As a lot of us overworked-underpaid college students wish all that is expected of us is a degree, but that’s
simply not enough. That grace period before you have to declare a major hardly exists, there’s no way you can make it to your professors office hours because you have to make minimum wage at your part time job and don’t even try to put off an internship until your senior year. Four years may seem like a lifetime but you’ll find yourself begging for more quite quickly – especially with a projected 19.7 million students enrolled in college, according to a recent U.S. census, there’s a lot of competition, so here’s how to make the most of it:
We had the chance to catch up with Maureen Choi, assistant beauty editor at Marie Claire (yes, we know, we want her job too) and she was eager to share her story of how she landed her dream job, but she also told us defenseless colligates what it takes to land killer internships which will (crossing our fingers) help us break into the industries that we constantly obsess over.
It’s certainly driven into our heads by now – internships are the key to success, but if you haven’t had an internship yet it may seem like it’s impossible to get one. That’s not true, everyone has to start somewhere – Anna Wintour wasn’t delivered in her Vogue office, although she may as well have been. In Maureen Choi’s case, it took her seven years to graduate college while she also had a promising life as a ballerina – she danced with the San Francisco Ballet. Publishing wasn’t necessarily the path she knew she was going to take, but throughout her own life’s story there was one constant – her love for everything beauty-related. Her story didn’t start at Marie Claire, as she didn’t join the team until 2011, but everything that she’s experienced until that point has been worth it.
Whether you’re interning now or still looking, Maureen was able to give tons of advice.
Follow up and follow through: “I would suggest just building relationships and fostering them over time. If there was a specific company that you wanted to work for or a brand you were interested in, my advice to you would be to reach out to someone that maybe has a job that you would love to have or to reach out to human resources for an informational interview.”
Stand out: “Make yourself more noticeable and show your enthusiasm. Be professional, show interest and make it known that you want to be there and that you are open to learning. You want to show that you’re eager, it goes a long way.”
Be professional: “Be detail oriented and go above and beyond. You want to be the first one in there and the last one out. Use your internship as an opportunity to show someone you’re worth hiring.”
Use social media: “Social media is critical – follow the people you’re interested in, like pages on Facebook and follow up and nurture the relationships you make because you never know when a position is going to open up and you always want to be the first in mind.”
Don’t panic: “If you don’t hear back right away from someone, don’t give up or get discouraged, people are, most of the time, just busy.”