Q: I just graduated with a degree in journalism, and I'm taking an internship at a relatively prominent newspaper. It's a great opportunity, it pays well and it will look really nice on my resume, but I hate the place.
I feel as though I should have just gotten a job because I would be writing a lot more and I would be treated with a little more respect. So far I've been yelled at in the middle of the newsroom and my story ideas have been rejected. I've had better internship experiences than this, and I don't want to be "paying my dues" by acting more as a personal assistant than a journalist.
Should I ditch the internship and look for a job, or should I just wait it out for two more months?
Desperately Seeking Emancipation
A: Sorry, I think you should stick it out.
It is unprofessional to yell at someone in the middle of the newsroom, but it is also unprofessional to pull out of an internship a third of the way into it. As for having your ideas rejected, well, that happens to me, too, and I have to rework them and pitch them again.
Lots of other people likely applied for the opportunity that is now driving you crazy, and skipping out two months early could follow you. If they have to take sides in determining what went wrong, most editors will listen to other editors rather than interns who leave prestigious internships early.
Take these next two months and see what you can do to improve your experience. You will not be able to easily walk away from a real job, and if there is anything to learn now about turning a situation around, you will use it later.
Hold your head up high, and try to work your part of the situation as well as you can. Enlist the intern recruiter, another editor or a mentor for some constructive and confidential help. While it sounds as though an editor has acted unprofessionally, I wouldn't want you to be unprofessional, too.
Let me know how things go.
