Last summer, I had the pleasure of working for the Joplin Blasters, an American Association baseball team. I was pumped. This was something I had wanted to do for a long time, and I had the high hopes that it would help me get my foot in the door for something spectacular after graduation.
The downside? I was an unpaid intern.
Don't get me wrong, my internship was great. We got to see the inner workings on a new baseball team and have a pretty great time along the way. We laughed, we joked and we got soaked with that good Missouri rain almost the entire first month of work. But, we weren't making money. In fact, many of us had a second job on the days when we weren't with the baseball team.
In a world where everyone is money hungry, and where paid internships are becoming more and more common, don't overlook that unpaid internship. You'll be learning valuable skills, and more times than not these are the people who are going to care the most about your future and who want to help you along the way. I'm not going to tell you that everything about it is fun because we did spend our days pulling the tarp onto and off of the field, putting up pavilion tents and shagging home run balls during batting practice, but what we learned made up for it.
The unpaid internship is worth the struggle of not making as much money as you're used to. Going into this internship with an open mind changed my mindset and allowed me to see what potential career there were for me in the future regardless of my degree.
Don't knock it until you try it, and be open to anything, especially if you're looking for job experience. Being open-minded can lead to a world of possibilities and some of the best internships you never knew you were looking for. There's a lot of hard work and a lot of dirty work, but in the end, you walk away with something you never knew you needed.
If you're seeking an internship, make sure to explore your possibilities and don't limit yourself because you think you can't do something.
It's not glamorous, but it's worth it.
