This American Life internship application guidelines

About our internships:
This American Life is a weekly, nationally-distributed public radio program featuring documentaries, interviews and short stories. The show is produced in New York City by a full-time staff of six producers, an executive producer, an administrator and an intern.

This American Life is pleased to offer two six-month internships per year.

The internship program focuses on every facet of producing This American Life – from copyediting to technical production to administrative duties. The interns start off observing the weekly production of the show by sitting in on meetings and edits with producers while developing basic production skills. Interns are required to have experience with ProTools or similar digital tape editing software and are responsible for producing promos and short interviews. They will review unsolicited submissions, transcribe tape, learn to structure and mix a radio story, and perform assorted menial administrative tasks that are true signs of an internship. Interns participate in all story meetings and are encouraged to pitch story ideas and comment on future shows. By the end of the program, interns are encouraged to produce their own pieces, including editing and mixing voice, sound and music. The diversity of tasks depends largely on initiative and self-motivation.

Interns are provided a monthly stipend of $3,000, before taxes. Unfortunately we are unable to provide aid in terms of housing. We are committed to providing a stipend because the work hours are fairly long. We feed the show on Friday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern time every week, so as we get closer to the end of the week, the hours become longer. A typical work week varies between 50-60 hours. As a result, it is expected that this be the intern's only job during the six-month term. The next open term is as follows:

• The Fall 2008 terms starts July 1. Applications must be postmarked by April 1; decision by May 1.
• The Spring 2009 term starts January 1. Applications must be postmarked by October 1, 2008; decision by November 1.

To apply for the internship program, send a cover letter of no more than 500 words explaining why you should be selected to take part in the program and letting us know something about yourself and why you'd like to work in radio. We aren't looking for fan letters. We know you like the show and we appreciate it, but use the cover letter to tell us why we would appreciate you. You should include a resume and the names and phone numbers of at least two references whom we may contact. We ask that you also answer the questions below. Resumes and cover letters will not be acknowledged unless they come with a completed questionnaire. Interviews for finalists will be set up after the above materials are received.

Return answers to the following questions with your resume and cover letter to:

Internship: Fall or Spring (please indicate which term)
This American Life
153 West 27th Street, Suite 1104
New York, NY 10001

DO NOT EMAIL YOUR APPLICATIONS; WE WILL NOT ACCEPT THEM. ALSO, PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE TAL WEBSITE OR OUR OFFICES CONCERNING YOUR APPLICATION. We will notify all applicants of the decision by the deadlines listed above.

You can be brief with your responses – the point of the exercise is both to get an idea of the kind of thinking and work that go into the internship while also allowing the staff to get to know you a little better.

Internship application questions:

• Briefly describe any of your previous radio, documentary journalism or writing experiences.
  
  
• What is your familiarity with computers, recording equipment, and analog or digital editing? Have you worked with Pro Tools? If not, have you worked with other digital editing programs? Have you ever transcribed tape?
  
  
• Write about three of your favorite This American Life shows or pieces and briefly explain why.
  
  
• Write about three shows or pieces that did not work quite as well and explain why.
  
  
• Suggest a small documentary/reporter piece for This American Life. Please explain the story as a whole, along with possible characters and scenes that could be developed. This probably sounds harder than it actually is. We're not looking for Pulitzer Prize war stories or anything like that, but rather stories that you have some personal stake in or that you find genuinely interesting, no matter how small they are. Imagine that you're telling the story to a friend and that you need to keep them entertained so that they don't get bored and their eyes don't start to glaze over. And the more detailed you can get the better.
  
  
• Suggest two or three possible show themes. In a paragraph, explain how each theme could be explored. Feel free to include examples of specific stories that could fit each theme.