Your Questions Answered: Post-Grad Internships

Hi YII, I’m a two-time BU Alum (CAS 07, SPH 08) and am looking to get out of my current field and into the entertainment field. This website is timely, and I really appreciate you sharing. I am particularly interested in how to get an internship without having an academic affiliation. Despite having a college degree and a master’s, and being willing to work for free, it seems most places want students. Do you have any advice? Kate

Dear Kate,

YII got in touch with The Intern Queen and her concise advice was, ”Just apply anyway! Companies will take anyone who is willing to work for free!”

YII would say that is not always true. Larger companies tend to only accept interns getting school credit because they don’t want to get in trouble with the Labor Department. (There is a thin line between and intern and a “volunteer” and the Labor Department frowns on the latter.) Your best bets for landing an internship are smaller companies or, if you can, a film crew, not that easy to come by, but not unheard of.

For getting an internship at a small company, have your “pitch” ready (a couple sentences about who you are and why you are calling) and be as nice as you can, even if you are initially met with curtness. Be concise, give your email address in addition to your number, don’t be afraid to call again if they don’t get back to you when they say they will. Chances are, there’ll be glad you did.

To get an internship on a film crew, call the production office. Use the same method above and call back as needed to keep you on their minds. In the case of movie productions, aim for something lower-budget. Low-budget productions always need free help and probably won’t have a million people calling to offer it like the highly-publicized studio projects will. You will probably get to do more on a low-budget film, too.

Let us know where you end up!

Yours truly,

Your Industry Insider

Know anyone who could use an entertainment industry insider? Encourage them to sign up on the YII home page to receive our Mogul Mindset eBlasts today!

Photo by adpowers.