Bahir Yeusuff
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- Interns.
I think the idea of an internship is a great way to introduce yourself to a potential industry or work environment that you, as a student, may not be familiar with. Especially when, like myself, you are from a background that allows for a wide variety of careers (unlike say an engineer or an architect where you are sold to that one career path) an internship allows you to try something out to see if it were something you’d consider doing for the next 10 or 15 years.
Coming from a background of first IT, then filmmaking, and now with a post graduate degree in marketing, I’d like to think that the career paths that are open to me run the gamut. An internship position will allow someone with a background and interest as varied as mine, with the real world, hands on experience to try different things and find not only my forte, but also what I see myself doing in the foreseeable future.
In the filmmaking world, the idea of an internship is often used as a way of “getting into the door”. As the industry is very personal and requires not only connections but also contact, an intern within the filmmaking industry allows you to forge those connections; even though you may start out getting that director or producer coffee on set, or wash his car.
However, there is also a change in the mentality of many companies now when approached with the idea of providing internships. They have begun to realize that not only is it good for the applicant, but it also provides the organization with an introduction to a possible new team member, one with new, fresh ideas and a new way of thinking and looking at the same problem. Many companies look towards their internship programs as a way to find new gems that may not traditionally fit their first impressions of who they may want to employ. An internship program may look past just the qualification of an applicant, and look at what that applicant may be capable of doing.
In fact, this last note is how I became a producer. Looking past my e-commerce degree, a friend had offered me the position of producing his first feature film, and with no prior knowledge of the subject, I said yes. That was 7 years ago and I now have 4 full-length feature films, 2 tv series, several ads, and only 2 short films to my name. To this day, many find it surprising that my first foray into filmmaking was with a full-length feature film, and not by making short films. Although not an internship in the traditional sense, the spirit of “just trying it out” was definitely how I approached it, and I have not only fallen in love with it, but also found an ability within it, an ability I would not have known about had I not taken that chance, or had that friend not taken a chance on me.
In that spirit, I have also been very open to others joining me as interns. An intern that had joined us as an extra hand on set, getting coffee, holding umbrellas, driving and parking cars (an internship position on a film set is way less glamorous than one may think), has now become a full fledged director in his own right and has become my partner in crime. And this is where I think a lot of parties give the idea of an internship a bad name; by not allowing that intern to grow and learn. By only providing them with mundane tasks that no one in the company wants to do. Although that may be what they are there for, I personally feel those interns need to be given the opportunity to be heard and to be a part of the conversation, within bounds of course.
And that is what I think. I think an internship can be a very effective way of finding new blood for the company, and for new graduates to find themselves. More than anything, I think it allows for those who may not be traditionally qualified for the job, but who may be more than suited for it, a shot. Being qualified and being suitable for a job are two distinct things in my mind; being qualified means you can do the job but being suitable means you bring *magic* to it.
Just whatever you do, never pull a Monica.
The relationshipstatusmovie Facebook Fan Page has been updated with a nifty lil’ landing page. Please go and ‘Like’ it. Apparently it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days.
Please.
My favorite Silvergun Superman song. And yes, in case you are wondering, I do play in the band.
- Casablanca
- Yvonne: Where were you last night?
- Rick: That's so long ago I don't remember.
- Yvonne: Will I see you tonight?
- Rick: I never make plans that far ahead.
i have no idea what im doing here..
