Journalism Career Fair- Niree Turner

The career fair was very interesting. Before attending, I was unsure of what to expect and I was really nervous. However, it was really interesting. I visited most of the stations. The ones that caught my interest were the Discovery Chanel, DC Internships, National Association of Black Journalist, WJZ-TV, and Bustle.com.

The Discovery Chanel offer paid internships for juniors, seniors, and grad students. Their positions are in marketing, ad ales, production, design, IT, finance, social media PR, digital and research. The representative that I spoke with stressed the importance of the company's interns. They are not for getting coffee, they are there to learn and gather experience. I decided to visit this table because it is a really big company with locations around the world. It would also be a great experience to work with a company that does a unique type of production such as discovery.

I next visited DC Internships, which was my personal favorite. This program provides classes during the summer and fall semesters. During the semester, the interns would stay in DC housing and have a meal card while experiencing real world political journalism and gaining college credit. The best part about the program is that they guarantee an internship and mentor for everyone in the program. Most people leave the program with full-time job positions because of the connections and experiences made in that one semester.

National Association of Black Journalist is a great program because it gives black people the opportunity to get their foot in the journalism world and be recognized. The program hosts a retreat during the summertime that opens up internship opportunities within the journalism community. They also offer a select amount of internship within the NABJ Journal.

Bustle.com is also a unique website because they offer internship opportunities to women. This is an online women's magazine that offers news, politics, entertainment, fashion/beauty, lifestyle, web culture, and books sections.

Attending the Journalism Fair was a bit frustrating. All of the programs there only offer internships to rising juniors, seniors and/or graduates. Some stands weren't even willing to talk to me or give me information about the internship program for the future because I am a freshman. Some did give plenty of information and even tips to make sure I will get the internship when I apply. It really bothered me because they are not willing to make exceptions if the freshman has a lot of experience. Although we are freshman, my peers and I have worked hard in high school to obtain experience through internships so we would not have issues getting internships in college. The fact that some of the representatives were not willing to interview me, or take my resume because I am a freshman is really annoying. Although this happened, it was a really great experience and I look forward to going again next year. Next year, I will be more prepared and will do more research for the companies I plan on interviewing with so I will have a better chance at obtaining an internship.