We’re big fans of Seth Godin. In case you don’t know who he is, he’s a marketing guru who happens to have his own action figure. If that’s enough to sell you on him, then you might want to take a look at some of the books he’s authored such as Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
When we saw that Seth Godin was offering a summer internship, we got excited for you – it doesn’t get better than this for a college student with an interest in marketing! After we settled ourselves down, we went over to Squidoo to read about the details of the internship. Our excitement continued as we read on. It’s open to college and high school students. There are 4 or 5 positions. And there’s a deposit required. Wait! What? We immediately knew what Seth was up to, but for most people this is an off putting idea. Seth knows how people work. If you offer the an opportunity like this internship (which is more of an educational experience than a job), there’s a good chance that someone will not show up, slack off, or just be a pain the butt. A deposit weeds those people out so that only the right people get access to the opportunity.
If anyone else served up this idea, we would be very skeptical, but coming from Seth made it seem legit. In his words, he wanted ” to combine the ‘you pay to come’ model of summer camp with the ‘we pay you to do low level work’ of an internship to create a learning experience for students that was, split the difference, free.” We get it. We kind of like it. But it still feels wrong to us, as it did to Seth’s friend Joel. Joel e-mailed Seth and got Seth to rethink this idea. Seth responded with this post, where he goes through his thought process and why he has now decided to pay his interns instead of charging a refundable deposit.
Seth is now offering $3,000 per month for college students, and $1,500 per month for high school students. That’s big money for an internship! The program with Seth runs from June 30th to July 21st, and then interns will be invited to work on Squidoo projects for the remainder of the summer. Here are the rest of the details. The offices are located in Hastings on Hudson, NY, which is a short train ride from New York City (the offices are within walking distance of the train stop). The hours are 10 AM to 5 PM (Seth clearly knows what interns want). And to apply, you must send an application in PDF format to seth@squidoo.com. What should you include in your application? Anything you want! Being creative is part of the application. The deadline for applications is April 2nd.
UPDATE: Apparently we didn’t emphasize being creative enough. Don’t send a resume! You’re more than just a list of accomplishments, so sell yourself! Seth says so.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
In case you were wondering, yes we wrote about Squidoo’s entry-level jobs on One Day, One Job.
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Tags: Internships, marketing, seth godin, squidoo
I’m not currently promoting any site. I have several, but promotion isn’t want I need. Just curious, was there a follow up with the interns?
I am very unhappy with Squidoo. I had worked very hard on some lenses, because they were easy to build. And, I made one showcasing my father’s art. I began to feel like I was a parrot advertising Squidoo/making Seth money. Especially, when they never responded to why they put my art lens in “the purple zone”. I couldn’t even edit the thing. I saved all my lenses/deleted my account with Squidoo.
I sure would like to see how much money goes to charity…they claim. It’s not a non profit org..So, they can do what they…Seth wants
Hi Tricia,
I haven’t heard anything about the interns. I think Seth might do an update after the Summer. I haven’t really used Squidoo, so I can’t answer your questions. I’m sure Seth would love to hear your thoughts. He’s a great guy, and he does things right. You can find his e-mail address on his blog (which is linked above). He has responded to my e-mails before, and I was just commenting on some of his posts. I’m sure he’ll reply to yours.
Seth just announced an apprenticeship. It’s not an internship, but it should be of interest to many of you.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/if-you-could-ch.html