Some words of advice
I greatly enjoyed my experiences at the Oklahoman. I got (somewhat) used to Oklahoma, and met a lot of interesting people.
For future interns, some advice:
1. The company cars (or some of them) are very… flamboyant. You’ll be representing the paper throughout the summer but you’ll really be representing whenever you drive one of those cars.
2. You’ll probably get lost at least once going to the cafeteria. I think it took us about a week or so before we got used to it. Or you can just go to Sala Thai which was our favorite lunch spot (we still got lost going there too).
3. Get to know people outside of your department. I did and I had a lot of fun conversations and got to provide input for things outside of what I would normally do. And they tell you about the good stuff (free food/book grabs etc.).
4. CCI is crazy. And crashes a lot or freezes or is otherwise troublesome. Get used to it.
5. Features and news are two different worlds. However, we do NOT have siestas on the ninth floor.
6. Never blog about bone marrow. Ever.
7. Work for other sections when you can. I think I hold the record for the number of different sections/editors I worked for.
8. There’s always something to do somewhere. Just ask.
9. Run people through the court system. My editor advised me to do so for some “model citizens” who were not quite upstanding after all.
http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/casesearch.asp
10. Use Twitter. Most people at the paper have Twitter so that will keep you briefed on most happenings.
Things are never quite the way they seem
Credit: icanhascheezburger.com
This week has been chock-full of lessons.
I’m writing this story that uses these “model citizens” as an example. My editor suggested I run a background check on them to make sure their story checked out (thanks Matt!). And the results were quite surprising. Let’s just say that if they were on “Parental Control” (the MTV show where parents pick out dates for their kids, I blame Ashley for my knowledge of this show), they would be eliminated as a good pick by any sane parent. Then again they might be kept for drama purposes.
We were told during orientation (and many, many times during j-school) that journalists should be skeptical and that if your mom says she loves you, to check it out.
Well that lesson was reinforced today. And I’m back to searching for more model examples.
