i infrequently still question whether it was a good or bad move to forego interning while i was in college. ultimately, i tend to think i made the right choice in not doing so. while i learned loads of important concepts and theories, and applications of them (with the courses including having to actually "do it" rather than just write about it on a test), from my classes, i can say i really didn't have time for an internship because i devoted all my free time to playing and recording my own music. i tend to think that this combination is plenty good, assuming an education as good as that which they provide at columbia. i think the task of producing the highest-quality recordings you can with total crap equipment, well only makes it easier when you have a chance to work with good equipment. assuming you get to work with good equipment at school, like i did.
so this all makes me think that having a generic "internship" wouldn't have been as beneficial to me as just going to school and spending all my free time actually recording on my own.
but as far as an internship at *electrical*, though i know nothing about them, i would expect this to be *way* beyond valuable. based solely on the amount of sharing (vis a vis education) that electrical does though this site alone, it makes me tend to think that interning there would be an experience overflowing with benefits, knowledge, etc.
plus, and again i don't know if i have this all wrong, don't interns on occasion get a chance to use the studio to record their own band, for no charge, just the cost of tape and the promise to put everything back where they got it in as-good-or-better condition than they found it, etc? i dunno if electrical does that, but i've heard of that as being a nice benefit of interning at other studios. that's kinda like getting paid, i think. not having to pay money to buy all that expensive gear, or to rent the room, but just getting to use it some night when nothing's going on, or everybody's off at somebody's wedding, etc? fuck yeah, i'd love a shot at that, in a balls-out studio anyways.
all that being said, unless i could intern for someone with mad, mad skillz and a cool personality, i think i'd just as soon spend all my time doing it on my own. cause at least then i'd be playing music at the same time, progressing in that arena rather than the wonderful world of dish-washing.
but g,
To speak of respect....if a company values the labor that an intern can provide, they should be compensated justly.
one way to look at it is this:
i paid tens of thousands of dollars for a kick-ass education in all things audio, including live and studio recording. i do not doubt for one second that i got my money's worth. the internship, especially at a place with good people who have hefty skills, doesn't cost you tens of thousands of dollars. it costs you some elbow grease, some leg work, and maybe an occasional handjob if somebody's a little too drunk and belligerent.
but i expect that both the great college education and the great internship probably present the student with a similar wealth of knowledge and experience. but in one case, you gotta do some shitwork to get that schooling. do shitwork, or pay tens of thousands of dollars... which one do you think an underprivlidged person is better off doing?
yeah, yeah, fallacy of limited alternatives, what about "read books on your own, read articles, spend all your (modest amount of) money on gear, spend all your time recording, etc..."
one thing an internship presents that books and personal time spend self-educating certainly do not is the opportunity to become real-world familiar with some of the actual people in the industry... spending time having face-to-face conversations with guys like steve or bob, or getting coffee for some fucking killer bands that record there, these are in my estimation some of the most valuable experiences one could hope for as a 20-year-old looking to make a move in the rock world.
to spend four months hanging out (to whatever extent) with the staff and bands at electrical, i mean, c'mon. i'm making fine money in my career now, and i'd *still* spend an hour washing fucking dishes if it meant i could spend an hour having conversations with steve or bob in their downtime. wouldn't you? i don't mean this as pandering, though it always feels like it would appear as such to say, but since i see it as fact... i really believe that just getting the chance to ask one fucking question of someone who's both as accomplished and as busy as these guys, and getting an answer, the value of that is immeasurable. based solely on the wealth of *GOOD* information i've gotten from this site (which they maintain and offer at no charge to members), i feel like i should go wash some of their dishes already, y'know?
shit, i guess this all well-speak of internships presupposes an opportunity to intern at electrical or some other electrical-caliber studio, too, which is probably not anything like the norm. interning at some shitbox studio would not likely carry these same benefits.
and one thing you might want to weigh in when you view internships as exploitation... in an industry like recording, i'll betcha there's a whole lot more people that wanna work in the fancy studio than there are fancy studios struggling to find people to work there. it's an employers market. at that point, if you're trying to get your "big break" into the industry, maybe you put on your gratitude hat and fucking suck it up for a little while. the idea that things should just be handed to us with minimal effort on our parts is something that i think will ultimately be our downfall, "us" being post-WWII americans.
now this is making me want to open up a thread about the whole concept of working in a studio that isn't on the top of the heap, and how many total absolute suckfest piece of shit bands you'll have to record simply because they're the ones willing to give you some money. or maybe a poll for folks who've worked in recording studios, whether the total package is more or less similar to their ideal that they went in with...
here's what they say at the company i work for... maybe you spend some of your free time reading up on industry stuff, maybe you take some classes and pay for them yourself, maybe you work a few hours and don't bill for them, sometimes you bite the bullet and do what looks like screwing yourself in the short-term, because you have the foresight to recognize that ultimately it's an investment in your future.
i couldn't manage that thought process for shit when i was in college, which is part of why i never interned. the other part is that i was fortunate enough to be extremely internally motivated to play and record music on my own, so i didn't suffer any for it.
so to get on topic with this thread, after all of that off-topic nonsense...
The question is: Should the intern buy a present for the business owner/his boss/internship coordinator or should the boss be the one buying the present?
What do YOU think?
i think that nobody "should" buy a present.
i think the employer could, if they felt compelled to, maybe give you a funny hat, or a tshirt if they want, maybe one that says "this isn't a bald spot, it's a solar panel for a sex machine".
and you could give them something for the studio itself, something that would be memorable and durable, and would benefit most if not all of the folks who roll through. for your consideration : the studio i used to live in back in the late 90's was given a gift of this caliber... one year's worth of AVN magazines. i don't think a single person who rolled through after that would not be able to distinctly recall the first time they saw a picture of Chance Rider.