Awesome but not for me
May 19, 2012 2:39 AM Subscribe
Should I forego an opportunity in a (somewhat competitive) field I am not pursuing when I have nothing else lined up?
I am a new college grad this year and have been fortunate enough to get an internship in NYC this summer-- it is a great opportunity, paid and in a big ad agency. I had applied for it back in November 2011, when I thought I'd pursue advertising. However, over these past few months I realized this is not the field I want to go into.
The fact that the internship is 1) better than anything I've ever been offered 2) what a lot of people would love-- makes me think I would be an idiot to forego it. Many past alumni of the program have gotten full-time jobs after it. Right now, I have no other job or internship lined up. All signs point to taking it, but out of 1) not wanting to go in the field 2) not wanting to travel OOS 3) someone else could make much more of this opportunity-- I want to decline. I recognize that it's great & many people would love to enter the advertising field-- I feel bad taking someone's spot and half-assing the internship, when my heart's not in it.
(Mefites- Give me permission to forego it? Would I be an idiot to let go of this chance when I don't have an alternative right now?)
I am a new college grad this year and have been fortunate enough to get an internship in NYC this summer-- it is a great opportunity, paid and in a big ad agency. I had applied for it back in November 2011, when I thought I'd pursue advertising. However, over these past few months I realized this is not the field I want to go into.
The fact that the internship is 1) better than anything I've ever been offered 2) what a lot of people would love-- makes me think I would be an idiot to forego it. Many past alumni of the program have gotten full-time jobs after it. Right now, I have no other job or internship lined up. All signs point to taking it, but out of 1) not wanting to go in the field 2) not wanting to travel OOS 3) someone else could make much more of this opportunity-- I want to decline. I recognize that it's great & many people would love to enter the advertising field-- I feel bad taking someone's spot and half-assing the internship, when my heart's not in it.
(Mefites- Give me permission to forego it? Would I be an idiot to let go of this chance when I don't have an alternative right now?)
Remember, you're living a life you chose to live. Do what YOU want to do, seriously. If you're doing this internship just for the sake of others, or because you'd feel like an "idiot" by not accepting such an opportunity, then you're not being true to yourself.
I know this may be a great opportunity, but deep inside, you don't want it. It's not your thing. And, that's okay! Other opportunities will present themselves. Think of it this way - someone really wanted this internship and worked hard for it. Now, they'll be passed over for you. Someone who doesn't even really want the internship.
Then again, it's completely your choice, and if you do feel this may pave the path towards more attractive choices, go for it. There's no right or wrong choice, its something only you know what to do. Don't think of others; think of what makes YOU happy. :)
posted by dubious_dude at 3:09 AM on May 19, 2012
I know this may be a great opportunity, but deep inside, you don't want it. It's not your thing. And, that's okay! Other opportunities will present themselves. Think of it this way - someone really wanted this internship and worked hard for it. Now, they'll be passed over for you. Someone who doesn't even really want the internship.
Then again, it's completely your choice, and if you do feel this may pave the path towards more attractive choices, go for it. There's no right or wrong choice, its something only you know what to do. Don't think of others; think of what makes YOU happy. :)
posted by dubious_dude at 3:09 AM on May 19, 2012
You mention traveling out of state as a drawback. How expensive will it be for you to relocate to NYC, live there for the summer and relocate later? I could see someone losing a couple thousand on that whole thing, so if you think there is zero chance of staying on, that might be a consideration.
You also don't mention what it is you want to do instead. If it's medical school or something, and you are really sure, then there is no point taking it. A lot really depends on that.
posted by BibiRose at 3:21 AM on May 19, 2012
You also don't mention what it is you want to do instead. If it's medical school or something, and you are really sure, then there is no point taking it. A lot really depends on that.
posted by BibiRose at 3:21 AM on May 19, 2012
Response by poster: BibiRose- I actually don't know what I want to do instead... but I plan to temp or look for administrative assistant/clerical jobs to start off. Am I going about the postgrad job search the wrong way? There is a "What field should I go into?" question I want to tack onto this too.
I didn't want to go into advertising because I prefer slow and steady work, where things are fairly consistent and there is the sense of doing something real; advertising's a fast-paced and trendy industry, with a lot of socializing. (Truthfully I am not very social or trendy.) I thought I could spend the time and energy for the internship finding out another field of work or look for work closer to home.
posted by ichomp at 3:40 AM on May 19, 2012
I didn't want to go into advertising because I prefer slow and steady work, where things are fairly consistent and there is the sense of doing something real; advertising's a fast-paced and trendy industry, with a lot of socializing. (Truthfully I am not very social or trendy.) I thought I could spend the time and energy for the internship finding out another field of work or look for work closer to home.
posted by ichomp at 3:40 AM on May 19, 2012
makes me think I would be an idiot to forego it.
