Intern to Intern Take 2

In my last post I asked my friend, Sarah, about her experiences working as an intern in a small, independent publishing house this past spring. This summer, however, she moved to another, much larger, company. Here's what she had to say about it.

In comparison to where she had worked previously, this new company was:

MUCH bigger. like, they put out half the new york times list. i was a rotational intern, which meant i spent two weeks in every department. i was in children's/YA editorial, ad/promo, marketing, sales, and editorial for their romance imprint. i also did a book pitch project there, got to go see one of their production facilities, and had the opportunity to meet with executives.

Her job responsibilities were similar to what she had done before, and just as varied:

i still had slush to weed through, but that took up less of my day, since they don't really focus as much on submissions that don't come through an agent they have a relationship with. i wrote press releases and galley letters, mailed things to georgia and to dubai. i got to sit in on cover meetings and acquisitions meetings. the cover meetings were pretty fantastic. i also filled in as the assistant to one of the senior VPs for a few days while her assistant was out.

I was curious about her experiences sitting in on meetings, as that's something I also do frequently as an intern with Berrett-Koehler. I asked her if the leaders of the meeting asked for or expected her input, and if she volunteered it. She said that they sometimes asked her and she sometimes volunteered, but that in general they had "a pretty open and supportive company culture there."

I finished up the interview by asking her to compare the experiences she had at each company:

i learned a lot at both, but i preferred the bigger company, just because i think i was a better fit with the people i worked with there, and because it was much more organized. i got to go in to work later at the smaller company, and i got free booze at work parties and didn't have to wear heels every day, but i also felt really taken advantage of and underappreciated. and as overall excellent as the bigger company was, there were definitely days where i felt like i'd sold my soul to the corporate machine.

I was surprised to hear her say that she preferred working at the larger company. I would have thought that the freedom and creativity that the smaller, independent house encouraged would have been more conducive to an exciting internship experience. However, even though the larger company may have been a corporate powerhouse, the structure and organization was itself its greatest advantage.