What was your favorite internship and/or experience while interning?

One of my favorites was Fox Drama Development- my first exposure to storytelling. They let us sit in on marketing meetings for “The OC,” so it was one of the most hands-on experiences I had.

What was your worst internship and/or experience while interning?

In Orlando, with Lou Perlman at Transcontinental, the crook behind the Backstreet Boys. It was the only entertainment opportunity in town. I could tell something was wrong with the company from the beginning. The head guy committed suicide a year later, the other guy fled and was later arrested.

What’s the most important thing you learned?

How the workplace operates- how business meetings run, how to make coffee, how people interact in business. All those entry level skills and normal workplace behavior.

What’s the worst intern behavior you saw?

With a lot of entertainment companies, there is confidentiality involved. When you see a celebrity come into the workplace or read a script in development, you shouldn’t tell everyone. Privacy is important.

When did you realize you might be able to turn a career out of interning itself rather than get a job through one of you internships?

I was writing for all these magazines doing celebrity interviews when I was a senior, but I was tired of it. Working in the media, you always hear that you should be an expert in something. What was I an expert in? Well, I’d had 15 internships, so decided to write about that. I wanted to start a business, so I went to Barnes & Noble and studied business books there. I incorporated in 2006, but was just graduating and couldn’t afford to live off of what I was making from my company.

I got a job at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and worked there for two years, first as 2nd Assistant to Tracy Brennan, head of MP talent, then for lit agent, Scott Greenberg, and then I floated. At the time, one of CAA’s clients, film and television producer, Marshall Herskovitz, was trying to figure out what to do with the on-line social network that was created around his web series, Quarterlife. His agent heard that there was an assistant in the building who called herself The Intern Queen, so he connected Marshall and me and Marshall funded me becoming the internship facilitator/advisor for the site.

What is your vision for your business? Where do you see The Intern Queen going?

I will continue to build this business for the next few years. For now, I am busy speaking, blogging, writing a book, shopping around TV shows, and signing endorsement deals, such as with University of Dreams. I recently got my first advertiser, Equity Corporate Housing (in Marina Del Rey), and want to add more sponsors in the near future.

Lauren Berger, The Intern Queen, will be appearing here periodically to answer your questions about interning. Check out her website, or read her blog on Quarterlife.com, called I Am Intern.

Lauren Berger

Lauren Berger, originally from Clearwater, Florida, completed 15 internships while getting her undergrad degree at University of Cental Florida. She is now the internship expert/facilitator for Gen Y social networking site, Quarterlife.com, and the spokesperson/face for University of Dreams.

YII caught up with her recently to find out about all those intenships, and about the journey from being an intern to being The Intern Queen.

What was your major and what did you think you would end up doing as a career?

I wanted to be a magazine writer at first, when I was a freshman. I had been an award-winning writer in school. First, I started with magazine internships, then went to publicity, then to entertainment.

What was your first internship? How did you get it?

Zimmerman Agency in Tallahassee, FL., an advertising and PR firm. Writing and PR were my focuses. I had initially asked my career counselor for an intership and she said there were only two internships in publicity and I had to wait until I was a senior to get one. Knowing better than to take “no” for an answer, I contacted the agency directly and landed the internship myself.

What was your first entertainment industry internship? 

My first industry internship (which was my 2nd internship) was in New York. A career counselor at my school had said “no” to going to NYC. She told me I could only go as a junior. So I looked into it on my own, found a smaller company that didn’t have an established internship program, and arranged it myself. I worked at Backstage, the industry trade publication, and also at a small entertainment magazine that has since folded. That experience opened up a new world of entertainment internships.

What was your first internship in LA?

The summer after sophomore year, I headed to Los Angeles for two internships at entertainment PR companies, BWR Public Relations and (now defunct) Warren Cowen & Associates PR. The reason I chose those two companies is that one was large and one was boutique and I wanted to see the difference in the working experience. I definitely recommend that type of thing- being able to compare one type of work situation to another.

(As an aside, during this time, I found a business card for an US magazine editor on the floor of one of the companies I was interning for. I emailed him, establishing contact, and sent him my clips. As a result, I got work for US Weekly- following around celebrities and writing about them- and then also got paid gigs at Nickelodeon and Seventeen.)

What was the maxiumum number of internships you had at one time?

The summer after junior year. CBS had offered me a paid internship, but I turned it down because they wanted me to work full time. I knew it was my last summer to explore options before I had to choose a path so I got three internships. On Monday and Tuesday, I interned at 20th Century Fox TV in Drama Development. On Wednesday and Saturday, I interned at MTV Radio (for this, I was sent to interview celebrities at press conferences). On Thursday & Friday, I was at NBC, in their on-air promotions dept.

Were you ever worried about spreading yourself too thin?

No. I operate best when I am busy.

Did you get college credit for all of your internships?

No. I only got credit for two of my internships. I got ‘transcript recognition’ for the others, which was a compromise work-around that allowed me to work at some places that required college credit.

Come back Wednesday for Part 2 of our interview with Lauren Berger, The Intern Queen.

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