Well, I'm gonna say it if no one else will: you would be an idiot to forego it.
Seriously, you are gonna need every single thing you can get your hands on to stand out from other graduates. Every single thing. When you finish your degree, the country will be full of people just like you, except they got better marks, had better internships, knew the right people. How are you gonna get the jobs they're applying for?
Six months ago, you were interested in advertising. You may get interested again. Heck, if you're still at uni, you don't even know what working in advertising is - and it can be a lot of different things.
It sounds like you have a great opportunity to work in a large agency with a wide variety of people. You will get something solid gold for your resume, get paid for it, and learn a butt-load. Are you nuts? Take the damned internship and thank your lucky stars you were offered it.
PS I do not work in advertising. When we are looking at hiring grads for out non-advertising, non-marketing communications department, we would totally look on something like this as a favourable. You will pick up skills with worth beyond advertising. Take it, take it unless you get something as likely to lead you to employment.
posted by smoke at 3:45 AM on May 19, 2012 [22 favorites]
Well, I'm gonna say it if no one else will: you would be an idiot to forego it.
Seriously, you are gonna need every single thing you can get your hands on to stand out from other graduates. Every single thing. When you finish your degree, the country will be full of people just like you, except they got better marks, had better internships, knew the right people. How are you gonna get the jobs they're applying for?
Six months ago, you were interested in advertising. You may get interested again. Heck, if you're still at uni, you don't even know what working in advertising is - and it can be a lot of different things.
It sounds like you have a great opportunity to work in a large agency with a wide variety of people. You will get something solid gold for your resume, get paid for it, and learn a butt-load. Are you nuts? Take the damned internship and thank your lucky stars you were offered it.
PS I do not work in advertising. When we are looking at hiring grads for out non-advertising, non-marketing communications department, we would totally look on something like this as a favourable. You will pick up skills with worth beyond advertising. Take it, take it unless you get something as likely to lead you to employment.
posted by smoke at 3:45 AM on May 19, 2012 [22 favorites]
Yeah, I pretty much agree with smoke.
If you talk to a lot of people 10 years out of college, so many of them initially put a lot of thought and effort into picking a field to go into-- and are not working in that field now. So many things change, and so many times a seemingly perfect job has problems you didn't anticipate. There is a good chance that while you were at the ad agency you will find out about jobs you didn't even know existed.
posted by BibiRose at 4:01 AM on May 19, 2012
If you talk to a lot of people 10 years out of college, so many of them initially put a lot of thought and effort into picking a field to go into-- and are not working in that field now. So many things change, and so many times a seemingly perfect job has problems you didn't anticipate. There is a good chance that while you were at the ad agency you will find out about jobs you didn't even know existed.
posted by BibiRose at 4:01 AM on May 19, 2012
I agree with smoke.
Even if you decide later on that advertising isn't the field that you want to work in, you'll gain so much from working at this internship. Future employers will want to see that you have some kind of job experience, PERIOD, even if it isn't in the field that you're trying to move into. Plus, they'll want to see that there are people who can vouch for your ability to get the job done, be reliable, be a solid team player, etc. On job interviews, you might be asked to talk about a time when you had issues with coworkers but still managed to get the job done well, a time when you accomplished something at work that you hadn't thought was possible, and so on. The more job experience that you have, in ANY field, the more you'll be able to answer these kinds of questions and really prove to your potential employers that the work experience you've had will help you succeed in their company.
Ultimately, it's up to you to decide what to do. However, if I were in your shoes, I would strongly consider taking this internship. You never know how many doors it just might open for you.
posted by sabira at 4:07 AM on May 19, 2012
Even if you decide later on that advertising isn't the field that you want to work in, you'll gain so much from working at this internship. Future employers will want to see that you have some kind of job experience, PERIOD, even if it isn't in the field that you're trying to move into. Plus, they'll want to see that there are people who can vouch for your ability to get the job done, be reliable, be a solid team player, etc. On job interviews, you might be asked to talk about a time when you had issues with coworkers but still managed to get the job done well, a time when you accomplished something at work that you hadn't thought was possible, and so on. The more job experience that you have, in ANY field, the more you'll be able to answer these kinds of questions and really prove to your potential employers that the work experience you've had will help you succeed in their company.
Ultimately, it's up to you to decide what to do. However, if I were in your shoes, I would strongly consider taking this internship. You never know how many doors it just might open for you.
posted by sabira at 4:07 AM on May 19, 2012
TAKE the internship and make larger personal goals for yourself like: meet/get to know 50 executives or something
posted by mrmarley at 4:25 AM on May 19, 2012
posted by mrmarley at 4:25 AM on May 19, 2012
Best answer: You sound scared. If it was competitive and you got in they clearly see something in you. Are you worried about failing? If so, don't be. It's an internship not a ten-year contract and you won't be landed with the ten billion dollar premium account the second you walk through the door. Just look at it like an extended college project.
