Talking pictures of my colleagues working is also a part of my job.
(photo by: Chuyun Huang)
How would you describe somebody who wakes up at eight, gets to the office promptly at ten, works eight straight hours and earns -4.50 dollars for the day? Yes! Negative 4.50 dollars! But that doesn’t even make sense! Well, it does, for an unpaid intern, like myself. Starting last November I got an internship at a Chinese television company, SinoVision, that’s now on air on channel 73 and 63. I always wanted to learn more about the media industry so I could be more confident about my major, journalism.
The green room.
(photo by: Chuyun Huang)
The day I first visited the office, I immediately made up my mind and decided to take the job without doubts after seeing all the fancy equipment, and especially when I found out that they have their own green room. I didn’t care if I was going to get paid or not, I just wanted to be working in that office that seemed very professional.At first, as an inexperienced intern, I was asked to do very minor office tasks, such as, research and collect information, translate English articles, file documents, and manage stationary supplies. I felt fine doing these basic office work tasks because according to friends who have done multiple internships, they all said that is how every intern starts a job. But as months passed by, I no longer felt the same way about my job and many questions started to pop up in my head: Do I still feel passionate about my job? Am I learning anything new? Is my time and effort worth it?
A corner of the office.
(photo by: Chuyun Huang)
More importantly, a job without a check started to bother me. I know that I said I didn’t care about money in the beginning, but often times I feel like I work sixteen hours per week and get nothing in return. Focus on the experiences that you could learn from the job then, you might say. I told myself the same thing over and over again, but the question is: how do you measure an experience when there is no tangible value? Experience is definitely important, but don’t you think it’s still too weak to be a motivation compared to money? By Chuyun Huang
