"Older Types Should Try Interning With Them"

I was flying today and my ADD needed more than my iPod so I turned to the in-flight magazine where I found a piece by Spirit Magazine editorial director Jay Heinrichs titled Reverse Internships all about how older people have a lot to learn from young people. Also, given the White House's Jobs Summit, I thought a piece on jobs, internships, etc.. might be a good way to get the ball rolling.

The idea came from the writer's daughter who, it turns out, has picked up all sorts of skills having to do with, you guessed it, online media and marketing which has helped her have more of a grasp on how to better utilize the internet to distribute communications and messages. This, the editor decided, was marvelous, because magazines and traditional media have now become "old media."

His solution for any other older person still in the business world but still hasn't figured this out yet, is to begin with interns.

"Sure, kids have much to learn from the elders. In my own business of magazines, for instance, it's nearly impossible to qualify for an editorial job without at least one internship. This is true for most professions. Education only takes a kid so far; after that its a matter of learning by doing. . .

"Instead of hiring young people as interns at our offices, we older types should try interning with them. Kids simply do some things better. Anyone with a 12-year-old knows who solves the family computer problems. The next social trend, the new new tech thing: These are mostly the bailiwick of the young."

Heinrichs' terrific idea part two is to utilize technology to give more internship opportunities to young people through distance internships.

"What if we hired young whizzes as consultants and communicated with them via some youth-friendly technology? (my suggestion: Like the internet). Fly them in at the beginning and end the contract - which, because of the remote nature, could last as long as one year - or, better yet, fly to them. The kids benefit from the experience, and you get cheap work in a field you know nothing about. In other words, while students bear the title of intern, you're the real apprentice."

Condescension and unrealistic salary requirements aside, this is actually something I've been doing with one of my clients for the past year. Our client is in Oklahoma, a pretty rural state, and located in the city's capitol. This shouldn't prevent young people from being able to help out, intern, build their resume, and experience, and be advocates in their own home towns. The difference here is that my distance intern is in high school, not a college graduate.

Which brings me to the unrealistic salary requirements. With an unemployment rate twice the rate of the national average for 18-29 year olds, and the average debt load post-graduation over $20,000, the idea of working for nothing is a fantasy of Mr. Heinrichs' generation. Young people can't afford to work for free.

Further, these ideas aren't new. Newspapers across the country are crumbling with the emergency of new technologies and new media bringing people their news. Papers are clamoring for young people who can come in and introduce these technologies to save them, and the young people that are good at this can generally get a pretty good deal.

While, Mr. Heinrichs is right to emphasis the importance of internships, the usefulness of being an editorial director's intern is falling more into the era of the big box television, I would instead suggest turning to a mainstream blog for experience. Think Talking Points Memo, OpenLeft, Media Matters, etc.. That can get you both the new media experience as well as the connectivity to the blogosphere. Experience is essential, but it has to be in a field that is going places. For the older people who need these skills I think you should consider paying young people what they're worth.