Orientation began at 9 a.m. in the ASME offices. All 30 or so of us were finally together in one room! So great to put faces to names. Our orientation leader, Sid Holt, is the Chief Executive of ASME. He talked to us for a bit about some industry and internship related topics, and then introduced our first speaker, Chandra Turner of Parents magazine. She was GREAT! So nice, enthusiastic... and a former ASME intern. She walked us through some post-college tips and a timeline of what to do during our senior years and when to start the job search. Note taken: magazines will not hold jobs for us, so it's not recommended to apply before graduation. And she also told us, we basically have to move to NYC in order to make it in this industry. Well, guess I know what I'm doing the summer after graduation.
Then we had Jennifer Sharpe, an associate director of staffing at Time Inc. She discussed the "21st Century Office" with us and answered our questions about applying for jobs, what she wants in applicants, what a great cover letter looks like, etc. All such helpful information!
Third speaker? Larry Hackett, Managing Editor of People. The head honcho of People. Say what??!?! This guy is man in charge of the most profitable and successful magazine in the WORLD. Needless to say, this guy was a celebrity to us. I was completely star struck.
Fourth speaker? Fred Woodward, Art Director at GQ. Yet another celebrity.
The ASME internship program not only sends us out on these amazing paid internships, but they set up all these great speakers and lunch dates throughout the summer for us. Definitely not your average internship. You can tell they really care about us learning and experiencing as much as they can. And of course they chose us for a reason, so they know we are capable of succeeding in this industry. Can't say how nice it is to have all these big name magazine industry people there rooting for us.. taking time out of their day to answer our questions and give us helpful information.
Then we had a former ASME intern panel, four male and females who started in the same seats as us but now work in the magazine industry. I think the most reassuring part of what they said, was that we weren't necessarily restricted to our magazine's niche for the rest of our careers. Even if I'm at Sports Illustrated, that doesn't mean I can't eventually make my way to People, for example. Everyone knows each other in this industry... it's a small community. So as long as we're networking and meeting people, there's no reason why we can't move between publishing companies and niches.
Overall, they made it all seem possible. And I think that hope and possibility of getting where we want in the magazine industry, is all any of us ever wanted. Done are the days of doubts about future jobs in journalism and magazines. These big time magazine people told us we could do it. With hard work, a great resume and some luck.. of course.
We were set free at 4 p.m., then we all went back to the apartments for a bit.
Lizzie and I then went out exploring. Primarily we were just planning on checking out that British family's store, but then we ended up walking toward Greenwich Village area. First of all, British convenient store... awesome. I was so excited to hear their accents, too! They unfortunately didn't care that I was just in London. Oh well. After wandering we headed back to the apartment, gathered the gang and went to dinner for Marissa's birthday! We ended up at this Mexican restaurant nearby. It was so fun to socialize with everyone and finally all be together. I basically have 20 something instant friends. Yay! :)
After that we decided to go back to the apartment to work on homework, yes, homework that the Copy Director at SELF assigned us. UGH. not fair.
But that's it for today.. tomorrow will be another long day full of orientation. Should be fun!
xxx
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