< by Jill >

At this time six years ago, a stack of envelopes sat on my desk, ready to be stamped and dispatched. Besides different addresses, all the envelopes contained the same ingredients: a cover letter, a resume, and a bundle of newspaper clips.

When I mailed the envelopes, I did so with dispassionate hope. I knew that my portfolio would land in a stack with dozens of others, and that it would probably blend into the masses — my cover letter sucked and I knew it.

I cared a lot about the potential internships, but I couldn’t bring myself to write some To-Whom-It-May-Concern drivel about my Professional Experience or capital-A Accomplishments. It seemed stuffy and inauthentic.

Fortunately, I met a like-minded recruiter who admitted to collecting unread cover letters and repurposing them to house-train her puppy. It was that recruiter who hired me and gave me my first brush with professional journalism.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with a few more anecdotes from that assignment. Then, in the following days, you’ll hear more internship stories from Jorie, Dave, Mitra, and Nate.