Lena Morris | Jan. 18, 2013
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| Photo by Lena Morris |
| Ron Eid of Bloom Magazine, left, and Kim Hannel of Indianapolis Monthly were two of Wednesday's panelists who offered tips for landing magazine internships. |
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That’s one reason Ed at Indiana, a student group interested in magazine careers, organized a panel discussion Wednesday evening featuring editors and students with magazine experience.
Speakers were Ron Eid of Bloom Magazine, Kim Hannel of Indianapolis Monthly, school Director of Career Services Marcia Debnam and junior Michela Tindera, editor of IU’s Inside Magazine. Ed at Indiana president Allison Berry moderated the talk, which was in Ernie Pyle Hall 214.
Students in the crowd of about 35 asked the panelists about ways to prepare for the search, from the ideal length of cover letters to tricks for grabbing a panelist’s attention.
“We can learn a lot from a cover letter and a resume,” Eid said. “We can tell if you’ve done your homework and whether you’re familiar with the magazine.”
Hannel said it’s crucial to research the company and personalize all the letters you send.
“Give me something that says this is not just a letter you send out to many different places,” she said.
Tindera, the editor-in-chief of Inside Magazine, said conducting research prior to applying and pointing out a specific article in her cover letter was what got her an internship at the Cincinnati City Beat last year.
“It turned out the person who hired me actually wrote the article,” she said, “so she was especially happy to see that.”
Eid and Hennel said they appreciate a straightforward and brief cover letter that gets straight to the point.
“We don’t have time to read a two page online letter about a childhood or a job working at a bowling alley in high school,” Eid said. “We want the relevant information.”
Eid and Hannel also shared the don’ts of cover letters, and said simple mistakes can lead to automatic rejection. For example, Bloom is a bimonthly magazine, and Eid said some applicants made the simple error of the magazine’s publication date.
“It lets me know that they don’t know much about the magazine,” he said, “and that’s going to be set aside pretty quickly.”
Throughout the semester, Debnam coaches students on topics such as cover letters, resumes and strategies for landing
internships. She said cover letters should never restate resumes but should show some of the applicant’s personality.
“Make your resume like the steak, but the cover letter like the sizzle,” she said.
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| Photo by Lena Morris |
| Hannel, right, and Eid, background, spoke one-on-one with several students after the program. Eid encouraged students to be persistent in finding the right internship. |
“Don’t see other interns as enemies or competitors,” she said. “Learn to respect and be able to take constructive criticism from anyone in the office.”
As an editor, Eid said if he could give advice to himself as an aspiring writer in the beginning of his career, he would say to stay persistent in his goals.
“Keep writing, submitting stories and story ideas,” he said. “Don’t be particular about the publication, and don’t treat rejection as a personal comment on your writing.”
Ed at Indiana is part of the national group, Ed on Campus, which helps magazine writers and editors network. It was founded by IU journalism alumna Chandra Czape Turner, BAJ'96, who now is editor of Parents magazine.
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