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Folks—some of you are coming to the close of your internships… Others are half-way there (see question in Starbucks about mid-term review)

Question:

What ONE THING do you want to accomplish by the end of your internship?
—A particular story?

-- a story approach?

--- a chance to ....what?

-- a lunch with your ed?

-- a job offer?


Tell us, and tell us what steps you plan to take to GET THERE—and how we can help you!

My internship ends Sunday. I hope to get lunch with my managing editor before I leave, ask his opinion on where to go from here. I think I’ll just ask him. He’s brought it up before.

My internship ends Friday!

herbsao - 31 July 2008 12:55 PM

My internship ends Sunday. I hope to get lunch with my managing editor before I leave, ask his opinion on where to go from here. I think I’ll just ask him. He’s brought it up before.

I tried asking my supervisors where I should go from here. They didn’t really know how to answer the question. The AME referred me to the Gannett hiring Web site, but wasn’t very helpful in terms of saying something like, “After this, I think you should shoot for the Columbus Post-Dispatch...” or something like that. Is that the kind of answer you’re expecting from your editor? I hope it goes better for you than it did for me!

I still have another three weeks, but it is still getting down to the end. So far, I’m happy with all the unexpected things I’ve learned.

I’m doing the job hunt thing which is tedious, but things are starting to look positive.

I suppose before I leave I would like to make the front page again and make it up to 30 clips (boy, do I need them). I guess I would like to have an evaluation too to get an idea of my strengths and weaknesses. I haven’t had one yet.

What ONE THING do you want to accomplish by the end of your internship?

—A particular story?

The East Bay Municipal Utility District, here in the East Bay Area, is the water company for—pretty much—everybody ‘n their mom outside of San Francisco. The District is having serious leaks issues—and at the same time has increased rates for its water customers. It also announced that we are in a drought. Meanwhile, its had water leaks going for years—as in 10 or more—which has wasted enough clean water to serve 260,000 customers at 500 gallons-per-household. (I did the math.) I’ve written one story about a particular leak, and since then I’ve gotten several called about others. I’m working on another story about a separate leak today. And then an overall, for which I’m waiting for EBMUD to send me records I’ve requested.

Investigative? Sorta. We’ll see what they give me.

-- a story approach?

Hoping that the water leak story can highlight some of the mistakes the District has made in leaks repair before they were a compounding problem, like there are now. How does this effect their conservation message? People are losing confidence in the District credibility.

--- a chance to ....what?

Sit in on an editorial meeting. I’m always busy when they are going on.

-- a lunch with your ed?

Haven’t done that, yet. Maybe on my “last day” or something.

-- a job offer?

Hmmmm. Well, I’m told that “sticking around” is not as far fetched as I think it is. There is an opening, surprisingly. “Ask and you ‘may’ receive.” We shall see in the next few weeks…

My internship ends in 8 weekdays.

My EIC has been on vacation for about 3 weeks and the editor I started off working under was laid off a few weeks so in terms of establishing a firm relationship with the leadership at the paper, I feel a bit unsure.

I had really hoped to cultivate good relationships and I do believe I have, but because of the shifting of people whom I had to report to, I didn’t have as much consistency in that relationship as I would have liked.

In the next eight days, I hope to finish a profile I’m working on and do it really well. I’m currently at a fellowship program in LA (I’ll be back in Oakland on Monday) and one of the speakers talked about effective storytelling and I’d really like to incorporate that into the profile I’m writing.

I know I’m supposed to name one thing but I just want to end the internship on a high note and, if not secure a job, secure excellent references to help me find a job elsewhere.

so sorry. i thought the posts were always due wednesday. and then i realized today that yesterday was the 3rd.

they actually extended my internship so I will be here until the end of september/early october now. yay!

but a few things i want to work on over the next month or so are:
--becoming more familiar with covering breaking stories. especially breaking crime stories. i still get weary going up to a police sergeant at a crime scene who is usually crabby and ignorant. i sometimes get flustered and feel like there is a stamp on my forehead that says: intern.

-- i would love to do a long-term investigative piece but they have kept me so busy with daily stuff, i haven’t really had a chance to explore any ideas.

--i also plan to schedule lunch or coffee with my editors and of course, i would love a job offer just about anywhere at this point. but we’ll see about that…

[quote author="Carley Dryden” date="1217882648"
--becoming more familiar with covering breaking stories. especially breaking crime stories. i still get weary going up to a police sergeant at a crime scene who is usually crabby and ignorant. i sometimes get flustered and feel like there is a stamp on my forehead that says: intern.

-- i would love to do a long-term investigative piece but they have kept me so busy with daily stuff, i haven’t really had a chance to explore any ideas.

Breaking crime stories ... GUYS—any tips?

Mine is, (stealing from Edna Buchanan, here. Great tip): Ask what the victim was wearing.
Also, talk to as many witnesses as possible, and get stuff from the scene (card table in yard? Dogs tied up? Quiet street where people in their Mercedeses are just setting of for work? etc..

Investigative piece good idea but has to be HIGHLY FOCUSED and do-able… toss out ideas in these threads to discuss?

whoops, sorry for missing this one. I have about 2 weeks left and my goal was to get an enterprise piece done before leaving.

I’m almost successful, I have 40 inches blocked off this friday for a piece on Walmart coming to Soledad!

Jose