Re: Resumes

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>]

Says I:
>>The source of the experience wasn't relevant.
>

Says DR:
>All the time? Not even if you interned at the New York Times while the
>next person interned at the Sunnyclock Community newspaper??
>D.R.
>writeagain -at- juno -dot- com

Absolutely all the time. An intern at the Sunnyclock newspaper
could very well have written everything
from obits to ads, taken pictures, and filled in for the
news editor in a pinch. That experience could very well have
been more educational and valuable than working in a
more formal internship (with more trivial responsibilities)
at the New York Times.

Back to technical writing in particular, an internship
in technical communication could encompass anything
from copyediting manuscripts to revising existing
manuals to writing completely new documentation
(hopefully with some guidance from a more experienced
writer). I'd venture to suggest that internships
offering more responsibility probably also give
interns more opportunity to grow and develop, and
thus benefit the intern and future employers more.
I also think that it's more likely that an intern
would do something SUBSTANTIVE (and educational
and useful) at Joe's Software and Sub Shop than
at MegaSoftware Corporation, which probably has
writers with boring and trivial overload work to slough off
on an intern. Not that all large corporations are
like that, but I know of at least one that fits that
description.

Employers and internship coordinators -- what do you
do to ensure that your students have substantive
internship experiences? Would you rather have your
students intern at Mongo, Inc., or a three person
startup company. Why?

Eric


**************************************************
Eric J. Ray                      ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com
TECHWR-L Listowner         http://www.raycomm.com/

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