Since I’ve
started interning in radio, it always amazes me how many people think it’s a
mysterious world or that an internship is unattainable. I have to say getting
an internship at this station was really easy. All you needed was to show that
you have a personality and be able to show it. The hardest part about having
this internship is earning your time, on-air and off. I remember first starting
and having a limited number of days in the studio and most of them I would
spend sitting in the studio just listening and observing. I really missed
answering calls and feeling like I could participate. I remember thinking that
if I wanted to answer phones and be a part of the show I had to stand out and
do one heck of a job the one day I got to be on-air.
Most people
can say they’ve had a similar situation in a job but when you wake up at 4:30am
to just sit around, it’s a pretty smart way for the boss to sort through those
who want to be there and those who are just there to say they were an “intern”.
Going into this spring semester I knew my time at the station would be coming
to an end, so when I emailed my boss I told him that I wanted 3 days a week, on-air,
being the stupid intern making sarcastic remarks. What I didn’t realize during
that time when I was sitting in that room was that I was developing
relationships with these people. I was learning stuff about their families and
other things that not even the most dedicated listener would know. I remember yearning
for a paid position with the station, talking about it every day and hinting at
topics to discuss.
But this
past fall it finally hit me that the morning show is where I am supposed to be.
They don’t want to lose me to some weekend show, they are giving me the
opportunity to be on air in front of thousands of people and the morning show
is prime time in radio. I was telling my parents how cool it is to feel needed
and valuable to a radio show and a successful company that doesn’t even pay me!
It’s weird but I love getting up to work on the show, and I love it when my
peers ask me questions about it.
It just goes
to show that when you are working in an intern position, paid or unpaid, that
you keep focus and show them how much your work means to you. Once your
employer or boss sees that you care about what you do, even the most tedious of
jobs and take ownership in them, they want to keep you around. They see you as
valuable to their work and don’t want you to leave. Now as I enter my last
month of answering calls I can tell they’re going to miss me, and I would be
lying if I said I wasn’t going to miss the morning show and the people I got to
work with. It will be a bitter sweet month for me, reminiscing and having to
train in the new interns it won’t be the same.
Moral of
this blog post: Care about what you do at your internship and care about the
people you work with. They will help to shape you as a professional in ways you
can’t even predict, and make you a better person because of it.
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