About two months ago over at One Day, One Job, we wrote an article about finding jobs by watching tv. You shouldn’t be surprised that we practice what we preach and use the tube for internship searching as well. We’re big fans of Top Chef and watch its new episodes every week. We like it because we learn new cooking techniques, but also because it’s a reality show that rewards people for being talented, not for being jerks. Though we sometimes completely zone out in front of the tv, we do our best to pay attention and keep an eye out for internship ideas. The most recent episode of Top Chef featured Common Threads, a non-profit organization that educates children on the importance of nutrition and physical well-being and fosters an appreciation of cultural diversity through cooking. We made a mental note on Wednesday night, and here we are on Saturday morning writing about them.
Although the Top Chef fans probably already know, Common Threads is a Chicago based organization that offers free cooking classes and summer camps to kids who are 8 to 12 years old and qualify for free or reduced price school lunches. By teaching these kids to cook, Common Threads helps students and their families become healthier, more cultured, and more economical in their food buying decisions. It’s amazing that a few free lessons can do so much for children, but it really is empowering for a young child to prepare a meal for his or her entire family.
How can you be a part of Common Threads’ good work? You can volunteer, or you can consider a job with them. The difficulty with finding internship prospects on television is that the research can be a little more difficult, and the likelihood of finding an actual internship opening can be quite low. Still, you’ll never know if you don’t look. In fact, it’s a serious possibility that you can convince a company or organization to hire you as an intern (especially if you don’t mind going unpaid) even though they never offered internships publicly.
If you’re going to do this, your first contact is essential. Don’t just ask whether they offer internships, but tell the potential employer why they need you as an intern (and also why you need them to give you a learning experience). This is a scary thing to do because the risk of rejection is quite high, but the possible reward is worth it (plus it’s May, and if you don’t take risks now, your going to spend the summer hearing your parents tell you how lazy you are). Now is the time to suck it up, read another of our articles from One Day, One Job on cold calling, and approach Common Threads (or another employer) about an unlisted internship opportunity.
Common Threads has made it easy for you to apply for an internship by including a field in their contact form for employment inquiries. Just because they don’t say anything about hiring interns doesn’t mean that they won’t consider creating an internship just for you.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
Do you watch Top Chef? Who do you think is going to win?
Do I Know Anyone at Common Threads? - Check LinkedIn | Check Facebook
Tags: food, Illinois, Internships, non-profit
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