Door #1 or Door #2?

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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2004-03-04

Door #1 or Door #2?
Intern somewhere and don't burn bridges

By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography

If having no internship for the upcoming summer is Suck City, then the flip side of that equation is having two internship offers for the same summer.

This experience does not happen for every intern-seeking photographer. However, it happens to excellent photographers often enough to be an issue.

The situation is easy enough to understand. Students get several portfolios in circulation. Sometimes Jupiter aligns with Mars and bingo, two offers come the student's way.

The timing for this phenomenon often happens in one of two ways.

Case #1
The first is after a student has accepted internship #1 and is all set to go to Lawrence, KS for the summer. The deal is sealed, the student can stop worrying about their summer.

Then the second offer comes, say from Baton Rouge, LA. Here is an offer from a larger paper, in the South where the student has an interest in working, and yes, it even pays more money.

What to do?

A key principle aspiring photographers want to become familiar with is one called, "Don't Burn Bridges."

The two-internship dilemma is a classic bridge-burning opportunity.

Most professionals would remind the photographer they had already accepted the Lawrence, KS offer. The photographer has given his or her word.

True, for this individual in particular, the Baton Rouge deal looks better in many ways. It is tempting to bail on Kansas and go to Cajun Country.

An interim step might be to ask the Baton Rouge editors if the photographer can come at the completion of the Kansas internship. Sometimes editors will wait or will invite another person to intern now

However everybody has to make their own choices in these situations where two possibilities are on the table. Again, many pros would counsel the photographer against bailing out on Kansas. It is just not good ethical behavior to go back on a promise like this.

If the photographer does cancel Kansas for Louisiana, then this person needs to realize they have officially, willfully, consciously burned a bridge in Kansas. At least in that small town, they will be remembered, and probably not in the most flattering way.

And in this profession, there is a good chance word will get around about this incident. Journalism, and photojournalism especially, is a small world. These kinds of stories travel. Names are noted.

Case #2
The second way two offers come to an aspiring photographer are when a student has one offer they are considering, and the second one arrives before the student has promised publication #1 they are coming.

Now the photographer has to weigh the two offers, including the location, pay, quality of the photography and editing staff, prestige of each publication, and so on.

Sometimes the photographer has to juggle when they accept or decline one of the two offers. They may have one offer, and be a finalist-with a decision to come in a couple days-at publication #2. Getting editors to wait while another publication, one possibly more attractive to the aspiring photographer, makes a decision can test an entry-level photographer's diplomatic skills.

Often for the photographer with two offers, it is a case where they probably cannot make a bad decision. Each publication will have its pros and cons. Both offer a chance to shoot, to grow, to be coached.

And frankly there are times when great offers simply have to be passed over. A recent winner of a major college competition was offered an internship at one of the finest publications in the East. Circumstances were such for this foreign student's visa status that immediate employment was the issue, not an additional internship. The student turned down the major internship offer in favor of immediate employment following graduation. A rare situation, perhaps, but a relevant one.

Bottom line: Intern somewhere and don't burn bridges.

Photographers, particularly those in school or seeking to break into the photojournalism, are welcome to send ideas for future columns to Jim McNay at jim.mcnay@brooks.edu.

Questions about getting started in photojournalism that might be answered in future columns are also welcome.

Related Links:

Jim McNay's Member Page

Brooks NPPA Student Chapter

Brooks Institute of Photography

Related Email Addresses:

Jim Mcnay: jim.mcnay@brooks.edu