Importance of Internships

[MNicolai]

I graduate and obtain my BFA in Design/Tech this upcoming May. While in pursuit of my degree, I've worked at multiple theaters, three internship positions at ETC, and an extended internship position at my current employer for the last 18 months.

Last week the employer of my current internship made me a formal job offer for a salaried position that I begin the week after I graduate. For whatever it's worth to our younger members and to our educators, I'll go so far as to say I can attribute at least a $12k increase in that offer due to my time spent working at various internships. That's to say, I'm making at least $12k more annually right out of college than I would have otherwise, plus I'm fortunate enough for that to also include health insurance and benefits. This is all not to mention that I likely wouldn't have been given any offer at all without that internship experience.

I can't stress it enough to students out there and to educators -- internships and professional opportunities while in pursuit of a degree are vital experiences that help develop a student's:

+ technical skills
+ interpersonal skills
+ business sense
+ sense of awareness of how various trades and disciplines intertwine within our industry

But most importantly, they help overall to increase that student's employability after college (and subsequently, their starting pay).

Small sidebar:

My student loan debt right now is somewhere in the neighborhood of $70k because I spent two years at a private engineering college. Thanks to my internships and that (at least) $12k bump, the >$600/month I'll be spending to pay off my student loan debts just got a lot less scary.

 

[rochem]

Congrats on the job offer! That's a fantastic place to find yourself just out of college.

Out of curiosity, would you mind sharing if you were paid for those internships? I couldn't agree more that internships are important, and I also attribute my post-grad success entirely to the contacts I gained through my internships. However, one of the hardest decisions that I and my friends have had to make is whether to do unpaid or low-paying internships. I've been on both ends of the spectrum - I spent one summer working 12-18 hour days for no pay at all, and I spent another summer internship getting paid a great hourly rate with tons of overtime. For me, my unpaid summer has already more than paid itself off, but it raises both financial and moral issues about unpaid student labor. For the record, this also applies to low-pay or stipend work - earning $100 a week for summerstocks that require 60+ hours a week might as well be an unpaid internship.

However, I couldn't agree more with the sentiment. At this point in my (relatively young) post-grad career, I can trace 100% of my professional work back to summerstocks and internships - no work has come as of yet from my college contacts, and I went to a very well-respected technical theatre school. To be fair, my college led directly to all of the internships and summerstocks I did, but it's still an important point to make.

 

[soundman]

I am a big fan of my internships that I did during college. I spent two summers working in another state at a summer stock theatre. My first year I as an intern the next I was a staff member. I think the first year paid $175 a week and the second year paid $350. Housing was provided as were meals during tech week. I learned alot, working in new spaces and with new people was great and eye opening for me. Most colleges have the same designers working in the same spaces. It can make things a bit repetitive. Working with USA designers and under an equity cast offered a different perspective. I learned a lot about time management, with an equity cast it gets expensive if the rehearsals are not run efficiently. Designers that care more about the design than how much work it took to make it happen was great. I learned a bunch about how to get things done outside of the box. I wouldn't trade those summers for anything. Most of the people I met are still good friends of mine today. The memories are priceless. Drinking beer until sun up with 20 people around your age who are really into the same thing as you are is pretty cool. Besides talking about theatre you find plenty of other stuff to talk about. The season was short enough that I could pick up a couple weeks of work elsewhere for a little extra cash.

My last summer of college I took an internship with a major rental company. The job paid $11 an hour. I learned that shop work was not my end game strategy and some more in depth information about gear. Worth it again. It now makes getting gear from that company a little easier because I know exactly how things get pulled so I can spec it just so to ensure I get what I need.

 

[MNicolai]

Only non-paid work I've done was some volunteer work at a community theater. Otherwise it's all been paid.

To me, I wouldn't consider an unpaid internship. Aside from that I depend on my pay to eat and to pay rent, your hourly rate is the value which you place upon your time and which others place upon your time. If you're paid nothing and your time costs nothing to anyone else, the tendency is for you to be treated like your time is worthless, which can lead to an overall unsatisfactory feeling about your experiences.

