The media is a fucking farce
This is an excuse to hire family and pay them to do a job you'd normally pay a lot more to someone who isn't a student intern
An absolute parody
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Exploiting the Young: WaPo Student Internship Program Requires Student Interns to Have Had Previous Experience Working in a Major News Room
- Thread starter excelsiorlef
- Start date
The media is a fucking farce
This is an excuse to hire family and pay them to do a job you'd normally pay a lot more to someone who isn't a student intern
An absolute parody
At this point your gonna need previous daycare or preschool experience to go to a daycare or preschool straight out of the womb.
OP
OP
Internships don't require experience like this, you're still studing
It's a paid internship at the Washington Post, one of the largest newspapers in the US. Yeah, they're going to try to scare some people away. Apply anyway if you're a fit despite not hitting silly requirements, apply anyway. That's the game.
Maybe the news industry works differently. In law school, the big firms did not really hire 1Ls. The ones that did prefer the student to go from 1L intern to 2L intern to full hire. So if a big firm saw that a 2L worked for a major competitor last summer, the first question would be "Why are you applying to a different firm?"
Ah well, it's a known joke in the U.S. Tons of entry-level jobs and internships that advertise requiring prior experience. It's completely ridiculous.
It's been a common occurrence. Many internships and entry level jobs are asking for this. As someone that just got their masters, finding a job has been a bit stressful due to these restrictions
Nothing like setting expectations so astronomically high that no one who would actually apply for the role is qualified to do so.
They're probably required by law to post a job posting but already know exactly who they want to bring in. Companies do this all the time when they don't actually want to go through the recruiting process because they're doing a nepotism.
They're probably required by law to post a job posting but already know exactly who they want to bring in. Companies do this all the time when they don't actually want to go through the recruiting process because they're doing a nepotism.
Yeah this is not something that's unusual for Newsrooms. Most internships / jobs at National places require you to have some experience in Local News Markets. That's the way the industry works. You start in middle-of-knowhere WhateverState before moving to the Nationals.
And lol at people thinking Interns would do any kind of work comparable to the real journalists. The ones we have here are paid to sit around and watch us work / ask questions. We also give them some projects to do on their own time, like homework.... but there's no way in HELL they are going anywhere near an actual news story.
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OP
They probably wouldn't consider that major newsroom experience
WaPo is a prestigious newspaper. If you don't think they get FAR more applications than they have spots I don't know what to say. These requirements at major companies are because they can be selective and have more than enough people qualified. If they didn't they obviously would ease up on them.
I'm not saying it's fair or that it doesn't exclude people who would otherwise make excellent interns, but they're not having to search hard for applicants. Although this does narrow the diversity and breadth of applicants they get which is the problem
Don't remind me this. And in the case of programming, they want you to know all languages, frameworks, a big portfolio of projects...
Yeah, but I think usually it's just lazy drafting of job listings by people outside of the related field and not calling it out as a key requirement on twitter
Most journalism majors write for the student newspaper at their school. That means it's pretty likely by the time you're a junior that you could get an internship at a paper. People I went to high school with had written for our local major newspapers during high school for instance.
It's entirely reasonable for the Washington Post, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world, to require previous work experience for internships which include seniors and postgraduates. What is not reasonable is paying them a wage which is unlivable.
It's entirely reasonable for the Washington Post, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world, to require previous work experience for internships which include seniors and postgraduates. What is not reasonable is paying them a wage which is unlivable.
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OP
I don't see the problem, they probably get thousands of applicants and I'm sure many of them already have that experience. I'm not sure if you have no experience you want to start at a place like the post.
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Outside of a few cities I wouldn't call a local newspaper a major newsroom
Nope. That is not in any way appropriate for an internship.
If you want people who have already worked in a major newsroom you need to post a regular paid position - not an internship.
Yeah, sounds like they expect you to have already interned at another place before this.
Sounds like they only want to hire people that have a Mommy/Daddy working for a news outlet already only. So… nepotism?
The whole point of an internship is to gain experience. This, and what you're describing, is just an (entry-level) job with worse pay
I'm talking about major newsrooms. My brother worked for the Detroit Free Press during college for example. I know personally at least 3 other people from high school who this applies to.
Journalism is different because the bar to entry in the field is really low, and these people are still students. Again, people I know were published by major papers in high school. If there's 100,000 journalism students every year (or whatever) and enough of them have major paper experience, why would you not make that a requirement?
I've had a job listing ask for 10 years of experience for Windows 10 (Win10 is only 6 years old)