Hi, interns:
This is a fairly straightforward question: How are you liking your internship so far? I’m interested in hearing from you about how your experiences are helping to shape your career plans. Are you having a good experience or a bad one? Or is it somewhere in-between? And how is your experience shaping your career plans?
Your thoughts and experiences might well change over the course of your internship, so don’t be surprised if I ask you this particular question again, further on down the road.
Best,
Prof. Wollman
So far I like my internship.
Since this is also my first internship in the music industry, it helps me a lot in understanding the field (or at least part of) itself.
The works I am having do not only related to music publishing but also related to recording labels. The company itself does not only do business within the US, but also have sub-publisher overseas. I have the chance to learn more about the music industry internationally. I also have the chances to contact people from overseas which is very helpful to me. For I am planning to go back to Hong Kong or go to Japan in the future.
I’m definitely having a positive experience overall. My ideal career is somewhere in music production, preferably songwriting. I haven’t had a clear plan of how to get my career to where I want it to be. Because I want to be on the creative end, I’ve mainly focused my efforts into perfecting my craft and haven’t spent too much time planning how to make it lucrative, nor what I will do once I graduate. It’s helpful to be around music industry professionals and see that I could definitely be happy working as an assistant in a record company or some similar position, at least for a few years to get started. However, it also worries me to think that I could begin a position with that mindset and find ten years later that my job has just distracted me from what I actually intended to do.
I’m having an in-between experience so far. My advisor does not want me to post anything involving what I do here (they’re very big on confidentiality in all aspects). I like the work I am doing but wish there was more communication between people. This will improve though, it is starting to get better. I want a job doing something with a record company or music label, but now I know that it doesn’t have to necessarily be at a major label. This is career-defining because it is giving me a taste of what I really want one day–to promote and market current artists and find new talent.
I am exactly in the same situation with the Demitri who posted above me. I am also having an in-between experience so far and my internship is very strict on confidentiality as well. Like I said in my previous post, I wish I had more hands on experience and work to do. I mean it’s only been the 4th week. I’m pretty sure along the road, I will be doing a lot more.
Overall, I am having a great experience at my internship. I have been involved in numerous projects but most predominantly credit card fraud analysis. The company is making some major changes and they are looking to save costs to help fund the new more expensive business plan. This project reaches across disciplines from accounting to finance to contract law to IT.
I feel really good about my performance because my supervisor has been complimenting me on my analytical skills throughout this project. The CFO and my supervisor have been very appreciative, gracious and sociable. They even invited me to the finance department happy hour party next week. They make me feel very welcome.
My Internship so far is going very well. After the first two weeks it started picking up speed and i find myself actually doing a lot of productive work. We recently had to ship out a new release and so we had to handle getting 100’s of copies to all kinds of promotional outlets. Last week, everyone left early except my supervisor and I and i had a chance to really sit down with him and find out how the label really works.
I’d say this experience is great so far. I am learning a lot that i feel i wouldnt be able to in a class. Also im getting hands on experience and as i show progress, more responsibilities are thrown on me, which is sweet in my opinion. the more work i have to do the better.
hey
Hello everyone! Im a late addition to the Internship course, but I am here now! My name is Emily Hall and Im a senior at Baruch graduating in may from the MME program. As far what Im doing for my internship, it encompasses everything the degree program should be about. Im interning for a company called 100% Music. The company was founded by a business associate of mine who is an active songwriter and manager in the industry now. he has had many major placements with acts such as Young Jeezy, Fabulous, Eve, Beyonce, Swizz Beats and more… In the last year he has been offered label deals from both Interscope and Universal Records. I am interning underneath him aiding with paperwork, setting up meetings, attending studio sessions with him and other artists, writers and producers he is working with all over New York. So, basically in a nutshell I am working to shape an independent label with a major distribution deal with an industry professional.