I can't help but think that the most beneficial internships are where the product of your time and effort is a necessary cog in the wheel of a larger project that a client is paying for and that you are driven and committed to delivering a quality effort on by a mentor or manager. The kinds of decisions a person has to make are very different when working on an unpaid project versus working on a project that pays your rent.

A good chunk of my internship was focused on making sure I was delivering appropriate amounts of work and detail for the fees we were receiving from our clients. Delivering too much work or work that's "too good" can build strong relationships with clients, but it can also throw off their expectations of you and can take away your amount of time to spend on other projects, potentially risking your relationships with other clients of yours.

If you've nothing better to be spending your time doing, unpaid internships are an option, but so long as people keep agreeing to do unpaid work, employers will continue asking for people to work for free.

I can attest to that the vast majority of projects I've been asked to work on for free and told they'll make excellent projects for my portfolio are exactly the kinds of projects that I wouldn't end up wanting to show in my portfolio or on my resume. A variety of circumstances align such that these projects just tend to not make good portfolio material.

 

[echnaret]

From my experience at a small, liberal arts college in the Midwest, college taught me the basics of theatre (and everything else). I also served on the tech crew, which helped build the foundation of my technical knowledge.

However, I can easily say that I learned more practical skills (and more about theatre life post-college) during my summer internships than I did at college. College was helpful, but it seemed like everything was faculty-lead. I also gained the majority of my current theatre contacts and post-college work through internship (specifically, summer stock) networking. In college, I learned how my faculty does things. Through working at many different summer stocks (internships or not), I got a better understanding of how things are done outside of the educational realm.

As far as salaries went, mine ranged from $600 for the summer to $125/week. All summer stocks that I've worked at, intern or not, have included housing. I will make the disclaimer that college loans were never an issue for me, and that has definitely played a large part in how I was able to spend my summers during college. From my perspective, I have tried to avoid internships that don't at least cover my basic cost of living (food/transportation/etc).

Adding to the moral questions of unpaid/hardly paid internships: a few summers ago, my designer told me he made $75/week interning at a theatre in the mid 70's, which equates to a little over $300 today. How many theatres pay their interns (let alone their staff members) that much today?

 

[Footer]

I agree with everything... but don't limit yourself to actual internships. I never did one and I turned out OK. I did have a job every summer during college. I did one summer running parts for an electrical contractor. The other two I spent summerstocking. None of these were internships. They were real jobs where people depended on my work to get the show up. Both were real trials by fire... and I learned a ton quick. Not because someone taught me but because I had to figure it out.

But yes... call them what you will, summer work is VERY important. I throw resume's out all the time from people who have MFA's who have zero real world experience. You would think that would not be possible but you would be amazed how often that happens. Your college degree is really not worth anything past your first job... and the gigs you work during college are that job. NONE of my employers have had a clue about the school I went to. However, they all know where else I have worked.

Finally, ensure you get paid for your work. Don't work for pennies or just housing.

 

[MikeJ]

Theater is a bit easier to learn in school, where entertainment(concerts and corporate) is pretty much not taught anywhere(leave full sail out of this one).

A college degree in many cases only means that you have the ability to learn things, and to commit yourself to them, it offers nothing in the way of experience or job skills. It's all the other things you do that make you a good hire compared to the thousands of other people who also have a degree.

Working for free sucks, but Trying to see if coming from theater to entertainment is a good fit, free may be a good choice. Granted there are some companies that are only looking for free labor, and that is crap, keep your ear to the ground on find out about the company first. You don't need to dedicate a whole summer to it, but spending a couple weekends just for experience is A: just good experience, and B: shows that you have a real passion for the industry, and passionate people make better employees. Many companies however, are looking for interns that have some skills, and aptitude for learning, and want to find interns that can become employees at some point. Plus, like others have said above doing some shop work at Bandit at least gives you a better nuts and bolts approach to the industry, and helps you find what type of work fits you best.