If you don't want to go into advertising it'll be even better because you'll feel less pressured and more open to observing and understanding the methods of a massive industry that has a huge impact on the way the western world currently functions. Be an insider, study the culture. Absorb what you can - it will definitely come in useful further down the line, whatever you choose to pursue afterwards.
And summer in the city will go so fast you won't realise what happened. You can go home and seek out that slower paced admin job at any point. As you've nothing more compelling lined up why not go for it - it could be an amazing adventure!
posted by freya_lamb at 4:27 AM on May 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
If you don't want to go into advertising it'll be even better because you'll feel less pressured and more open to observing and understanding the methods of a massive industry that has a huge impact on the way the western world currently functions. Be an insider, study the culture. Absorb what you can - it will definitely come in useful further down the line, whatever you choose to pursue afterwards.
And summer in the city will go so fast you won't realise what happened. You can go home and seek out that slower paced admin job at any point. As you've nothing more compelling lined up why not go for it - it could be an amazing adventure!
posted by freya_lamb at 4:27 AM on May 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
The internship will look way better on your resume than a series of temp jobs that you may not even be able to get, because there are a zillion out of work professionals willing to take those jobs right now, and you're just out of college. Take the internship. Use it to your advantage to get the kind of job you actually want.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:40 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by jacquilynne at 4:40 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I actually don't know what I want to do instead... but I plan to temp or look for administrative assistant/clerical jobs to start off.
You and several million other people. Many of whom have actual, paid, employment experience to bring to their temp work resumes. TAKE THE INTERNSHIP.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:16 AM on May 19, 2012 [5 favorites]
You and several million other people. Many of whom have actual, paid, employment experience to bring to their temp work resumes. TAKE THE INTERNSHIP.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:16 AM on May 19, 2012 [5 favorites]
I think you should take it, and just remember that it is temporary.
I did an internship in a field I'm not interested in, and it looks great on my resume. I learned a lot from it and really enjoyed it, even though I felt I was out of my element and I didn't really fit in there. However my internship was only for a summer. How long is this one? If it's only for a few months, it will be over in no time and you can move on to other things.
To a person who's just graduated, it seems as though you have to start your life right now, this year. But this is not the case. When we are young we should try out different things until a path makes itself open to us. You'll be surprised how the skills you learn in one place can transfer to all sorts of other types of work. You never forget the skills you learn on the job, especially if they are the type that you have to repeat over and over during the course of a day.
You deserve to try this internship, even if others might be more passionate about it. If you were interested in advertising when you applied, I'm sure you will find this interesting too. Trying many things makes you a well-rounded and impressive person. And when you are well-rounded you will have far more opportunities, and will eventually be able to make choices for your employment based on what you really want. But the only way to find out what you really want is to try different things and actually live through them.
posted by costanza at 5:17 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I did an internship in a field I'm not interested in, and it looks great on my resume. I learned a lot from it and really enjoyed it, even though I felt I was out of my element and I didn't really fit in there. However my internship was only for a summer. How long is this one? If it's only for a few months, it will be over in no time and you can move on to other things.
To a person who's just graduated, it seems as though you have to start your life right now, this year. But this is not the case. When we are young we should try out different things until a path makes itself open to us. You'll be surprised how the skills you learn in one place can transfer to all sorts of other types of work. You never forget the skills you learn on the job, especially if they are the type that you have to repeat over and over during the course of a day.
You deserve to try this internship, even if others might be more passionate about it. If you were interested in advertising when you applied, I'm sure you will find this interesting too. Trying many things makes you a well-rounded and impressive person. And when you are well-rounded you will have far more opportunities, and will eventually be able to make choices for your employment based on what you really want. But the only way to find out what you really want is to try different things and actually live through them.
posted by costanza at 5:17 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
The benefit of an advertising agency internship, even if you're not interested in advertising in the long term, is that you're exposed to a really wide variety of industries and roles. Even more than you would temping, I think. Compound that with an NYC location, and you'll encounter so many more jobs and people than you would otherwise.
I'm kind of over advertising for many of the reasons you cite, but if I hadn't been involved in this industry, I wouldn't have learned about transportation planning, digital archiving, health care, electronics, or engineering, FWIW.
posted by lunalaguna at 5:41 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm kind of over advertising for many of the reasons you cite, but if I hadn't been involved in this industry, I wouldn't have learned about transportation planning, digital archiving, health care, electronics, or engineering, FWIW.
posted by lunalaguna at 5:41 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
As far as temping is concerned, you might as well just take the internship and look for temp clerical stuff while you're working over the summer, because getting a temp placement takes a long time. I was looking for an office/clerical job and after >10 agencies and several months of looking, I ended up finding something by myself.
