Intern Inflation

Describe your Internship Engagement:
5-15-12

Five new interns came in today and now there are more of us than necessary. The ratio of work available per intern capita has become inflated. I have practically nothing to do anymore. I'm not checking in with the PR department because their allotted intern arrived yesterday. It's at this point that I'm beginning to realize that in spite of what they told me during my phone interview, I haven't worked on a complete project from start to finish since I've started because I'm assigned things to do on a day-to-day basis. This was exciting at first because every day was a new surprise but now I've run out of surprises. The wheels are spinning but I'm not going anywhere.

I knew going in that as an intern I would be at the bottom of the food chain but I guess I was hoping to participate in Studio operations in a more meaningful way. As I've said before, I do think it's fantastic that The Studio Theatre encourages the entire staff to attend first rehearsals, see all of our productions, and take advantage of special comp ticket offers through the League of Washington Theatres to see shows elsewhere in the DC area. The benefit of working at the Studio is being a part of its larger network.

Last Tuesday I went to a seminar hosted by one of the professors here in the UCDC Center and I went into this thinking that there wouldn't be very much that would pertain to me. This professor invited UC alumni panelists to come and give us advice on maximizing the potential benefits of our time as interns. Many of them emphasized that their jobs and/or previous internships were tedious and menial but that there is something to be said about being in a professional environment and having face-time with people in the office. After being at the Studio for several weeks I'm beginning to feel that this describes my experience. I'll just have to find other ways of productively spending my time when I'm not working on an assignment.