Internships at fashion magazines are among the most competitive and sought-after internships in the world. However, one fashion intern might be in trouble after this story made rounds online:
Outrage at Grazia magazine after an intern sent out regularly to buy skinny lattes for the beauty desk announced at the end of her stint on the mag that she had in fact been buying them all full-fat ones. [Gawker via Media Monkey]
Or maybe she’s trying to subvert the paradigm and defeat the system from within? That would actually be awesome. If that’s true, she can be my intern anytime she wants.
Conan O’Brien was interviewed on his very own episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio, even though he isn’t an actor. One thing I really liked was that he talked about some non-showbiz stuff that he did, including a brief stint as a Capitol Hill intern. Conan worked for a short time as an intern to his district’s congressional representative, but his main memory of the experience was “making lots of copies.” He also cops to having had a bit of an entitlement problem, admitting he didn’t want to work his way up through the ranks but rather skip straight to the top. Oh, Conan, you adorable former “Simpsons”-episode writer, you. Why people preferred watching Jay Leno to this man is an absolute mystery to me.
I’ve always wondered what athletes do during their off-seasons. Do they play sports every day just to stay in shape? Do they hang out with their families? Take trips? Buy expensive things? Well, one athlete does something very unusual during his time away from the sport – Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf spends his down time working as an intern for the US Department of Agriculture. And he doesn’t even get paid. Man, I feel like a total slacker right now compared to this guy, it’s not even funny.
Ohlendorf will be spending 20 hours a week this winter studying cattle diseases and their migration patterns. He works in a small room that he shares with another intern. “This one’s been, I’d say, the most exciting off-season I’ve had,” he said in an ABC News interview.
Bethany Cosentino loves music. Last year, she worked as an intern for cool music magazine Fader. Now, she’s the lead singer for up-and-coming band Best Coast and getting love from – who else?- her former employer:
She is now nearing full-on diva status with many, many jams under her belt and many more on the way. We don’t even remember that one time she FUCKED UP OUR COFFEE ORDER. JK we don’t send interns to get coffee, it’s the only time we get outside. But for real, if we had known Bethany, and her bandmate Bobb Bruno, were capable of music this good, we would’ve fired her instantly. “The people need to hear this!” we would’ve said as we pushed her out the front door. But we didn’t so we just enjoyed her non-musical presence for the short time she was here. And now we enjoy her presence wherever we can find it.
You can download a new Best Coast single at Fader or check out one of their videos after the jump.
Late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon needs an intern. But instead of sifting through boring applications and reading countless resumes, he’s decided to make the search a little more interesting. Potential interns have to submit a video of them saying nothing but “Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there.” Watch as some of the applicants get super creative with the contest:
Vanity internship alert! Walter Cronkite IV, the grandson of beloved anchor Walter Cronkite, has landed a fall semester internship at – try not to be too shocked here – CBS News. Specifically, he’s at their Washington, DC bureau. I assume this must mean that Cronkite (known to pals as “Walt”) attends college somewhere in the DC area, since he’s currently a full-time student. From Mediabistro:
At the memorial for his grandfather, Bob Schieffer talked about how Walt stopped in to his office the other day and asked, “What was it like when my grandfather was here?” Schieffer told him, “It was fun. We all wanted to be there.”
Fashion is a notoriously competitive field to break into – that’s why people are still willing to work for crazy bosses like Kelly Cutrone and Anna Wintour. However, it may be so competitive that even famous and/or rich people have to do grunt work. First, Tallulah Willis toiled away as an intern guest of the editors at Harper’s Bazaar instead of simply being handed a job or a column. Now, the New York Times reports that even famous Korean pop stars still have to start at the bottom:
Let us take the example of Sang A Im-Propp, who was a pop star in Korea before she decided, while on a business trip to New York, that she wanted to be in fashion. This was nearly a decade ago, and Ms. Im-Propp’s command of English was tenuous, but she enrolled at Parsons and in short order found herself an internship with Victoria Bartlett, a noted stylist and designer whom she admired and hoped would introduce her to the glamorous world of design. Instead, Ms. Im-Propp found it difficult to understand Ms. Bartlett’s heavy British accent, and at first she thought she had misunderstood just what Ms. Bartlett was asking her to do. Get cupcakes?
Not just any cupcakes, but the glossy butter-cream confections from the Cupcake Cafe, which is a four-block crosstown walk from Ms. Bartlett’s studio through the dodgy garment district, and it was freezing outside.
“It made me cry a lot,” Ms. Im-Propp said. “Vicky is an amazing artist, but she can be difficult.”
Could it be that fashion is actually becoming a great equalizer? I’d be a lot less demoralized about having to fetch coffee if the other lackey fetching coffee was a pop star. I’m just saying.
I get a lot of reader email, and I love getting to hear from the people who read STA. Sometimes that mail makes me laugh at a boss’ total stupidity or get mad about a backstabbing coworker, but only once has an STA reader email made me cry.
Yesterday, I wrote a post praising Elle magazine advice columist E. Jean for offering an internship to a homeless but incredibly smart and qualified woman who wrote in asking for career advice. It turns out that the letter-writer didn’t know her letter had been published or that she’d been offered an internship – until she read about it here on Save the Assistants.
“B.” is a regular STA reader/commenter and has submitted some great post ideas in the past. Her blog, The Girls’ Guide to Homelessness, is an engaging and eye-opening read. I’m so proud of her and her new gig (she starts her internship on September 1) and hope she’s able to take advantage of this great new opportunity. Mazel tov, “B.”, and your new boss sounds like one awesome woman. I’m honored to have had even the smallest part in helping this happen.
It started as just another letter in the pile that Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean gets every week. Like a lot of us lately, the letter-writer was coping with unemployment and asked E. Jean for help:
I’m currently homeless and living in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I’m educated, I have never done drugs, and I am not mentally ill. I have a strong employment history and am a career executive assistant. The instability sucks, but I’m rocking it as best as I can.
The rest of the letter recounted the story of the homeless young woman applying for a job and bombing the interview. Here’s what E. Jean had to say, after two paragraphs of useful and inspirational job search advice:
Talk about art imitating life – Ugly Bettystar Mark Indelicato, who plays Betty’s fashion-conscious nephew Justin, may be jumping into the fashion world for real. Indelicato, age 15, took a tour of designer Carolina Herrera’s showroom last week. While there, he showed Herrera some sketches he had in mind for a denim line he wants to do. The designer was reportedly so impressed that she offered Indelicato an internship on the spot. Will he be a vanity intern who skips straight to designing, or will he actually get a chance to learn about the workings of the fashion industry?
Let’s just remind Carolina Herrera that, while it was very kind of her to offer this internship, she might want to hold out another year or two. Fifteen-year-olds, as we all learned from the Tallulah Willis at Harper’s Bazaar incident, are not able to be interns. So maybe Indelicato will just have to be a “guest of the designer” while he’s still a minor.
Fashion is a notoriously competitive field to break into – that’s why people are still willing to work for crazy bosses like 
Talk about art imitating life – 
