So I've taken two weeks leave from my job and taken up a temporary internship with the NT News. It's not everyone's idea of a fun way to spend their holidays, but for me it's a great way to get my name and face known in the newsroom, with a view to getting a more permanent and less token position there some time down the track.
And for someone who enjoys writing, it's actually pretty close to a vacation, particularly compared with the stress of managing people and cash that I usually face. I'm taking the same sort of internship position that would normally be given to high school students or people still finishing their journalism studies.
But I have finished my journalism studies; quite some time ago. So, for me, spending a day sitting in an office just writing up media releases and following stories with government departments is the mental equivalent of lying by the pool in Bali, which is what everyone at work thinks I should be doing anyway.
Being the work experience guy also has other perks; you get to handle the thoroughly ridiculous stories that no one else wants to go near, but which suit the 2 Rs sense of humour and local awesomeness down to the ground. My favourite so far? A government department's specially written press release rejecting calls to release a herd of elephants in the outback to control weeds. Having said that, the Palmerston Mayor who got himself convicted of assault with a golf club this afternoon was pretty spectacular too. And my placement is only half way through!
Garry with 2 Rs
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