Case study: editorial internships
Name: Max Sydney-Smith
Internship year: Autumn 2009
Internship team/department: Editorial Team, Corporate Communications
Q. Why did you want to volunteer with Barnardo's?
To be frank, when I graduated – with English - I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I didn’t have the funds to do an MA and I didn’t have the skill or the inclination to get onto one of the many graduate schemes for boys and girls who want to be a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, go into the civil service, work in the city or be shovelled around various departments of a company so big you regularly forget what its name is.
I knew I had to volunteer a bit, do some work experience and find out – by trial and error – what I could do and what I wanted to do to earn a living. And if I was going to work for free – I knew I would rather work for children than for shareholders.
Q. What were your key responsibilities as a volunteer intern?
Writing weekly and monthly internal news digests/e-newsletters. Conducting staff survey gauging response to our new ad campaign. Writing copy for a range of in-house publications: Staff and supporter magazines, celebrity newssheet, staff e-newsletters and news website. Researching and writing features and conducting interviews. Proof-reading and sub-editing. Supporting the communications officer in organising conferences. Managing internal correspondence for our new ad campaign.
Q. How did you benefit from being a volunteer intern at Barnardo's?
First off, I landed a job. My manager asked me to do some paid, freelance work for a couple of months after the internship had ended. The internship and now the freelance experience makes me a lot more employable so hopefully I can go on to find work as an Editorial Assistant somewhere else.
Secondly, I am a lot closer to discovering what I want to do, what I have a knack for. Turns out I quite like proof-reading but I’m not so keen on organising conferences.
Thirdly, and I know this is a monotonous thing to mention, but I honestly met some good, likeminded people who I’m still in touch with.
Q. Who would you recommend Barnardo's Volunteer internship scheme to?
Are you suspended in the limbo of the recently graduated – frustratingly overqualified or hopelessly inexperienced? Is your mojo jammed in the jargon of recruitment specialists and career advisors?
If you want a way out of all that and if you want to put your shoulder behind the wheel of an organisation that supports, stands up for and brings out the best in the most vulnerable children in the UK, then yes, I absolutely recommend this to you.
Q. Tips for future interns?
Be nosy, ask questions and get involved in everything.