Stuff White People Like - Unpaid Internships

Internship: Any official or formal program to provide practical experience for beginners in an occupation or profession. When I was in college, I knew many people who would do ANYTHING to get an unpaid internship, including spending a lot of money to network to get that internship.

Shock blogger Stuff White People Like, says, if you were to present a white 19 year old with the choice of spending the summer earning $15 an hour as a plumber’s apprentice or making $0 answering phones at Production Company, they will always choose the latter. In fact, the only way to get the white person to choose the plumbing option would be to convince them that it was leading towards an end-of-summer pipe art installation.

White people view the internship as their foot into the door to such high-profile low-paying career fields as journalism, film, politics, art, non-profits, and anything associated with a museum. Any white person who takes an internship outside of these industries is either the wrong type of white person or a law student. There are no exceptions.

If all goes according to plan, an internship will end with an offer of a job that pays $24,000 per year and will consist entirely of the same tasks they were recently doing for free. In fact, the transition to full time status results in the addition of only one new responsibility: feeling superior to the new interns.

So if you're having a margarita at Rio Grande and overhear someone complaining about their internship at Google... Just remind them that after the cost of a summer in the NYU dorms and bottles at Marquee, they are paying a lot for that internship. But then again if you are having happy hour at Rio Grande or partying at Marquee, chance are you are a white person who once had an unpaid internship.

Listen up Interns - Get 8 hours of Sleep!

I know what you're thinking... This is my SUMMER! I want to be out late every night and living up the club scene. But if you think your performance at work will be the same if you get back from Marquee at 4am rather than going to sleep at a decent hour, you're wrong. You NEED sleep if you want to perform well. But of course if you have an internship with a family friend and you don't give a crap about your job or if messing up making copies then go out and have fun!

A technique recommended by the Wellness Blogger Cohen Family Wellness to help you fall asleep is called "4 x 4 breathing". My patients who perform this exercise are getting longer hours of sleep, better quality of sleep, increased energy the next day, and many other health benefits. Here is a step by step guide to perform the exercise.

1) Breathe in for 4 seconds.
2) Hold breath in for 4 seconds.
3) Breathe our for 4 seconds.
4) Hold breath out for 4 seconds.

The Resume - Some Tips to Keep in Mind

If you're not getting an internship through a family member, chances are your resume will be compared to everyone else's that applied for the same internship that you did! This means that your resume has to be impeccable. Every now and then, Jobosity comes out with great, detailed articles on the resume. Here are just a few tips on how to make your stand out from the rest!

Cover letter always include a cover letter. Keep it to three or four paragraphs and address it to someone specific at the company. (Check with human resources if you don't have a name.) Follow the marketing approach known as ''AIDA'': Get their attention, create interest, build desire, conclude with action (asking for an interview).
Short-term jobs A list of several short-term jobs could raise questions about your ability to settle into one place for long. One way to handle this is to create a heading called ''Relevant Experience,'' where those jobs are removed from the general employment history section but highlighted as skill-building opportunities in another section.
Everything positive
Never state anything in the negative; always see the positive in what you've accomplished. For instance, if you dropped out of college after two years, that means you still ''Completed two years toward a bachelor's degree.''
Employment gaps If you've had a lapse in employment last a couple years or more, explain it. Otherwise, the prospective employer might wonder why your work history ends in 2006. You might need to include a note saying you were out of the work force to care for an elderly parent or write a book or raise a child.