When Lauren Berger was an undergraduate, she completed not one or two, but 15 different internships at companies including NBC, Fox and MTV. She later used her experiences to brand herself as the Intern Queen, starting a website to provide college students with free internship listings in the entertainment, public relations, journalism and marketing industries. Berger will be speaking at UCLA on Monday in an event organized by Campus Events Commission. She spoke to the Daily Bruin’s Marjorie Yan about her internship experiences, how Intern Queen was born and what students can expect from her upcoming talk.
Daily Bruin: What did you initially want to do before starting the Intern Queen site?
Lauren Berger: I am from Florida, and I graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2006. I would come to New York, to L.A. every summer to intern. Most of (the internships) were in public relations, magazine writing, communications or entertainment. My major in college was organizational business communications, (a) fancy name for communications. When I moved out to Los Angeles after graduating, my first job was at Creative Artists Agency for two years. I was interested in entertainment and branding and marketing at the time. It’s funny because what I do now as the CEO of Intern Queen is basically combine a lot of those different industries.
DB: What was your very first internship that you did and what would you say you learned from it?
LB: I still remember my first one. It was at an agency that was a national advertising and public relations firm, so that’s really where I went from being a student obsessed with marketing and going out all the time to a person that was extremely focused on my career and future.
DB: How did you intern so often while being in Florida?
LB: I would do internships year-round while in Florida and then two or three internships (during) the summer while living in L.A. or New York. Since most of my internships were unpaid, like most still are, they only required 12 to 15 hours per week so I would just do certain internships on certain days of the week.
DB: Why did you feel like you needed to do so many internships while in college?
LB: Fifteen is a lot of internships and nobody needs to do 15, but I do recommend that students have two or three internships on their resumes before they graduate from college. I just really enjoyed the internship experiences. It was something that was different from what I was experiencing inside the classroom. I just had the best time and learned so much about myself and the professional world.
DB: What sparked your interest in starting it, the site?
LB: I found that when I was in school that there was a lack of internship resources. I wanted to create one free destination where students could apply and make the most of their opportunities.
DB: How do you feel that the internships helped you get where you are now as owner of this site?
LB: It’s instrumental in getting me to where I am today. When I want to work with anyone, I call people that I know from my internship contacts. I speak to my contacts, and they still help me in my business years and years later. Most students take on internships so they can decide on whether it is a career choice for them and to go into a company and to be able to decide eight to 10 weeks later is a big deal. When you graduate from school and you go into that job interview, the first question is going to be, “Where did you intern?” and you should have that experience on your resume. That internship will lead you closer to the job you want.
DB: What can students expect from your presentation at UCLA?
LB: I am going to come to UCLA, and I am just going to rock the student body. I will get them so pumped, energized and motivated to not only get internships but to take the necessary steps to land them. I hope they’ll leave the presentation confident and have learned how to make the most of their opportunity. I’m connected with some of the best entertainment, fashion, PR, marketing and graphic design companies that there are, not only in Los Angeles but also in New York and other places in the country and around the world.