews, and a lot of rejection emails, I ended up accepting a Creative Marketing Internship at The REV Theatre Company in Auburn, New York.
I packed up my car, moved from Florida to a town I had never been to, and spent the summer working in professional theater. I designed, photographed, wrote, helped create marketing campaigns, and learned a little bit of everything along the way.
Now that I am back at UCF, these are the six things I actually took away from it.
- REJECTION HAPPENS.
-
I applied to 179 internships, and more than 100 of those applications ended in a no.
Internship hunting can be incredibly discouraging, especially when you are putting hours into applications just to get a generic rejection email, or sometimes no response at all. There were definitely points when I wondered if I was doing something wrong.
The internship I eventually accepted was one I found toward the end of my search. I applied from my church parking lot while I was already freaking out about not having an internship lined up.
It only takes one application working out. Unfortunately, you usually have to get through quite a few that do not.
- YOU’RE MUCH MORE CAPABLE THAN YOU THINK
-
I spent way too much of my internship waiting for someone to discover that I secretly had no idea what I was doing. Guess what? That never happened. Instead, I was trusted to work on Meta and Google ads, emails, social graphics, photography, video content, and marketing materials. I wrote three feature articles in the local paper. I even got to contribute (minuscule) details to a production poster, which felt particularly exciting as someone who wants to design for theater.
There were things I did not know how to do yet, but there were also plenty of things I did know how to do. There is a difference between having more to learn and being unqualified. It took actually doing the work for me to understand that.
Taylor Copeland - IT’S OKAY TO LEARN ON THE JOB
-
One of my first photography assignments went… not so great!
I had not seriously used a legit digital camera in a while, and when I got back to the office after shooting a meet-and-greet and looked at what I had shot, almost nothing was in focus. I immediately assumed everyone was going to wonder why they had hired me.
Instead, I got help. Who would have thought? Your mentors actually want to mentor you! The next time, I was better prepared. I kept practicing, learned more about photography and editing, and by the end of the summer, I was taking photos I was genuinely proud of.
It sounds obvious now, but I had to remind myself that an internship is quite literally a place to learn. You are not supposed to walk in knowing how to do everything. Ask questions, take the feedback, and get better!
- THE PEOPLE MATTER AS MUCH AS THE WORK
-
I moved to Auburn knowing absolutely no one. That might have scared me more than the internship itself. I remember sitting in my apartment after moving in and wondering what I had gotten myself into. Yet, within a few days, I was meeting people who would eventually become some of my closest friends that summer.
Obviously, you should care about what you will be doing at an internship, but the people you are doing it with can completely change the experience. I learned from people whose careers I admired, and I also got to know them as actual people. Those relationships are one of the biggest things I brought home with me.
Taylor Copeland - LIFE EXISTS OUTSIDE THE OFFICE, TOO
-
Yes, I moved to New York for work. But some of my favorite memories had absolutely nothing to do with my job description. I hiked to waterfalls in Ithaca. I ate cookies in Geneva and wandered through Seneca Falls. I saw Fourth of July fireworks, went to Manhattan twice, ate an unreasonable amount of chocolate soft-serve, made vision boards over pizza, and trusted clams from a Chinese buffet more than I probably should have.
If you are moving somewhere new for an internship, actually live there. You can care about your career without making your career the only thing you do for three months.
- TAKE IT ALL IN
-
There was a moment while I was filming A Bronx Tale when I looked around the theater and thought, “Wow. I’m getting paid for this.” Actors were performing, music was playing, and I was standing there with a camera creating marketing content for a professional theater company.
That was pretty cool.
Internships go ridiculously fast. At the beginning of the summer, three months sounded like forever. By the end, I was wondering where the time went.
So take the pictures. Go get dinner after work. Explore the town you moved to. Ask questions. Talk to people whose careers interest you. Pay attention when you get to do something you used to only imagine yourself doing someday.
And yes, appreciate the hard days too. Because you’ll come back to your apartment, sit down, and think, “How lucky am I that I get to work on something I care so much about.”
Taylor Copeland
I don’t think every internship needs to change your life, and I don’t think there is some perfect opportunity waiting for every person if they just submit enough applications. Internship hunting can be frustrating, random, and genuinely discouraging. I got more than 100 no’s, and I almost gave up before I found The REV at all.
But if there is an internship sitting in your browser right now that sounds exciting and a little ridiculous, just apply for the internship. Okay? Don’t reject yourself first because the city seems too far away, you do not meet every qualification, or you assume someone more talented is going to get it anyway. Send the application and let them decide. You can freak out about moving to Upstate New York once you get the offer.