Every time I'd call a new agency, they'd mention how many people they have who want to be placed in the exact same positions you're talking about. I'm in a pretty soft market, but I thought it inauspicious when one person apologized for the delay in returning my phone call by explaining, "We have a lot of people to place. No placements, but a lot of people to place."
I mean, you have my permission to forgo it if you want, but a paid (competitive) internship is going to look a lot better than either an entry-level temp job or a summer of nothing while you look for an entry-level temp job.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 5:57 AM on May 19, 2012
Every time I'd call a new agency, they'd mention how many people they have who want to be placed in the exact same positions you're talking about. I'm in a pretty soft market, but I thought it inauspicious when one person apologized for the delay in returning my phone call by explaining, "We have a lot of people to place. No placements, but a lot of people to place."
I mean, you have my permission to forgo it if you want, but a paid (competitive) internship is going to look a lot better than either an entry-level temp job or a summer of nothing while you look for an entry-level temp job.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 5:57 AM on May 19, 2012
BibiRose- I actually don't know what I want to do instead... but I plan to temp or look for administrative assistant/clerical jobs to start off. Am I going about the postgrad job search the wrong way?
Yes, very much so. Your career will get off to a better start, no matter what you end up doing, if you take the internship rather than look for administrative assistant jobs and then hope that something improves for you, job-wise, years down the road.
posted by deanc at 6:00 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yes, very much so. Your career will get off to a better start, no matter what you end up doing, if you take the internship rather than look for administrative assistant jobs and then hope that something improves for you, job-wise, years down the road.
posted by deanc at 6:00 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Upon further review, if you already plan to "half ass it" if you accept the offer, you should decline.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 6:01 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by easy, lucky, free at 6:01 AM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
As a person who is trying to get out of admin, anyone can do admin work and it is proving to be somewhat difficult to get out of. This internship could open doors for you and give you experience other than "proficiency in Microsoft Office," etc.
(also, don't half-ass the internship if you take it, you could really make some valuable contacts and who knows, maybe you would end up liking it)
posted by fromageball at 6:36 AM on May 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
(also, don't half-ass the internship if you take it, you could really make some valuable contacts and who knows, maybe you would end up liking it)
posted by fromageball at 6:36 AM on May 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
Also:
I prefer slow and steady work, where things are fairly consistent
While normally, I would argue that the best way to get something you want is to find that thing and get it, that isn't necessarily good advice if you're looking for this kind of job when you don't already have a degree in accounting or something. Rather, "steady" work that is "consistent" is more like a reward for years of being an ambitious go-getter in the beginning of your career. You are more likely to leverage your internship into a path that gives you what you want than leveraging a temp/aa job into what you want.
posted by deanc at 7:47 AM on May 19, 2012
I prefer slow and steady work, where things are fairly consistent
While normally, I would argue that the best way to get something you want is to find that thing and get it, that isn't necessarily good advice if you're looking for this kind of job when you don't already have a degree in accounting or something. Rather, "steady" work that is "consistent" is more like a reward for years of being an ambitious go-getter in the beginning of your career. You are more likely to leverage your internship into a path that gives you what you want than leveraging a temp/aa job into what you want.
posted by deanc at 7:47 AM on May 19, 2012
Think of it as a temp job that you already have set up, plus a built-in network of potential friends and associates to help you figure out the next steps for your career. It's a lot easier to move to NYC with a job in place than without having one. Also, you may find that advertising isn't the fast-paced and trendy place you're imagining. Some of it is super-boring, slow and steady work (think about life insurance companies, or other big established brands that are not interested in being trendy) - and you may find yourself being the quiet reliable person that the account execs count on when everyone else is rushing around being trendy. I'd give it a shot.
posted by judith at 9:24 AM on May 19, 2012
posted by judith at 9:24 AM on May 19, 2012
I am a nerd who was teased throughout school for wearing clothing with the United Federation of Planets logo sewn on and up until a few years ago, a 10 year old wardrobe.
I was offered a job at a fashion magazine.
I love it.
posted by Zen_warrior at 1:32 PM on May 19, 2012
I was offered a job at a fashion magazine.
I love it.
posted by Zen_warrior at 1:32 PM on May 19, 2012
Life is full of lots of dull and boring things and every now and then you get the opportunity to do something amazing - take the opportunity when it comes your way (particularly if it's paid).
posted by mleigh at 2:32 AM on May 20, 2012
posted by mleigh at 2:32 AM on May 20, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
I guess my point is, what puts you in a position to decline?
If you're in a position to decline, then you have my permission to do so.
posted by vitabellosi at 3:01 AM on May 19, 2012