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Thanks to five spectacular panelists from the class of 2000 for this wisdom!

General comments

• Get involved in clubs, activities, internships, etc. that relate to your field of interest.

• Use your "connections"!  Talk to people about what they do. Attend Career Days, (the Annenberg School Career Fair can be quite useful), use alumni network, talk to friends and family.  (This point was *heavily* and repeatedly stressed!)

• Be incredibly friendly to everyone you work with.  Endear yourself to all!  Keep in touch with the people with whom you work. Portray yourself as someone everyone will love, so that wherever you are assigned, they'll be thrilled to have you. (This was also emphasized *a lot*)

• It can be harder to get a good internship than a good job.  Have to work really hard at it.  Be sure to have a great cover letter.

• Know *as much as possible* about the firm you are applying to.

• Internships are a great way to sample different fields and experiment, particularly if you have a number of interests.

• Look for places that might need another hand (ie, places you read about that are just opening, or expanding, etc).

• Head for your dream job, if you know what it is.

• Internships are often as good as you make them.  Being cheerful, volunteering to do things, and getting involved in as much as possible can make a routine internship into a great one.

• Accept "scut-work" cheerfully.  Try to do as much as you can, and be a part of as much as you can, without annoying people.  Ask to go to meetings, take on work, etc.

• Ask to speak to previous interns *before* you accept a position. You'll get answers to whether you'll really learn anything, etc.

• Save everything you do.  Keep a journal of all the work you do.  You'll forget it, and it can be very useful for next position.

• Applications for advertising jobs can be creative/demonstrate your imagination.

• Look for positions that will actually give you training; structured programs can be useful in this regard.

• Some advertising interview questions:

What is your favorite ad campaign and why?

If Penn were a brand, what brand would it be, and why?

If you were a brand, what brand would you be, and why?

• Don't just look at websites; mine every avenue you have to find  internships, etc.

• Video is a *very* good way to get into the film industry, as  is working for small production companies within larger studios.

• Will put in *very* long hours

• Look for newspapers that let you freelance so that you can get published and have published clips.

• Weekly papers let you write longer pieces.

• It's possible to find paid internships.

• Hiring cycle a little later (ie, can look in March and April)

• Tend to work more than 40 hours/week

• Having a portfolio to use when looking for the most competitive jobs/internships is extremely important.  Take p.r. jobs during  the school year so that you can develop your portfolio.  People are really impressed with a professional-looking portfolio.

• Save your clips and writing samples!

• Now (Feb) is a good time to look for internships in mid or large- markets.

 
• Try to get an internship that offers the chance to learn technical skills.  Some union shops won't let you, but smaller organizations might.  The technical knowledge can be extremely valuable.

 
• www.tvjobs.com is a good web site.