In which Petrina puts theory into practise, entry 1...
I will happily kiss the feet, if manicured, of the person who created the concept of work experience. It is one of the things, along with determination, that I truly believe will aid my career as a journalist.
The benefits that I imagine interning at a magazine will give me are those that cannot be found in a textbook environment. Work experience is exactly that. Work experience. There cannot be a better way to experience what your life will be like in your ideal career, than to intern. To work within the atmosphere, to watch how an issue is executed, to witness the hard work of each individual in charge of the various departments that make up the Vogue’s, the i-D’s and the InStyle’s that we read almost religiously.
Whilst studying for my GCSE’s this year, I was also contemplating writing to numerous publications in the hope of doing something constructive with my 10 week summer. But as always, there was some kind of obstacle in the way, which reared its ugly head early on in my quest. Something along the lines of: ‘Applicants must be over 18 years old’. Yet, that didn’t stop a certain broad sheet newspaper publishing a certain socialites article in March of this year. Giving false hope to aspiring journalists whom may have thought that perhaps there was a chance that this well established newspaper thought it was necessary to hear the voices of young people.
But enough ranting and more getting to the point. Why is there this unnecessary barrier that stops you from getting on with life? It’s as though they are saying that past the age of 18 you are awarded with the necessary wisdom that allows you to cope with office life, until then what you think you know is insufficient. This is not so.
When I was ready to give up and admit failure, because only one out of the 18 publications and press offices that I had written to had replied to me, I saw a bulletin on MySpace from a magazine that was actually looking for interns! I must admit, I was in a pessimistic state of mind and thought ‘why apply? They’re only going to say ‘no’ or just not bother to get back to you.’ So I left it. I couldn’t be dealing with rejection all over again, after all I was half way through my GCSE’s already convinced that I was likely to fail because I’d been more focused on finding work experience as opposed to reciting Newton’s three laws of motion and remembering geographical terminology.
However, a wonderful friend of mine reminded me that if you don’t try, you don’t get. After all I had nothing to lose. So I went ahead and applied to this magazine, which happened to be Plastique. A new high fashion magazine that actually had something interesting to say and didn’t revolve itself around dreary features and unnecessary text. So I sent off my covering letter and CV, knowing the likely outcome. But my newly found optimism told me otherwise.
I will happily kiss the feet, if manicured, of the person who created the concept of work experience. It is one of the things, along with determination, that I truly believe will aid my career as a journalist. 
