Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan: Making the most out of 'heavy lifting'

My most awkward moment of the summer came courtesy of an internship at Chicago magazine. I was a fact-checker, meaning that I had to go over soon-to-be-published articles with a fine-tooth comb to make sure everything was correct. Most of the time the work was no problem, but on my first day there I was, assigned a piece about a local scholar who had just translated a new version of the Kama Sutra. You know how internships are supposed to teach you valuable life lessons? Lesson one: asking a stranger questions about the location of the G-spot over the phone while desperately trying not to be overheard by your brand-new colleagues can catapult you to new levels of embarrassment. It's about the time of year again when internship-hunting becomes a featured sport on college campuses. Our inboxes are flooded with one can't-miss opportunity after another, and we can hardly turn around without hitting another r‚sum‚ workshop. For the even slightly career-minded among us, finding an internship is the thing to do. I don't deny that an internship can be a truly amazing experience. Some people find positions that expand their horizons, set them on the career fast track and line their pockets nicely. Those people are lucky. The rest of us would do well to understand that an internship isn't always the best choice. Despite what advocates say, you probably will make it after graduation even if you don't find that dream position right now. Waiting tables or painting houses does not make you a slacker, and sacrificing a summer's worth of earnings to take an unpaid internship shouldn't have to be a rite of passage. Judging from my highly scientific poll of some friends of mine as well as my own experiences, there are some common features of the internship that any would-be intern should know. There are, of course, some advantages. A great thing about internships is that they let you intimately observe the field. While I worked for Chicago magazine, I was able to see the entire process of publication all around me, from weekly editorial meetings to the break room code of conduct. Immersion in the culture is a great way to test your interest in a career -- and isn't it better to discover you actually hate environmental public policy now rather than after you graduate with a degree in it? The savvy intern can also make some pretty useful contacts and practice the fine art of networking. We've all heard often it's who you know, not what you know, that opens doors nowadays, so making the right friends could be a boon in your future hunt for a "real job." But perhaps the biggest reason we yearn after internships is the fact that they look so good on a r‚sum‚. For whatever reason, employers have succeeded in setting themselves up quite nicely with this internship concept. They can get their dirty work done without spending a dime, while fresh-faced, eager college kids toil away in exchange for an impressive reference. Somehow it doesn't seem quite fair, but we do it in droves anyway. An unpaid internship is certainly a sacrifice, and unfortunately, not always a worthwhile one. You're probably not going to be doing anything remotely important for your employer -- make sure you get an honest description of your duties. Otherwise, you could be stuck making endless copies, shuffling papers or -- as one of my former applications mentioned casually -- doing a lot of "heavy lifting." Even if you land a fairly good position, you may be forced to do a lot of, well, nothing. A friend of mine with an enviable spot as a White House intern even admitted there were hours devoid of any tasks at all, however menial. I could relate, as a considerable chunk of my internship was spent waiting for people to return my phone calls. When idly surfing the Internet got boring, I'd calculate how much tuition money I could have been making at Dairy Queen. Bottom line: there's no need to worry too much about finding that perfect internship. Sure, it can be educational and enlightening and fun, but you're not going to be doomed to a second-rate career without one. As much as some people push the internship thing, sometimes it's just not smart to make your parents take out a second mortgage so you can afford to live in New York City and file papers for free. Chicago magazine was a good experience, but this year my sights are set on something more like, well, Dairy Queen. At least I'll get a paycheck. And I'll never ever have to talk about the Kama Sutra. Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan is a junior communications major from Wheaton, Ill.

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