HEAD.BANG.WALL

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for all of your support and comments on the blog. It really has been overwhelming, especially as this is quite a niche subject. I've been a little quiet over the past few days trying to get all my freelance work done before I started my newest internship today, so if I haven't replied to your message or comment yet I will be doing so asap.

So many of you have been asking for help and advice on getting internships so I'll be doing a post about my experiences, and tips about what has worked for me.

So often internships can feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall. The past two weeks have been especially challenging for me and made me question my approach in the way I operate.

I mentioned in my first post that the magazine I had been working for had a paid position going that I had applied for, I was told that it was likely they would want to see me to discuss it and that I was in with a pretty good shot. The optimism of an intern is easily built. Could it be? Was I about to finally get paid? ...errrrm, not exactly.

Never underestimate your rivals.

Mine was a 24 year old gay guy with a degree in graphic design. When we first started working together everything I said was eye wateringly hilarious, everything I wore was stunning and beautiful, I could not shake him off at lunch times, he actually stood outside the toilet on one of my attempts to lose him for an hour. How quickly these things change when you are both going for the same job. Overnight I wasn't so funny, or pretty, or well dressed, and my hair was no longer that interesting, the rest of the fashion department, however were all of these things. All I could do was look on aghast as he managed to seduce every member of the staff with a shower of bullshit compliments. Now here is the rub, I am a 23 year old girl, and if I walked into an office and behaved like a bunch of strangers were my bestest friends they'd be gossiping behind my back like I was some obsessive psycho who was probably lezzing out on them. In short, they would want me out. How do you fight that fire? Well surely the fact your hugely overqualified for the position and your experience massively outstrips his should help, right? You're up against a man with no prior fashion experience, and one other internship relating to his degree subject. This is a man who needed you to sit him down and teach him what Fashion Monitor was, and when you ask him why the sudden desire for a career in fashion he replies,

"Cuz graphics is kinda boring innit, and fashion is, well, it's more exciting, innit?"

They might like you but they love him.

And it's at that point you bang your head against that wall.