Yay/Boo: Would You Hire Her?

There's a post on Phoenix Ad Blog where an intern writes about her horrible experience interning at an ad agency "which will remain nameless". I am from Phoenix and went to AZ State for GD, anyone who falls into either one of those categories knows the agency with the basketball court & free beer. Way to go Moses you are famous for something.

The internship is unpaid and and that blows because I think internships should be paid at least minimum wage. Intern should have known this before taking the position, Moses has never paid their interns and probably never will because they can get away with it.
>> Boo Intern for not doing your homework
>> Boo Moses for not paying your interns.

The basketball court & free beer is definitely a bonus, we only get free pop & fruit at my agency, but as this is the real world and there is a recession/depression going on. Businesses and people are trying to keep their head above water and food on their table. Maybe Intern should read AgencySpy and realize how many people are getting laid off.
>> Boo intern for being naive to what is going on in the world today.
>> Yay Moses for even having a basketball court and free beer.

Organizing pens by color, moving binders, and running errands suck, but is part of being an intern. It's what makes helping out in the concepting and production phase that much more exciting. The projections you complain about come with proving the work has worked, the scripts you had to re-type give you the ability to see how scripts are written and how you should write them in the future. A lot of interns, even juniors for that matter never see a photo shoot until their second year in the business, you should feel lucky that you got to experience it.
>> Boo intern for bitching, everyone now knows you aren't a team player and you will get picked last for kickball.
>> Yay Moses for being OCD organized.

Intern you are not the only one who has interned . . . everyone does it. It's a right of passage, a shitty one none the less, but still a right of passage. Once you get hired, being a junior is better than being an intern but you still do the projects the seniors don't want to do, you still have to work your ass off, stay late, work weekends, and do whatever it takes to get where you want in this industry. Nothing in life is given to you, and nothing is truer than that in this industry. You made a three month commitment in which you couldn't follow through on. Boo to you.

I do love the fact that intern is gung-ho about creating competition for Moses, they need it, it will only make them a better shop. The only thing is, Intern will have to get her own interns to organize her pens by color because everyone knows she won't do it.

Read the entire letter below that was submitted to the Phoenix Ad Blog:

This open letter was submitted by Jenavi Kasper, who recently resigned as an intern at one of the large local ad agencies:

Dear Local Advertising Agency Named After the Founders,

Well, it’s been one heck of a time interning over at your super-cool office. The Friday in-house happy hour was a great touch. When I landed the internship at your place I was excited. Working downtown in a hip office, getting some experience in the industry and the free beer is what lured me in. It sounded like a dream! And I have to say, when I told people where I was interning they were pretty impressed.

But you guys dropped the ball (figuratively of course). Come to think of it, while I was there I never did see anyone start the pick-up game of basketball I was expecting to break out at any moment–but maybe I was tainted by the YouTube video. (What good is the basketball hoop in the office if nobody uses it?)

I would be crazy to leave, right? Even if it was an unpaid internship it’s still a resumè builder. But, if you can believe it, I left this experience disappointed.

Maybe that’s my fault. I had unrealistic expectations. I thought that interning would allow me to use my brain and maybe, just maybe, apply some of what I spent four years learning. But you proved me wrong. You have snatched my naiveté like a pillowcase filled with candy on Halloween.

The funny thing is, I didn’t get it right away. When you assigned me to organize the pens by color on my first day I didn’t worry much about it. When you asked me to drop off DVDs to your client’s office, I didn’t think twice (though I wasn’t paid for gas). I didn’t even mind when you asked me to help you move binders out of your office.

But it started to get old fast. When “helping with projections” meant reading you numbers off a spreadsheet I became a little discouraged. When “working with scripts” meant retyping scripts I was bummed. It was especially painful when I spent all morning cleaning out an office for the new girl while you guys took off to Starbucks.

It wasn’t all bad. You did let me go to that commercial shoot, which was fun, and it was great to be able to sit in on a couple of meetings. But there are some things you should keep in mind before you bring in my replacement:

Remember, we are ADVERTISING students. That stuff you do for your clients to get the word out, the get the brand promise out to the target audience, we know how to do that too. We also know those Jedi mind tricks.

We want to learn as much about the business as possible and if you can’t provide that training we will find someplace else that will. That place might be your competition.

Or heck, we’ll freelance and become your competition.

So be careful. You don’t want to end up being called out on a blog, do you?

Yours Truly,
The Intern

If you’re looking for someone capable of something a bit more subtle than sorting pens, you can reach Jenavi on Facebook and Twitter, or by e-mail at jenavikasper@yahoo.com.