Comments on: Is the SEM Intern Today’s Apprentice?

By: This Week in Search Marketing Staffing - 8/4/08

This Week in Search Marketing Staffing - 8/4/08 — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:15:28 +0000

[...] Their inaugural intern, Courtney Nelson, has questioned the definition of an intern in her post, Is the SEM Intern Today’s Apprentice? Courtney sought out the advice of the many of the industry’s experts to try and define [...]

By: Courtney

Courtney — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:22:41 +0000

@ thinkingSage

Thanks for the comment. I agree that college is feeling less useful when the industry is moving so fast. I would just prefer that internships were more paid and less unpaid.

By: thinkingSage

thinkingSage — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:14:39 +0000

For years now I’ve considered paid/unpaid internships to be the modern re-emergence of Apprenticeship to a craft.

Anyone who can sign up for a few loans can get a college degree — so it is effectively worthless (or at best, a baseline). It is no indicator of talent or skill in a prospective profession. Companies and experienced businesspeople know this and start treating graduates like the new modern version of the 14-year-old-boy brought to the Faire to choose (or be chosen in) a Trade Guild.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:18:29 +0000

@ SEO Company Pune

Thanks for the support. I hope that work my ways up to the top as fast as I can.

@ Danny Dover

Thanks for the hope! I wish that I get a hired after this internship. I just think that all internships are basically apprenticeships being called by a different name.

@ Erin

I am finding that this job is not as much of an internship as a job. I like that I am treated more like a co-worker than the coffee gopher. I hope that you are right about training and keeping employees because my friend in other industries are having problems finding a job right now.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:07:57 +0000

@ Blake Imeson

Thanks for the response. Internships are “challenging” but I think we both agree they are worth it. Maybe you and I will be as lucky as Danny Dover and actually get hired!

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:08:23 +0000

Nice post. My SEO ‘internship’ quickly turned into a 35 hour a week/year long gig while taking a full course load of classes. I also think this industry thrives on training people who want to do this and then keeping them — where as some of my friends in related industries are interns for only a few months and then the company moves on to find other interns. So uh, yay for us!

By: Danny Dover

Danny Dover — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:32:41 +0000

Great post, I enjoyed reading everyone’s different perspectives. I was the intern at SEOmoz for about 7 months this last year. Now I am working there full time. Maybe that made my internship an apprenticeship?

Great to hear your thoughts and let me know if I can help you with anything.

Danny

By: SEO Company Pune

SEO Company Pune — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:51:29 +0000

Being an intern is a challenging phase but an enriching one none the less…you start at the bottom and eventually work your way to the top. By the end of it, you have a fair idea of how the whole organization works.

By: Blake Imeson

Blake Imeson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:46:34 +0000

Good thoughts. I also am an intern at an SEO company and it is challenging, more so than training may have been in the past. But quite rewarding.

My internship is only 2.5 months, talk about condensed! :)