About 18 months ago, I was invited to address journalist students at the Faculty of Political Science at Zagreb University on the realities of running a news portal in the modern day.
It was something that had never done before, and I didn’t really know what to say, but I thought it could be an experience and perhaps an opportunity to develop closer ties with the university in some way. The idea of TCN student intern positions came up, and the more I thought about the idea, the more I liked it. We had something to offer in terms of real experience on the ground, and the youthful enthusiasm of students with actual journalistic training (unlike this self-starting blogger) was also appealing. Being able to reach a young audience also had its appeal. I wasn’t quite sure what the internship would entail in practical terms, but I was open to the idea.
The first rule of addressing students at a seminar is never do it in the morning. I was curious to see how many would attend the 09:00 seminar as I drove into Zagreb from Varazdin for the session.
The answer. Just nine. Not a huge crowd, but perhaps there would be a gem in there somewhere, and maybe we could inspire some of the nine. Maybe one might even want to become an intern with TCN. You can see the whole presentation in the videos above and below.
The students’ professor, Gaj Tomas, who invited me in the first place, gave the students an assignment to write about their impressions of the seminar. And then my inbox started to fill with first one, then two, and finally three applications to join the intern programme. Three from the nine was a good result.
And so off we started, on a journey which was as much an adventure into the dark as it was for me. They were taught to take over certain social media responsibilities for TCN, which they did much better than I ever did. Paula was into politics, and political guru, Kresimir Macan kindly met her for a coffee to give her some guidance and contacts. Within two months, Paula was published in the UK, earning her first journalist funds, co-authoring a feature on the upcoming Croatian presidential elections.
Ana was more into film, and who better to meet and interview than legendica Spomenka Saraga, award-winning film producer and the driving force behind Zagreb Tourfilm Festival.
While Janja got to hang out and jam with guitar legend Yogi Lonich.
Paula and Janja went on to cover Dora 2020 for TCN, with Macan helping to arrange some backstage access for them to interview the winner. They were certainly having more fun than I was, stuck in the office all day.
Janja joined us full time on a student contract over the summer, before returning to university to resume her studies. She was joined by recent graduate Donatella, who started with a 3-month internship with TCN, and is now employed as a full-time member of the team.
Donatella accompanied me to her first ever protest recently, the UGP Voice of Entrepreneurs gathering on the main square (and yes, she is a much tidier dresser than me). Here are her impressions in My First Protest: What I Learned at UGP Entrepreneur Protest in Zagreb.
Now that she has graduated, I am looking forward to helping her develop new ideas from the younger generation, and I am really excited to follow her new series starting this weekend – Croatian Graduate Perspective, interviews with recent graduates about the challenges of starting out in the big bad world in Croatia during a pandemic. You can read her first interview with Karla in Split, which has just been published.
TCN currently has two student intern positions available for anyone interested. We are happy to look at candidates from all over the country, as we are keen to represent as many parts of Croatia as we can. So if you are a student in Split, Osijek, Pula, Dubrovnik, Rijeka, Varazdin or elsewhere and would like to come and get some hands on work experience to contrast with the theory of the lecture hall, get in touch.
We are looking for enthusiastic students with excellent English, plenty of initiative, with good social media and video skills. The internship will be a mixture of some of the more mundane aspects of running a portal, such as admin and social media, as well as plenty of work in the field, as well as time with TCN staff. If interested, please contact me at [email protected] Subject Internship. Please include a CV, 400-word article on a topic about Croatia you feel passionate about, one fun fact about Croatia that most people don’t know, and the name of the person you would most like to interview in Croatia (and we will try and make it happen). Deadline for applications – February 25.
I asked Janja and Donatella to write a little about their experiences at TCN, to give you an idea of students who tried the internship and lived to tell the tale:
Janja – When I first applied for TCN, I wasn’t aware where exactly this journey will lead me. I’m not sure even now, but I am enjoying the path. I love the opportunities which TCN is continuously giving to us. I like the freedom of choosing my own articles and also seeing that Paul is encouraging us to do so. One of the brilliant things is how easy you can reach the person you want to talk to or go to an event you want to cover. Also, a relaxed atmosphere, quality humor, and understanding people are wonderful things to have around. It is a pretty rare thing to find, especially in a working environment. We are just a few months into this internship and have already had so many positive experiences, so I am very happy.
Donatella – A year ago, I returned from my five-month student exchange in Italy, where I studied at the University of Bologna. Delighted by this international experience, as a final-year journalism student at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, I had another desire – to participate in a student internship abroad. However, the coronavirus pandemic ensued, so some of my priorities changed. When I had almost come to terms with the fact that I would not experience a student internship during my college education, I saw one post on Facebook that piqued my curiosity.
Total Croatia News, a news portal dedicated to Croatia, was looking for a student intern. As I wanted to continue improving my English language skills, as well as to start my career in journalism, an internship for Total Croatia News seemed like an excellent opportunity to start. I applied, passed the interview, and soon became a TCN intern. Although the internship was in Croatia, considering the circumstances with the coronavirus pandemic, I was happy and grateful even to be able to do an internship.
As the nerd that I am, I enjoyed learning to write news articles in English from my English-speaking colleagues. From week to week, I was getting new assignments, and the one I found most exciting was managing TCN’s social media accounts. Social networks are one of the main tools in business today. Although I’ve been learning about it during my studies, I gained the biggest knowledge through concrete, practical experience on TCN.
After two and a half months of learning and working, driven by great dedication, I was given the opportunity to become a permanent part of the TCN team, which I by no means wanted to miss. When I look back, I realize that I stepped out of my comfort zone by applying for an internship and pushed my boundaries to where I didn’t even know I could go. And so much is still ahead of me.
If you would like to discuss the internship before formally applying and would like to know more about it from Janja or Donatella, please contact me and I will put you in touch.