I am enjoying what I am doing right now because it is very hands on and relevant to my life. Besides wanting to work on the business side of the industry and contemplating entertainment law school I am a songwriter/singer myself. I sing under my hebrew name Auzriel so if you have an interest check out my myspace and get involved with my music network!
http://www.myspace.com/auzrielmusic
Overall, I like my internship. There are some issues that rise for me. I never really had a plan as to what I will do with my major, except maybe, just maybe I’ll got to law school to specialize in entertainment law. The internship makes me question how much would I want to work with the music stars: we just had an event and think I really can’t put up with certain people’s attitudes. As far as being in the non-profit company I begin to first-hand see what it is like being in a non-profit, especially in hard economic times. So I do like what I do on the job, but it raises more questions for me as to what am I to do in the future.
I have mixed feelings about my internship. Wyatt and I both intern at the Downtown Music.
Frankly, I do not like our “supervisor”. I think that she does not take into consideration the interns thoughts and treats us as if we are less than. She wants everything her way and no matter how hard we try to fancy her whimsy she’s unappreciative. Furthermore she is very hot and cold.
On the flip side, everyone else at the office is amazing. Even the execs are friendlier and more thankful for our time than Jackie. Especially the publishing group. They are the best! So much so that I’ve asked if I could come in to intern specifically for them (even though they all share the same office space) on Thursdays during my only free time during the week.
I acknowledge that we are interns and are in a sense dispensable, however I do not feel that we should be made to feel that way nor should we be made to feel like our work here is unimportant; especially because if we were not here they would not be able to get nearly as much work done as they are so understaffed.
What I appreciate about the internship is the publishing group and I’ve become more interested in what they do and they’ve showed me a few things like registering songs on BMI. I also like that we do occasionally work with the execs of the label because it’s so small.
I would really love to intern exclusively for the Publishing team but it may evoke some issues within the office.
The engineers that work at the in-house studio are also very sweet and I occasionally see my friends here when they come in to record.
One last thing, our supervisor is constantly and repeatedly misspelling my name.
I think my internship is great. I’ve done plenty of things that I have never done before. Sometimes I wish I was doing some more hands on stuff. The only real problem I have is with my supervisor. She’s a bit tough, but I try to not let it get to me. Everyone else here is really great and respectable. So in all I am really enjoying my internship and hoping that it can help me in the long run with contacts and experience.
Sarah and Wyatt raise a really important issue, here. There’s nothing worse than when your supervisor is a bad apple and everyone else is great (except, maybe, when everyone in the office is hellish–that, I suppose, would be worse). It’s a problem, because your supervisor is the one you need to deal with, and if s/he makes everyday dealings unpleasant, it can compromise the work you do and your overall experience in the office.
To the credit of both Sarah and Wyatt, they seem to be dealing with it as well as they can be. A note to you both: while it’s no fun to be in your situation, it’s also temporary. It’s also important not to burn bridges–so, Sarah, I think you’re right not to make waves, since your supervisor could simply react by asking you not to return. You need to benefit from the experience, so try to play the game as well as you can with her, while continuing to work well and make contacts with the other people in the office.
I think I mentioned early on this semester that my internship with the Rolling Stone editorial staff was awful, and that everyone I worked with was a total jackass…with the notable exception of two nice journalists in the music department who were lovely, friendly, patient, and helpful. I did my work, put up with the shit in Editorial, and talked to the music dudes as often as I could. At the end of my internship, I walked away and have never seen (or needed help from) any of the jerks in that office, but one of the nice journalist dudes I schmoozed with ended up writing me a kick-ass rec. for grad school.
So, the moral(s) here: take the jerks for what they are, be aware that just because your supervisor is an idiot does not mean that the experience overall won’t benefit you in the futures, and recognize that you will never, ever get to choose everyone you work with (kind of like you can’t choose who you are related to!), so learning to deal with difficult people early on is one of the best coping strategies you will ever be able to develop.
Carry on, people. You all sound pretty good. I’m glad. Now get me your contracts if you haven’t!!
Prof. Wollman
My internship is going well. Everyone has been helpful and are appreciative of what I do, even if it’s just something tiny. I’m definitely learning a lot about live music, which is the section of the music industry that I’m most interested in.
Because of the economy and it’s impact on music, things are a bit slow at times. So there have been a few days where, I’ve had to do some pretty tedious tasks. And the person I had been working with as an “adviser” was recently let go so the atmosphere is a bit drab at the moment. But things are looking to pick up as we get into the Spring and some of the talent we represents are going to have some shows for us to do some last minute work on.