Student: Anna Chatilo
Major: Journalism
Grade: Senior
Position: Editorial Intern at Seattle Met Magazine (Oct. 2012 to present), Unpaid (for credit), 20 hours/week
Duties include: Fact-checking, research, copy-editing, brainstorming, compiling comps (give compensation for those that helped with the magazine and say thanks in any way that we can), and write web blog posts.
“It can be as much or as little work as you want it to be. If you want it to be really busy, you can come up with a ton of pitches and pursue your own stories if you’re comfortable with that, which is really nice.”
What made you decide to apply?
“I would like to have as many different kinds of experiences before I graduate as possible and since I had already worked at The Daily for UW at a newspaper, I wanted to try something different. Seattle Met is a great magazine, so I just saw the opportunity, applied, and got it. It just worked out. And I don’t think it’s what I want to pursue in the long term, but it’s been a great experience to be in this kind of environment without the pressure of a paid full-time job.”
How did you find out about it?
“Through the UW Comm website.”
What do you like most about it?
“I like that they really trust you and give you a lot of responsibility, and you really have to be self-motivated to do what you need to do. They don’t hold your hand, they really just throw you into it and expect for you to do it. Having that kind of responsibility really forces you to do everything you have to do.”
Is there anything you would change?
“Me personally, I would like more experience in the field. It’s a lot of emailing and phone calls. It’s not a lot of face-to-face communication with people, which is fine and it really has built my email and phone skills, but I would love to meet the people I’m speaking to. It’s not always possible, but I think that’s one thing that’s been lagging.”
What’s the working environment like?
“It’s really professional, but everyone has a lot of fun. The editors have there own offices, but everyone’s really open to speaking with interns if interns want that, so everyone is segregated but everyone is approachable at the same time.”
How do you think it will help you and your career or future goals?
“I think everything I do here will help. All the personal skills, all the computer skills…and definitely the fact-checking I think is the most important. I don’t think people realize how important fact-checking is, especially because it can get a little monotonous or mundane, but it really is important. And [the internship has] made me realize that I like skills that I didn’t know I liked. I thought copy-editing was kind of dorky and boring but I’m really obsessed with it.”
What’s your favorite accomplishment so far?
“I recently did an interview with Ryan Lewis, who is Macklemore’s producer (and everything else he does for him) and that was really awesome and a great experience to be able to speak with someone who’s really big in Seattle and globally right now. And to get over any shyness and to be really forward with what I needed to ask, so that was a really awesome experience.”
Anything else?
“I would say that I was a little nervous to apply to the internship. I didn’t know if I was qualified enough for it but I just went along with it and…tried to have a lot of confidence in myself that I could and it ended up just working out.”