Interns saying dumb things...

We hired a part-timer and an intern a couple months ago because frankly, we just needed some warm bodies to pound out agate.

The intern, a female from the local college, has a basic understanding of what's going on, and is open to constructive criticism and is a pleasant person.

The part-timer, a mid-20s guy with absolutely no newspaper experience other than picking winners in our weekly high school football challenge each fall had this exchange with our editor on his first night in the office.

Part-timer: So what paper is that you're working on?
Sports editor: What do you mean what paper?
PT: Which day's paper is that?
SE: It's tomorrow's.
PT: Oh, you mean you do each paper the night before it comes out?

Somehow guy is still here.

 

I LOVED being an intern last year, my last in college. Since I had a full-time job on top of going to school, he let me go around covering games and other shit stories but I spent maybe 15 minutes a week in the office.
The down side to that was when I got my first office job, this one, I had no fucking clue about desk stuff.

 

Do you think he could stop by the store and pick up some ice cream for me?

 

Punch line: "The brown ones are the best in the sack" ;D

My paper is too cheap for interns, which tells you volumes about my paper. But we had a former staff writer who was the master of the wonderful bon mot.

Some of his wisdom:

"I'll have you know i'm half Indian!"

"I'm too broke to drive to work!"

"I couldn't merge!" (His excuse for missing an assignment in the Metroplex)

And my fave, "6-8 and 280 pounds. Does he play linebacker or tight end?"

 

When I was in college one of my professors told me, "A good intern takes the abuse, never complains and works their ass off..."

Outstanding advice...

Some of the interns I've seen in the last few years are the most arrogant people you've ever seen. We had one who would come into the office every day and just sit there and talk about how much more talented he is than all of the full-timers on staff.

About halfway through the summer he told our ASE, "Don't edit me without talking to me. You're screwing up my copy..."

Our SE had a boner for the kid, otherwise, someone would have killed him...

 

I had three internships when I was in college...

One, I was supposed to write, but ended up editing copy all summer because one of the copy editor interns failed to show up... I think I had 10 bylines in three months... I hated it, but editing helped me become a better writer. I was pissed and miserable, but I never complained. I think it took me a year to realize how much it benefited me, even if it was by accident.

 

I'm bumping this one because I was just told that one of our summer interns believes that anyone who doesn't have an Ivy League degree isn't of the worth she, the Harvard grad, is.

 

Yeah, well I guarantee she's horrible in bed.

 

Cougar, this surprises you? People spend assloads of $ on Ivy League degrees so they can ram it down people's throats.

 

A while back we had a photo intern come to us with a shot from an intracity competition of the losing team. When we asked for something else, he fought tooth and nail for his photo, ultimately asking -- rhetorically, I assume -- our SE the following question, which lives on to this day in our newsroom:

"In community journalism, is it really important who wins?"

(BTW, we're 30K.)

 

At our place, usually our interns are only in photo.

The female interns have all been great to work with. Professional, always do their work.

The guys? Lots of attitude.