Q: I saw the notice for the Detroit Free Press internship on the Berkeley School of Journalism page, and I'm wondering if it's open to non-students.

I have been writing for the internal publications at the University of Illinois at Chicago for six years now and am eager to make the leap to daily journalism. Though I have more than 200 clips and a weekly profile beat, I'm aware that crossing over might be difficult, since I'm probably too old for most internships and too green for seasoned reporting positions. A training position at the Detroit Free Press, though, sounds perfect.

Do I stand a chance? Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thanks,

Lisa

A: Almost all newspaper reserve internships for students or new graduates, seeing these 10- or 12-week jobs as steppingstones from college to the working world.

We have, on rare occasions, used internships as transitional steps for career changers. Once, for example, a person came to a Free Press internship as a photographer looking to move into copy editing. It worked for her.

But that is a rare exception.

We hope to get a look at what interns can do so that we know about them for future openings, but most internships do not lead directly into jobs. If we were to take someone who was several years out of school, require them to move, finance double housing and quit a permanent job, that would make it even more important for the intern to turn the internship into a job. Few newspapers want to put themselves or the interns under that kind of all-or-nothing pressure. A newspaper who takes an experienced person as an intern might even be seen as taking advantage of that person at the expense of a student candidate.

There might also be a mismatch of sorts when a person who has been out working for half a dozen years, paying bills, maintaining an independent household, is put into a program designed for people in college. When we have done that in the past, we sometimes find that the non-traditional interns have such different interests that activities planned for the interns -- or that they plan themselves -- are not of interest to the more experienced intern. That can happen with any intern, of course, but it is more likley to happen when people are in such a different place in their lives.

I would aim at a real, permanent job at a smaller newspaper. While you may be greener than the best competition at big newspapers, your life experience could be an advantage at some smaller ones.