Rise of the 40-something intern
While she was a student at the University of Arizona, Patty Fernandez never had a chance to intern. But two decades later, she鈥檚 doing just that.
Laid off from her copy-editing job last summer at Standard & Poor鈥檚 and seeing her freelance work dwindle, Ms. Fernandez applied for an unpaid internship at the website start-up company wowOwow.com, an online community for women. 鈥淚 was really attracted by the possibilities and being able to do something that I didn鈥檛 necessarily have experience [in],鈥� she says of the Internet-publishing venture.
Perhaps it鈥檚 a sign of the times. The internship role, once reserved for college students and entry-level candidates, is attracting mid-career professionals eager to retool their skills. With 7 million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession, internships are becoming a sought-after way to reenter the job market.
鈥淭here are a lot of adults who are out of work, a lot of adults who want to transition into second careers 鈥� and an internship is the best way to get a foot in the door and ... learn about a new industry,鈥� says Lauren Berger, founder of InternQueen.com, a website devoted to college internships.
An internship allowed Linda Franklin to blaze a new career path after 22 years on Wall Street. At age 50, Ms. Franklin applied for an internship at New York鈥檚 public radio station WNYC. For the next two years, she lived off her savings while she worked 鈥� unpaid 鈥� recording sound bites at press conferences and from pedestrians on city streets. The experience, at first, was a hit to her ego.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e running around in snow, rain, cold, and I would be standing on a subway platform saying 鈥榃hat am I doing here? I used to send people out to do errands for me,鈥� 鈥� says Franklin, who formerly ran a trading department for an investment firm. 鈥淵ou really have to get over that.鈥�
The training developed her writing skills and, eventually, allowed her to launch a website for mature women 鈥� TheRealCougarWoman.com 鈥� host her own Internet talk-radio show, and write a book to be released in the fall.
As the recession has deepened, the need for nontraditional internships has gone up.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, for example, professionals looking to reenter the science and technology fields can enroll in the Career Reengineering Program, a 10-month part-time curriculum that requires students to take a class in the fall and complete an internship in the spring. Over the past year, inquiries about the three-year-old program have increased 50 percent, says Dawna Levenson, associate director of the program.
Though most internships cater to the college crowd, Ms. Berger is slowly starting to see the intern role shift to include adults. Now, rather than turning away r茅sum茅s she receives from adults, she鈥檚 passing them along to companies offering 鈥渁lternative internships.鈥�
Among them:
鈥ast fall, Sara Lee Corp. in Downers Grove, Ill., launched a 鈥渞eturnship鈥� program and hired 10 adults for three to six months.
鈥ew York banking firm Goldman Sachs last year ran an eight-week pilot internship program from September to November, offering 11 women a chance to return to the finance industry.
鈥ince April, Babyboomers.TV, a website start-up company featuring articles geared toward baby boomers, has hired four mid-career interns, offering each a $100 weekly stipend.
Nonprofits are also offering internships to mid-career professionals, among them: Sightline Institute, a think tank in Seattle; Earthwatch Institute, an international nonprofit group with US offices in Maynard, Mass.; and the Smithsonian鈥檚 Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C., which will host a mid-career professional in its internship program this summer.
Training programs are also gaining momentum. Civic Ventures, a San Francisco-based think tank focused on baby boomers, spearheaded an Encore Fellows pilot program in 2008 for experienced technology sector employees ages 50 and up. The goal is to train them for management positions in the nonprofit world.
Hiring interns is 鈥渁 great way to test-drive somebody without investing huge salary benefits in them,鈥� says Nancy Valene, content manager for Babyboomers.TV. The decision to pick mid-career professionals makes sense because of the nature of the website鈥檚 content, she adds.
The same can be said at wowOwow.com, where 鈥渆xecutive interns,鈥� all over the age of 40, work remotely from home and attend meetings in the New York office to learn about social networking, search engine optimization, and how to write and edit for the Web.
These women 鈥渁re our demographic. They鈥檝e been able to help us connect with our audience,鈥� says Randi Bernfeld, senior editor at wowOwow.com.
Not all companies welcome adult interns with open arms. 鈥淎 lot of companies ... don鈥檛 even want to consider the adults,鈥� Berger says. Because most company policies require interns to receive college credit, adults are often disregarded. Another potential concern, she says, 鈥渋s that [adults] are going to have a larger sense of entitlement and that they won鈥檛 want to do normal intern things or filing or doing very basic administrative tasks.鈥�
Smaller, start-up companies seem more willing to take on experienced interns who can offer insight from their previous career path, Berger says.
When he applied for an internship at Babyboomers.TV, Aaron Grossman told his tale in his cover letter. Laid off from his market-research job in May 2008 and after 鈥渁 dark period of job searching,鈥� Mr. Grossman, 58, was ready to try something new.
His story made a lasting impression. Out of 100 applicants, he was selected to be one of four interns in April. Every day, Grossman works from his home office in New York, writing articles for the website. Interning, he says, has allowed him to pursue his passion 鈥� writing 鈥� full time.
But following his passion hasn鈥檛 been easy. Grossman, once the breadwinner of the family, faces an uncertain future while his wife works full time.
鈥淚t鈥檚 uncertain as to whether this is going to evolve into a full-time job,鈥� he says. But he is trying to remain optimistic. At the completion of his internship, full-time positions will be offered to three of the four interns. He hopes to be one of them.
Interning has also been difficult for Fernandez. Though her husband works full time, and she is able to obtain free-lance work on the side, she says the unpaid work has been 鈥渁 challenge鈥� because New York City is so expensive. Still, she sees the internship as a way to boost her r茅sum茅.
鈥淚 just love the idea of being able to get an opportunity only students get,鈥� she says. It鈥檚 an 鈥渙pportunity to learn how to translate my print media skills into digital media skills. I really just see the upside.鈥�
