Category Archives: Internships

Why intern? To explore your career options, gain on-the-job training, find a mentor. . . and get out of the classroom and into the world. Berklee’s Office of Experiential Learning offers the chance for students to connect college curriculum with the day-to-day music industry. Here interns and their supervisors share what it’s really like.

Adriel Tjokrosaputro: Finding the “Right” Internship for You: Timing

Adriel Tjokrosaputro, a fifth semester Music Business student interning with Warner Music in Indonesia, shares his thoughts on taking charge of the internship search process and how he secured an overseas internship

After countless internship applications, face-to-face interviews, and phone discussions, it has come to my attention that many internship sites in the U.S. like to do this thing that I often call “The Limbo.” This means that after the interviews, even though they promised to inform me the week after, they did not give me neither acceptance nor rejection. To those who I followed up with, they simply responded, “At this point, we have not made our decisions…” Some even did not follow up with me for two months.

This was made worse by the fact that I was rejected for my dream internship in Washington, D.C. with one of the largest live show promoters in the world.The internship matches well with my career goal, the interviewer is very respectful, and the whole program was just fantastic. Unfortunately, after three rounds of interviews, it became apparent that I did not fulfill the criteria the best compared to the others. Continue reading →

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Valerie Teicher: Whittling Down Career Options

Berklee Blogs introduces Valerie Teicher, a Music Business major and spring intern, as she begins her internship at BMG Chrysalis, a rights management company representing publishing and recording rights, as well as at The Windish Agency, an independent NYC booking agency serving musicians, bands and DJs. In today’s blog, Valerie explains how her internships have helped her focus her future career…

As both of my internships are nearing their end, there seems to be a little bit of a lull in terms of my work load. I think this is normal, as large projects and commitments would be hard to throw my way knowing that I will be leaving in a couple of weeks. There have been a few days this past week where I have had very little work to do, and a lot of time on my hands. At times this has been discouraging, and it has been hard to stay motivated, especially knowing that in a couple of weeks I will no longer be here, and job prospects are not likely. However, I have really enjoyed my time at both of these places and am excited for the next chapter ahead, so I suppose my motivation may be shifting from these particular internships, and more towards the unknown future ahead—I guess that must be normal as well!

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Gabrielle Thornley: Cause for Celebration…

Berklee Blogs introduces Gabrielle Thornley, a Professional Music major and spring intern, as she begins her internship with The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company that provides the largest repository of music data in the world for app developers. In today’s blog, Gabrielle illustrates Echo Nest’s work hard, play hard mentality…

The Annual Echo Nest Mustachio Bashio turned out to be a huge success and the best celebration yet, according to employees. After lunch was delivered that Friday afternoon, the music began blasting throughout the office, signaling the end of the work day, despite the fact that it was only one o’clock.

As soon as “Eye Of The Tiger” started playing, the office door of the company’s founder flew open, spilling clouds of fog. He emerged from the room pushing the beloved trophy, that was taller than me. The office broke out into a burst of cheers and clapping. We spent the next hour watching the hilarious skits performed by the men of the office and I had the honor of being chosen to be the official announcer. Afterwards, the ladies were forced to pick only three winners, earning the men trophies and a year’s worth of bragging rights. The choice was difficult, but a big congratulations to the winners! Continue reading →

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Devin Wojtanek: Internship while on Lockdown

Berklee Blogs introduces Devin Wojtanek, a Music Business major and spring intern, as he begins his internship with Indie Ambassador, the team behind presskit.to, a portfolio web app designed to enhance communication within the professional music & entertainment industries. In today’s blog, Devin gives us an intern’s perspective on the recent marathon bombings and learning while on lockdown…

Writing this today, I would like to be able to talk about all the progress Indie Ambassador, as well as myself, have made over the past two weeks. Quite unfortunately though that would be difficult, as within the past two weeks, I have only made it into work once. There’s no “good” time for your city to be put on lockdown.

The last time I did make to Charlestown, it was a pleasant day, warmer than we’ve been used to lately. It was a very relaxed, just coming off a successful stint of meetings with Berklee, I spent the better part of the day dog-sitting our office dog Henry (most enjoyable), as I was continuing online research for companies. My most recent assignments have been a little broader and less specific. It’s mostly self-directed research online, looking for other music companies, whether potential partners or competitors, and taking notes. Our SXSW online radio station was so successful that IA has decided to carry on the station indefinitely, playing old and new sessions. Thus, I’ve been researching other online radio stations, seeing what they do best, and imagining what a successful station for IA would look like. Continue reading →

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Gabrielle Thornley: Round Two?

Berklee Blogs introduces Gabrielle Thornley, a Professional Music major and spring intern, as she begins her internship with The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company that provides the largest repository of music data in the world for app developers. In today’s blog, Gabrielle tells us her thoughts on possibly extending her internship experience…

As my time at the Echo Nest winds down, I realize just how much I’m going to miss this experience in it’s entirety. I’m strongly considering continuing my internship with the Echo Nest next Fall in order to increase my chances of a job offer in the future. Over a bottle of wine, I talked to my supervisor, Michelle, about her start in the company. It’s reassuring to know that at one point, she was also a QA/Marketing Intern, just like myself.

This week, the Echo Nest is working with a large computer software technology corporation. Although the interns have not been told the reason the company needs our data, we have definitely been working hard to make sure it is as accurate as possible, meaning my week has consisted of spreadsheet, after spreadsheet, after more spreadsheets. Hopefully we’ll be finding out soon what role we play in the development of this deal and how the Echo Nest will benefit! Continue reading →

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