Internships
Out of gainful employment, out of job offers and running out of savings, Scott Stevens of Portland, Oregon, has turned to a familiar strategy to gain experience and keep his skills fresh: The internship.
In spring 2009, Stevens, 35, took an internship on a sustainable tourism project for Travel Portland, a nonprofit destination marketing organization. In this role, he researches what it would take for an entire city to become sustainable and how best to market this initiative to the public.
His salary: Zero. Instead, the former IT sales and marketing professional is doing the internship for the experience.
“I liked the idea of an internship as a way to keep busy and connected,” he says. “The value to me is in learning something new.”
With the economy in the doldrums, Stevens isn’t the only experienced worker to go the internship route. Some, like Stevens, are using internships to build their resumes and gain experience during a period of unemployment. Others are looking to enhance their professional knowledge or sample a new field ahead of a possible career change.
Test-Driving a New Career
Another reason to embrace an internship as a grown-up is to lay a foundation for a future career change. Such is the case with Lisa Tresmontan.
In early 2009, Tresmontan, 31, agreed to take a low-paying internship with Joshua Charles Catering in San Mateo, California. In this position, she works nights and weekends helping CEO Josh Feinbloom with everything from food preparation to event planning. In early 2009, Tresmontan oversaw every aspect of a customer’s wedding reception; in June, she helped cater an entire weekend of festivities.
Tresmontan landed the internship through friends of friends in the catering industry. It helped that her mother works in the business as well.
While Tresmontan admits that moonlighting is a lot of work on top of her full-time job as associate sourcing manager for Pottery Barn, she said she wasn’t ready to take a leap into the catering business without exploring it first.
“I wanted to make sure I liked it, and I’ve actually liked it more than I thought I would,” she says. “Someday, when I’m ready, I can leave the corporate world behind me and commit full time to this new career.”
