Internships – some college students have no problem finding them, but some have difficulty landing one.
Jammie Ferrell has “taken over” the interns at radio station WKLC (ROCK 105) in Saint Albans, and he has a lot to say about internships.
“You honestly just have to go out there and look for them,” Ferrell said. “Apply in person. Talk to them. Make them remember who you are.”
He called internships “the most important part of your college career.” Ferrell said interns at the radio station do everything from filing to being on air.
“When we have a good one, we will put them on sidelines for high school football games,” he said. “I know it’s cliché, but we do have them do the jobs that nobody else wants to do. Normally the interns are fine with that because they just want the experience. It makes life easier when they’re around,” Ferrell said.
Every college student wants a paid internship. Ferrell offered his perspective. “They’re just hard to come by,” he said. “I know they sound appealing, but why ruin the fun of being offered a paid spot by taking a paid internship. Also, from the business part of it, we never know what to pay them, and it’s normally hard to find the money.”
“In my experience, if you want to be hired, if you truly enjoy where your internship is, they will feel the same, so they will most likely try to hire you eventually,” Ferrell said. “So my advice is to not pay attention to the money aspect. This is just for experience. Save the money worrying until when they try to hire you.”
Ferrell said internships are easy to personalize. Interns can set their own schedule. “You come in when you want,” he said. “We know you want to be here so we don’t worry about you not showing up. If you don’t, it’s all on you.”
“Internships last 120 hours, and that is where personalization is a plus. Interns can choose how they structure their hours,” Ferrell said. “If they want to come in and get the whole 120 done right off the bat, you can. If you want to take a break for a couple weeks, you can,” he said. “It honestly just relies on your schedule.”
How do you pick the perfect intern? How do you know who is going to work well with your business? Is it really as serious as everyone makes it out to be?
“I don’t know how it is with other industries, but when it comes to radio, it is not super serious, nor is it formal,” he said. “We just want to make sure that you have a sense of what you’re doing, but our job is to give you the experience you need and to answer questions you have as you’re in the job and actually doing everything you’ve learned in your classes.”
“The professors at State are great, but there are some things that you have to learn when you’re in the field, and that’s our goal with hiring interns,” Ferrell said. “The connections we make with our interns are great, and we always will help them in any way that we can.”
