Riya V. Anandwala | May 10, 2009

Like many of the Class of 2009, School of Journalism senior Michael Sanserino is headed to an internship this summer instead of a fulltime job.

“I applied to seven newspapers in October just for internships,” said Sanserino, who will work at The Wall Street Journal in San Francisco this summer. His early start paid off. After a phone interview in November, he was offered the internship.

With unemployment at an all-time high, this year’s graduates in all fields are having tough times landing jobs. A National Association of Colleges and Employers’ survey found that employers expect to hire 22 percent fewer graduates this year compared to 2008.

“This is indeed an uncertain and difficult time period in the job market,” said School of Journalism Career Services Director Marcia Debnam, who has been conducting Career Cafes once or twice a week this semester for students to bring their job and internships problems in addition to her regular one-on-one sessions with students. She and others at the school have invited professionals to campus this spring meet with students to talk about the job outlook and strategies for landing a job after graduation.

“A record number of jobs have been cut in media and media-related industries,” said Debnam. Newspaper jobs, for example, are down 15 percent from last year, and other areas have suffered as well.

Though she acknowledges the tough times, she is not all pessimistic about the prospects for this year’s graduates.

“You can’t judge at this time how the economy is affecting hiring,” she said. “Even in better times, jobs open only on an as-needed basis.”

NACE’s survey found that only about 20 percent of the class of 2009 who applied for jobs has one, down from 51 percent in 2007 and 26 percent in 2008.

So students such as Sanserino are opting for internships they hope will lead to fulltime jobs, once they get their feet in the door and establish their talents and abilities. Or at least, these internships will beef up their resumes. He’s no stranger to interning as he already has worked for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, the South Bend Tribune and St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Chip Cutter will join Associated Press in New York his summer, hoping to turn this internship into a full-time job. Specializing in business journalism, Cutter received a Reynolds Business Scholarship last summer and interned with Indianapolis Business Journal.

For Cutter, the key to land a job is having a specialty in some area of journalism.

“It is important to know multimedia, but at the same time one has to stand out from the others,” he said. He will be working at the business desk of Associated Press, covering the banking and financial markets.

He also believes keeping a casual relation with one’s previous editors and colleagues helps, too.

“Once in a while, I send a text message to my editors at IBJ. This way they don’t forget you,” he said. Cutter also has a full-time offer from IBJ.

While Cutter emphasizes having a specialized area of interest, Sanserino believes in variety.
“I covered sports at the IDS when I was a reporter, but I didn’t cover the same beat when I was interning,” said Sanserino, who also was editor-in-chief at the IDS and won many awards during this college career, including top honors from two journalism organizations.

He said reporting and writing hard-hitting stories increases the chances of getting an internship. He wrote about Vietnam veterans suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome while at the St. Petersburg Times and the story garnered a lot of attention.

Graduate student Rishika Murthy, who has worked on the Muslim Voices project at the Center for the Study of Global Change, will intern with Indianapolis Monthly magazine.

“This is something I always wanted to do. I applied to quite a few newspapers for paid positions, but they didn’t have any openings,” said Murthy. She also applied to a few jobs in Singapore, but didn’t hear back.

While Murthy will fact-check and assist editors, Jingting Zhao, another graduate student, will be working for NBC Chicago this summer. Zhao is thankful to Debnam, who continually sends out lists of internship positions to all journalism students.

“I was surprised when I got the phone interview opportunity. But it just came that way. By that time, they told me they have several candidates for that position because it’s very competitive,” said Zhao.

Not only are internships competitive, but fewer are available. According to the NACE survey, employers are cutting the number of college students they will offer internships by nearly 21 percent compared to last year.

Some undergraduates are looking at entering graduate school instead of striking out in the job market. NACE found about 27 percent this year’s college graduates are planning on graduate school compared to 24 percent last year. Earlier this semester, the School of Journalism hosted a graduate school open house for those students looking at graduate schools to learn more about the program.

This article was taken from http://journalism.indiana.edu/news/some-grads-headed-to-internships/