This internship was a fantastic experience and really enabled me to grow towards better understanding and achieving both my personal and professional goals. I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of professionals in my dream industry and ask them questions about their careers and they gave wonderful advice for young people starting out in the entertainment world. I read a lot of scripts and more fully understood what a good story entails after discussing them with my boss and intern peers. I felt very grateful to have the unique opportunity to talk to clever storytellers working in development about the scripts and how to better spot a good writer. I also improved my own writing skills as well by doing coverage for the scripts. Also, I improved my professional skills and my understanding of office culture by answering phones, completing projects and other tasks quickly, and talking to my peers in the industry.
Moving forward, from the connections I have made I will be able to find more internship opportunities to further grow in my industry. I have also learned a great deal more about the entertainment business so that now I can better discover what truly interests me in it. I want to write my own stories and make my own short films. I think these will be my creative passion projects on the side of school that will help me grow as a storyteller.
I think the internship process is difficult at times but what helps the most is being kind, communicative, and persistent. When students are persistent but in a polite and thoughtful way, it shows the employers how greatly they value the company and how dedicated they are to working for it.
Furthermore, I think my ideas and concepts of gender and social justice in the work place have been reinforced – many companies currently in the entertainment industry are working hard to bring social justice issues to light. My company in particular has a goal of developing stories in both films and TV shows that have a deeper meaning to them and that touch on social justice issues. I hope to continue to work for companies that have that passion as a part of their overall mission.
Lastly, I learned a lot about leadership and communication in the workplace. I think leadership is really about communicating with coworkers and helping everyone together find the best ways to solve problems. Taking on this team-builder/project organizer role often gains the most respect and enables someone to become a great leader. Also, I have learned that clear communication about expectations on projects and goals is key to effectively solving problems and being an incredible worker. If everyone understands the expectations of the company, they can then take the right steps to solve the issues that arise.