Last week I got a call from one of the features editors. She said she had a college sophomore job shadowing her and would I take this girl to lunch and talk with her about internships, magazines, and so on? Of course I agreed, and I invited a couple of EAs to join us (the more the merrier, right?). What I found really interesting was that this girl's college didn't have any sort of journalism of communications program, so she was majoring in English and trying to find out more about journalism by doing things like this job shadowing program.
It got me thinking...why didn't I ever job shadow anyone while I was at Drake? I mean, could it be any easier to get an inside look at magazines? There's practically zero time, effort, and commitment involved. All you have to do is contact the career center (or maybe the alumni office...not sure), say you want to job shadow a Drake journalism alum, and they'll get you in touch with someone. Then, you just have to get yourself to Meredith or August Home Publishing or wherever for one day. That's it. If you don't own a car, bum a ride from a friend or be adventerous and take the bus. (You should probably shower, comb your hair, and wear something other than jeans, too.)
For that minimal effort, you'll get to see what a typical day in publishing is like, plus you'll get to know an editor. You can stay in touch with that editor, and, who knows, maybe she'll hook you up with an internship someday. Sooo easy. Seriously.
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Our alums would love to have Drake students shadow them. I guess we figured you folks spent your lives at Meredith, so you had enough shadows in your life. You make a good point, though, and you are right that the alumni folks can help you. Or me or Angela.
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