Life As An Intern During Post-Bailout America
Hello. My name is Scott, and I’m an intern.
It all happened so fast. After moving to Portland, Ore., in April, I landed a job at a restaurant, while continuing to pursue an internship in the agency world. By June, I landed the quintessential position: a paid PR internship with a prominent Portland-area advertising agency. All was going according to plan. The restaurant was constantly busy and the internship provided the perfect wages to set aside into my savings.
As autumn approached, the leaves began to droop along with the stock market. Because my restaurant is a seasonal establishment situated on a lake, the steady crew of lake-goers dissipated. After getting called off every shift this past week, I realized it’s time to quit my restaurant job and find a different one. But where? Who in their right mind is hiring at this point in our economy’s downturn? Oregon lost 17,300 jobs in the last two months. Less people are eating out. My confidence in finding a job in the food service industry is waning.
My current position with the ad agency stays strong, but interning during an economic crisis makes you feel expendable, for purely budgetary reasons. If clients discontinue services, the money stops rolling in. Who needs support-level employees if there’s nothing left to support?
While living rent-free with the ‘rents, like a number of Millennials seem to do, I’m privileged that most of my money is staying intact, considering I wouldn’t be able to rent with the wages I’m not bringing in. As part of one of the largest uninsured populations in America, my yet-to-be-extracted wisdom teeth do a painstaking double-take every time I hear how worse the economy is getting, paired with how awful our health care system has become. While no full-time job (and benefits) seems to be in sight, I realize that my complaints are one of many among a nation of people plagued by the same, if not worse, conditions I’m experiencing.
On the upside, not all is lost for the nation’s employment pool. Those “green-collar” jobs Obama and others keep mentioning have finally made tangible headway into Oregon’s job market. With the skill set already in place from the survivors of the semiconductor industry, I believe Oregon is going to lead the nation in solar cell manufacturing. Portland is already the “greenest” city according to several publications (and even eastern nations). While I have no intention to join the manufacturing workforce, I think living in Oregon for the next five years (at least) is going to be a stimulating time for the economy, the environment, and the state’s overall morale.
John Krasinski Intern Story