【有奖征文】My internship at National Geographic

白色机器人Eva

Many people asked me how I feel working for National Geographic Society.

Do you take pictures a lot of the lions, tigers or bears in Africa?Do you go to the forest in India a lot to document the behaviors of the birds? Do you do a lot of graphic design for the magazine? Do you swim with the sharks and dolphins in the ocean?

It seems that shooting pictures of thewildlife is a stereotype of National Geographic employees. I might disappoint you because I am not as cool as you imagine. But you might be interested in how an internship can change my perspective of the world.

1.   Background

I was an exchange student and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from a decent university in Midwest. My major is not as popular and practical as Computer Science and Engineering. It is not easy to get an internship or job in this season, no matter what majors you are in. Trust me. Everyone has a hard time before they settle down in one job or internship. For the geography internship program at Nat Geo there are around 7- 9 positions each semester, 21-27 per year. They received more than 900 applications for the program! ( I did not know so many students major in geography before this fact..) One entry level position for organizing the documents of the explorers program in the office received more than 255 applications when the position has open for one week. You have to be driven enough until you reach your goal.

The more you put your efforts into the job hunting, the more stressful you will feel before you get an offer. Before I got the internship at Nat Geo, I have applied more than 40 on-campus jobs and 50 internships. I did not get any on-campus jobs even though I tried very hard. I remember I cried a lot for feeling wasting time on looking for internships before I got the notification from Nat Geo. In the last semester of college, I have been so disappointed and frustrated about getting no response from companies.

2.   How to get the internship?

The first time I knew about the internship in Nat Geo is from the notice board in my department. There are two steps to apply for the internship. I filled theapplication online and mailed the required materials in a sealed envelope. For this internship I also needed to turn in three recommendation letters fromthe geography department.

Besides all the required materials listed on the recruitment letter, I also turned in one more recommendation letter, the pictures I took before and the digital copy of the college journal I participated in editing. The advice I can give is trying to prove that your personalitiesare matched the style of the company. After I started working on theinternship I got to know that the editors in the magazine department had various backgrounds. Not all of them graduated with a degree in graphic design orphotography. Some of them graduated with history of fine art, biology, or evenpolitical science. But they share the common interests in editing, journalism and photography.

Most importantly, I went to the career development center to visit my advisor three times, at least two hours each to discuss the application of the internship. She is very helpful and patient to help me modify and edit the cover letter, personal statement and resume. Before I left school for my internship in summer I asked her to have coffee together to thankher contributions to my application. Please do not be afraid of asking your advisors or professors to hang out with you out of classes. Most of them are very willing to give you excellent advices if you ask their help. See your advisors and professors as your friends and maintain good relationships with them.

Here in Nat Geo there are more than 80 interns during the summer.The rules of applying for my current position might not be the same as otherinterns. So please be careful of reading the descriptions of the positions withyour advisors at school. My position is paid but most of the interns here are unpaid.So please think about if you can afford to living in Washington DC.

3.   What is National GeographicSociety?

Mostof the departments are not as centerally attracted as the magazine department. I am working for the Education department where we got quite a few chances to travelto cities nearby. I spent most of my time in the office working on interactivemaps, spreadsheets and researches.

NatGeo is a huge company with thousands of employees, grantees and interns so do not expect you could be a leader of the projects in a big company. The process of making a map sold in the store takes at least 9 months. They have the demo version of the magazines at least 6 months earlier than they actually publish.

But it is a great place to get to know how a company runs and the organization’sperspective of the society. The HR invited some leaders in the organization and arranged awesome presentations for the interns so we can get to know what other department do. In summer it is free for us to attend the Explorers Symposium which is kind of like TED talks but more focuses on science, oceanology,biology, nature preservation, climate change, archeology, etc.. James Cameronis also one of the explorers at Nat Geo. In a word, you can meet lots of people whose names were on the front page of the newspaper in Nat Geo.

4.   What do you value most inyour internship?

1)      Getting involved in a friend circle

We have 9 interns in the geography internship program which provide a chance for us to become good friends. We work in the same office, have lunch together, go hiking and camping together, go out at the weekends together. At the end of the internship we opened our mind and talked about the problems in our relationships with our boyfriends and girlfriends, the most embarrassing things we did in college.Etc.

I did not expectwe could share a lot of moments together. It is a great chance to know how tomake friends with American if you want to stay in the country.

We also went camping and hiking together in a place without cell phone signals for threedays. The sun set in the wetland with gorgeous reflection on the water andbright color in the clouds. On the island we saw the whole shape of the Milky Way and identified the stars. (You could see the photos and videos on my weibo.)

2)      We have more options other than getting a desk job

We might think that going to Africa and shooting the films about lions are very far away from us but in fact going to the wildlife is very close to us. Nat Geo has a Young Explorers Grant to encourage people between 18 and 25to go out in the nature. A pair of brother and sister applied for the grant for their project in hiking more than 8,000 miles on the ice near the Arctic Ocean. The grants from Nat Geo are not limited to the citizens so everyone in the world can come and apply for the grants.

5.   Notes

I am not convincing people to be as faithful as I am in National Geographic. Nat Geo does not sponsor working visa but accept international students as interns or contractors. Despite that I still love this organization a lot.

I worked for Nat Geo for almost 4 months. At the end of the internship I can feel my life has been refreshed and refilled with new energy. Finally I can reach the agreement that getting something I love to do is more important than getting a decent paid desk job along with the working visa.

I am building my website to document my travelling in the summer and the coming fall. The internship opens a door for me to make a backup plan if I could not get a desk job. It helps me get rid of insecurity in job hunting. This is very important to lead my life to a better direction. And if we are brave enough, we could sail to a farther place where we never thought we could have abilities to go. As Mark Twain said: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't dothan by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safeharbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”.

Good luck on your sailing!

mytreeno

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