Alicia Valko

Mrs. Reeves,

I want to just give my feed back of today’s meeting. I thought the guest speaker was such an inspiration, she really has me thinking about my future in depth more and keeping me motivated for what my future brings. The more and more I think students hear people speak like this really could open people’s eyes and rethink and not just skate through high school and take it as a joke. I just want to thank you for the opportunity of Senior Practicum even though I have the rest of the year, today made me think how much appreciate it and how lucky I am to go through this experience. Hopefully I can be lucky enough to come back and share such an experience like her. Again, I just wanted to thank you for all you have done.

P.S. I would love to get that book if I could have the authors name!

Q&A WITH THE INTERN QUEEN

December 7, 2011 by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf (Arts and Life Editor)

Twenty-seven-year-old internship guru Lauren Berger visited Towson Monday to encourage and advise students on their internship journeys. The Towerlight was able to sit down with Berger and learn a little bit about her successful story.

*The Towerlight: So tell me a little bit about your internship career.

Lauren Berger: Well, I had 15 internships when I was in school. And I got all of the opportunities on my own, and when I graduated I thought, ‘Wow, what if there were a resource that would help students better connect with these opportunities? And also, what if there was a person that could hold their hand and be the person that someone could turn to if they needed internship advice?’ Enter: The Intern Queen. So that’s when the idea was created in 2006, but then I couldn’t really do anything with it because you need money to run a business, to pay the bills. So I moved to Los Angeles, I got my first job, I found an investor that took me on board for a year, and then in 2009, I saved up enough money and went out on my own. I had $5,000 in my bank account, not that much to start a business. I started doing it full-time in 2009, and it’s been going really well ever since. And my book comes out Jan. 3[2012], “All Work No Pay,” in bookstores worldwide.

TT: What does your book address?

LB: Everything internship related, so it takes someone through the entire internship journey. So not only how to get an internship, but how to make the most of it, and of course it combines some of my favorite Intern Queen stories, because I do have all of this personal experience with internships.

*TT: What is your favorite internship story?

LB: One is when I was an intern at The Daily Buzz, which is a nationally syndicated learning show. It happened to be filmed in Orlando, where I was going to school. I was told make to coffee for the guests in the green room and I went into the break room, pressed the wrong button on the coffee machine and the thing exploded, flooded the break room. I had to run out and go get one of the anchors to help me with it. That anchor happens to be one of the lead anchors on “Fox and Friends” today, Clayton Morris. It’s funny where people end up, and he’ll always remember me, I’m sure, because I flooded the break room.

TT: Do you still have connections from your internships?

LB: Oh yes, I stay in touch with everybody. It’s really, really important to stay in touch with everybody as much as you can. I tell students to stay in touch with their contacts three times per year. It’s very important.

Ana Martínez Chamorro/ The Towerlight
*TT: Why is staying in touch with contacts from your internships so important?

LB: It’s creating below-the-surface relationships. You don’t want to get in the habit of only getting in touch with your professional contacts when you need something. You want to reach out, not a ton, but three times per year, just to build a real relationship with people. Ask them about their family, their pets, their trips, whatever it is that’s important to them. Congratulate them because one of their clients was in the press, whatever it is. Keep in touch, and that way you’re not always reaching out when you need something.

TT: What kind of impression does that give, if you only reach out to your contacts when you need something?

LB: I think it just gets annoying. You always have to think, “OK, there is an employer on the other end of this conversation, and every time they see my name in their inbox, I always want something from them.” That has to get annoying over time. It’s a little needy. So you want to make sure that you’re always asking yourself, “How can I add value to this relationship?” You know, what can you help them with? Maybe you know that they are searching for a certain contact, and you meet someone that could potentially help them, introduce them. Maybe you see their client in the press, shoot them an email, call them on their birthday. Anything you can do to add value to the relationship, not just take.

TT: An internship is obviously the first step to a career. What is the importance of getting real-life experience?

LB: It’s all about the real world, hands-on workplace experience these days. When students go into their job interviews after college, the first question is “Where did you intern,” not “Where did you work.” And if you don’t have an answer, the student next to you probably does. Over half of the students that are graduating from college these days have internships on their resume. Also, studies have shown that graduating seniors that have internships on their resumes get job offers earlier and with higher starting salaries. Again, it’s just proving over and over again that you have to get an internship.

*TT: What made you decide to get 15 internships?

LB: It was a little bit of a fluke. I wasn’t keeping a tally by any means, but I started very young as a freshman, and these experiences just ignited some sort of spark inside of me and I wanted more. I wanted to meet more people and find out about how people got started and do more and more for my future. I was learning things that I wasn’t learning in the classroom. Sometimes when you go to a big university, you don’t get that hands-on attention that you’re seeking. And I was getting that at my internship, and I was being challenged in a way that I had never been challenged before.

TT: How did you manage it all on top of being a student?

LB: It was intense. I always took a full course load, which I believe was 12 credit hours. I had my friends, I had boyfriends, I had my internship and then I would work part time. I had a lot on my plate, but I’m a person who likes to be busy. I operate better that way. I get more done when I’m busy than when I’m not busy. So it’s all a matter of really prioritizing and saying, “What are my priorities here and what am I going to make sure I spend more time doing?”

*TT: How did you make time for everything?

LB: Usually during the school year, I would only have about one or two [internships]. Sometimes two, but usually during the spring or fall I’d have one. But over the summers, I would double and triple up. The last summer before I graduated I interned at Fox and NBC and MTV all at the same time. My goal wasn’t to have three internships, I would just get an internship and I would say, “What days do you need me?” and they would say “Oh, only Monday and Tuesday.” So I thought OK, what am I going to do in LA Wednesday, Thursday and Friday? I had two other companies come up to me and offer time frames that fit my schedule. It’s not about quantity, it’s definitely about the quality. I don’t want a student to look at my story and say, “Oh, I need 15 internships to be successful.” That’s not true. But I do suggest that students have one or two internships on their resume before they graduate.

TT: Why did you choose not to stay at any of these positions?

LB: They were internships. I was going back to school. I didn’t do an internship post-graduation, so I was never really in a situation to be free to be an employee, I always had to go back to work. I was offered a job once: It was the semester after my sophomore year of college, so I thought about it for a second, but I was like, “I have to go back to school.” I think that had I wanted to work at those companies, I definitely think there would have been opportunities. But instead what I did was, during my internships, set informational meetings and I would tell people about what I wanted to do and where I thought my strengths were, and they would give me advice about what kind of job they thought I should start with. I moved from Florida all the way across the country to Los Angeles, and the only people that I knew were from my internships and I called them up and said “Can you help me get a job?” and they said “Absolutely.” And that’s how I landed my first job, and that was at the Creative Artists Agency, which is the largest talent agency in the world. And I got that job after being in LA for two weeks—knowing no one but my internship contacts. So you never know where these contacts are going to end up.

TT: What would you say to someone who is nervous about failing at an internship?

LB: I would say that it’s all nerve wracking. Take a deep breath and get over it. A lot of students are shy, and things like mock interviews can definitely help that. I always tell students that are very intimidated and very shy just to start having conversations with people, even if it’s at Subway, even if it’s at the grocery store. Even just having conversations with strangers can help build that confidence. Try to be prepared as possible. In my book, you’re going to find a list of everything you need to bring on the first day, all the questions you need to be prepared to ask, all the questions you should ask before the internship begins. And it’s just a matter of always being prepared and focused and saying “You know what, I might mess up, but that’s why I’m an intern, not an employee.” It’s a learning curve and it’s supposed to be an educational trainee-like experience.

*TT: Any last advice?

LB: My book is called “All Work No Pay.” I do support unpaid and paid internships. It’s not about the paycheck. It’s about the experience. And if you’re going to have a paid internship, but do nothing, it’s not worth it. Figure out which opportunities that are going to give you the better experience. If it’s an unpaid internship it should only be taking up 12-15 hours per week, you should still manage a job and school. Virtual internships exist as well for people who may be in outside of the box circumstances, but figure out how to make it happen and be a person that can make things happen because these opportunities really can make your life.

INTERN QUEEN TEACHES IMPORTANCE OF INTERNING

November 27, 2011 by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf (Arts and Life Editor)

Junior mass communication major Alicia Valko has secured five internships since her senior year of high school.

But that’s nothing compared to 15. Fifteen is the number of internships Lauren Berger completed during her four years of undergraduate school, thus earning the title of “Intern Queen.”

Now, Berger is the CEO of a Web-based company of the same name, and assists students in discovering internships that best fit them.

And Dec. 5, Berger will speak in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts about the importance of interning and being professional.

Valko, who is Towson’s campus ambassador for Intern Queen Inc., said she proudly promotes the message of interning as much as possible because it helped her identify the type of environment where she wants to work.

“One thing that’s really important to me after interning at so many places is the culture,” Valko said. “I definitely don’t want to be where you just come to work and don’t really talk to anybody, you just leave at five. There are so many differences, depending on where you work.”

When Valko interned at her second agency, Jack Morton Exhibit, a production-based company that designs artwork and logos and then markets them to others, she said she knew she wanted to work in a place like that.

“Jack Morton is such a creative and crazy agency,” she said.

“There’s always someone playing a joke on someone, or some crazy client wants something ridiculous. You’d think that working in an office, especially in New York, where everyone has to get dressed up and go to work and be completely boring. Well, it’s not like that at all if you find the right place.”

Dionne Clemons, an assistant professor in the department of mass communication and communication studies who also had five internships during her undergraduate career, said that she distributes internship opportunities to students whenever possible through her classes, Blackboard and email if she knows what internships may suit a particular student.

“Most [students] have never been to work,” she said. “It takes a long time to understand the nuances of work, and that’s something you need to get experience in. Not just doing a press release or writing articles, but actual relationships and hierarchy and structure and bosses, corporate politics. It’s very important.”

Clemons also said that interning allows students to develop tastes for careers they may or may not enjoy. As an undergraduate, she worked at 92Q, a radio station in Baltimore.

“It depends on your personality,” she said. “For me, radio was too cutthroat. It was not enough writing. I love to write. If there wasn’t enough writing for me, or variety of writing styles, I wasn’t into it.”

Valko also said that interning helped eliminate where she wouldn’t like to work.

“I know I want to work at a really big global agency in New York City,” she said. “I really want to work at Edelman Public Relations. That’s my dream company. I only want to work in specific sections, so it really helps me narrow down what I want to do.”

Valko said she encourages others to utilize Berger’s webpage, internqueen.com, as a resource to find opportunities and to network as much as possible.

“I took it upon myself in my last internship to meet with everyone in the office and ask what their advice was,” she said. “Everyone really wants to help.”