This blog is mainly addressed at fellow students like myself, who had no idea what interning is like.
Before I begin, let me introduce myself and what company I interned for. My name is Sonya and I am a second-year Communication Science student at the UvA, who, like many other internationals, had to come back to their home countries due to the pandemic. Instead of dwelling on this fact, I chose to accept the challenge of extracting only the positives. I was able to obtain an internship via my older brother, with an old classmate of his – Arina Batievskaya, who is a 27-year-old woman, managing her own production company.
A strong, independent woman, in charge of her own start-up production company – cool, right?
Now that you have an overview of where I was interning, I will get into the breakdown.
What did I expect?
I expected that working in film and photoshoot production is dynamic, that I would be meeting famous people left and right, and that I would get tired. I expected the work to be changing constantly, that I would be doing something different every day. I expected every brain cell of mine to be tasked with the unexpected on a daily. I was also ready to do whatever was asked of me, like bring coffee, walk someone’s dog, run 2 kilometers to get glue when, for some reason, it was needed on set (spoiler alert, I did all of those things!). Long story short, I expected an energetic, stressful, movie-like environment, where I would only be doing tasks that I enjoyed, or that I would only remember the tasks that I enjoyed because there would just be so many more of them.
So, what did I actually get?
I was bored a lot. Not because of the industry, but because every job has a side to it that is less exciting, so mundane and dull, that it makes you question “Why am I even here?” when sitting at the office. And that is the sad truth I have come to realize following the months at my internship. Working in production is not always going to be developing the plotlines for shoots, hiring models and actors, choosing costumes and make-up, meeting famous people and getting to know them, working until 5 am and coming back home exhausted, but good exhausted, the satisfying exhausted, going to fancy events, and drinking a glass of expensive champagne at those events before noon (I only watched adults do that, morning drinking is hardcore). There will always be the reality of doing the most tedious tasks, like fixing up documents, answering the dumbest questions of clients, calming down those clients, bringing them water or coffee or gluten-free, sugar-free, taste-free muffins.
Did I like it?
I hated this realization but I am grateful for it. I now know that no matter how exciting the job I want to get is, there will always be the boring parts. Without the boring parts, the fun ones are not as fun. All people are pretty much the same: everyone works, meaning they all get bored. Do not be terrified when going into the office and seeing people look fierce while staring at their computer screens. Chances are, they are actually not doing anything productive, and have only learned to look like they are (I am still mastering this look).
And… how did I get to intern at Cosmopolitan this summer?
That is another moral of this story: make use of every chance you get when meeting people. That is how I met the editor-in-chief of Cosmpolitan Shopping magazine and director of sales of Cosmpolitan. I came up to them to ask a question regarding one of the speakers, the conversation continued. Then I was being asked to send my CV via email. Within a week I got an offer to intern with them for the summer. You really never know who you start a conversation with, especially at fancy events.
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