[MANILA, PHILIPPINES] -- In case you didn't already know, I spent my winter break over in Manila working as an intern at STATUS Magazine. If you're not from around the area, don't worry too much about not knowing what STATUS is. In a nutshell, it's an independent arts and youth culture journal based in the Philippines that features a ton of musicians, actors, breakthrough artists to say the least, and of course their share of fashion, beauty and other usual magazine stuff.

It was absolutely wonderful working with the crew, even if it was only for a couple of months, and my experience there is one I'll look back on fondly. It's already May and I still can't stop talking about my internship. I had this post uploaded on a separate blog a couple of months ago, but I figured it'd be nice to spread it around on here as well, just in case. So if you live around the Manila area and are looking for something to do on the side, read on. 

THE INTERVIEW

This was definitely the scariest part of the whole thing. I've never really been good at them, and this being my first ever "real job" interview made it even more nerve-wracking. Make sure you walk in with a copy or two of your résumé (which you'll have to submit via email before the interview, by the way), dress appropriately (but nothing too formal! It's a casual environment after all), and get ready to be drilled with questions.

THE FIRST WEEK

I was notified the day after my interview by Rita, the editorial assistant who's in charge of all the interns, and I went in for my very first day (!!!!) the next week. After being introduced to everyone in the office, I was put straight to work. I wrote my first blog post that day. The cool thing is that I was allowed to write about anything I wanted. But they needed to approve it first, of course. I know it's not really that big of a deal since I have a blog myself, but it was wildly satisfying and exciting to be published under a recognized name. And people actually liked what I had to say!

On my next day of work I was sent to do something called pull-outs with the fashion assistant. It's the craziest thing where we go into stores and basically pull out clothes and accessories we might want to use for an upcoming shoot. For someone who has a slight addiction to shopping, this was the greatest thing I've ever had to do. It's shopping for free! I mean, you have to return all the stuff back after a couple of days, but still...

THE WORK

So yeah. You write at least one blog a day. The most I've ever had to do was six in a day. You do pull-outs and returns. Look for photos for the website's Photo Diary. And write for the magazine ;) ooohh yesss. You'll write for the magazine as an intern. Most of the time it'll be small snippets and blurbs here and there, like short summaries of books or something about the latest collection of a brand, but sometimes you'll end up with half pagers and, after working for a couple of months, even full pagers.

And I can't forget about the events. Next to the pull-outs, events are the second most fun. At press events, you get to go see the latest releases of collections and brands. Get your photo taken, have free food, and meet the most interesting and accomplished people. 

THE PEOPLE

Everyone at the STATUS headquarters is extremely passionate about what they do and they're all very close to each other. No worries cause they're all very nice and are willing to answer all your questions. As I mentioned above, you'll meet lots of people when you're out at events. Take advantage of that and put yourself out there!

THE CONS 

You're working full days so the hours are long. You will be edited to death--it's their magazine so it's their final say. It gets frustrating sometimes but it is what it is. Some days are dull and sometimes you spend it staring at the computer screen. And lastly, not really a con, but no one is going to look after you. It's obviously not a daycare. People are there to do their jobs! You can ask your questions but you're really on your own. 

OVERALL

I went into the internship not knowing anything about the publishing world. Now that I'm out, I'm so glad that I took a chance and did what I did over the break. I learned a lot and was definitely pushed out of my comfort zone in both writing and socially.

Definitely check it out. It's worth it, and even if you don't think you'll learn anything it'll be fun :) I know this was an extremely long post, and had nothing to do with Seoul, but I know when I was looking into interning, it was difficult to find any information about the position. I wanted to put everything I know out there. Good luck!