Final Post

My internship is finally over. It was certainly a great experience, and I'm going to miss heading into the Delaware Today office a few times a week. Our project is done and came out to be 10 pages altogether. It should be in the November issue of Delaware Today once it's all edited and laid out. I'm looking forward to seeing the final touches the editors add to it. I'm also planning on staying in touch with Mark. He seems to be a great asset and a great guy who is more than willing to help. He'll be a great person to have on my reference list.
All in all, it was a learning experience. My research skills are certainly honed and I know much more about the state of Delaware.

Week 10

I'm finishing writing my part of the piece. My "Fast and Furious" section is done with the exception of Zieta Technology who I'm waiting to here back from. I've played quite the game of phone tag with their PR rep. I will call him early in the morning when I'm in the Delaware Today office and he would call me back when I'm in class or at a place where I can't answer my phone. It's a little frusterating, but there's still plenty of time. I have a ton of information on Zieta so I just need to talk to him briefly to get a few quotes.
My "Day at the Beach" section is well on it's way to being done as well. By the end of the week, I should be able to talk to Zieta and finish up everything else. We're meeting on Monday to try to put everything together as a group and edit all the things we have. We're definitely on the right pace to complete the whole project promptly.

Week 9

At this point, I have pretty much talked to every company that I'm in charge of, and I have begun writing my part of the piece. Because we made a few late cuts, I ended up with a few less companies than Amy and Erica so I may be done a little sooner than them, which would work out because then I could help them out and edit with them. I have been having a little trouble getting in touch with Zieta Technology, who I've been playing phone tag with and BRAC because I've had trouble finding legitimate contact information for them. However, I am confident I will speak with Zieta. I've left voice messages and they've left messages back. As for BRAC, if I can't get in touch, I still have an incredible amount of information on them- enough to at least mention them in the piece.
I should have at least a draft of everything written by the end of the week, leaving me almost a month to put everything together in corrolation with Amy and Erica. It all looks great, and I'm happy with what the results are going to be.

Week 8

The three of us met yesterday to organize our companies into sections so that it would be a little more "reader-friendly." Some of the groups we came up with were "the fast and the furious," "the veterans," "a day at the beach," "beauty," "thriving industries," "green companies," "blue collar," and "healthcare."
Each company on our list fits into one of these catagories in one way or another. The companies I've been working on mostly fit into either "the fast and the furious," or "a day at the beach." The fast and the furious are all the companies on our list that are constantly growing, expanding and hiring. "A day at the beach" consists of a few businesses that are located on the Reboboth board walk.
I've gotten in touch with a few more companies and I've been transcribing my interviews. Once I interview all of them, I'll be able to do some write-ups. Amy and Erica are working hard too, and we've become pretty good at coordinating and working in a team.

Week 7

We're back from Spring Break and we've begun working on the reporting aspect of our piece. I have already been in touch with a few different companies, including e-zanga and hostmysite.com and I should have my share of the work done in the next week or so. After that, it's a matter of organizing our quotes and writing to make it "reader friendly." All in all, we're making good progress and we seem to be on the right track. 

However, I've already been reminded of how frustrating making calls and setting up interviews can be. I seemed to overlook the fact that some of these companies are fairly big and finding a good person to talk to is sometimes difficult, especially when there's not a specific number listed on their website.

I'll get it though. Lucky for me, I've been in situations like that a few times, and I still have a sufficient amount of time to get everything done. The work has certainly picked up, and making calls and tracking down people is much more fun than straight research, so I'm definitely enjoying seeing everything come together.

Week 6

Our search is basically complete- just in time for Spring Break. When we met yesterday, we essentially finalized our list. There is about 30 businesses. While there are a few we're looking a little more into, or keeping our eye on, for the most part we are done with the research phase of the project. From here on out, it's gathering detailed information, reporting, and writing our piece.
I'm happy with the list we came up with, and I'm glad we took our time in making sure it was correct. We discussed briefly the final layout that we would aim for which involved possibly breaking the list into categories such as "veterans to the list," "beach jobs," "fast growing," etc. Those were just thoughts, but I guess we'll get to that later.
It actually worked out perfectly because now we can begin the next phase of the project right after spring break and spend the whole second half of the semester working on that. I don't think it will be as difficult as the first phase because through our research, we already have a lot of the information that we need. Getting quotes and writing the piece will be the focus of the next couple of weeks. With three people working on it, it shouldn't be too strenuous.

Week 5

As a group, we narrowed our search down significantly last Monday. The three interns and Mark sat down and we each went through our entire lists. We separated them into four categories; "definitely," "maybe," "look more into," and "no." It was interesting to see which business made it into which category. The bigger companies like banks etc. that usually make similar lists often ended up on our "maybe" or "no" list because most of them are making massive layoffs. A place of business inwhich one's job isn't secure certainly isn't a good place to work.
From there, we split up the lists. Each category that we were planning on persuing (definitely, maybe, and look more into) had about 15 business total, so we each took 5 per category. I spent the rest of the week researching my assigned five businesses in the "look more into" category which included BRAC, Maintenance/Blue Collar Jobs, Dover Air Force Base, Autotote, and Work From Home. As it turns out, it's difficult to find much useful information for any of these, no matter how many newspaper articles or websites I look at involving them. I plan on continuing to try, however. The best thing about working here is that I can work on my own pace, generally. We have a lot of time to get what we need done, which assures that when our piece finally comes out it will be the best it can possibly be.
After I'm done with the "look more into" category" I'll probably begin calling the business listed in the maybe and definitely category to get more info on them than what I already have (which is quite a bit). That will probably be my task next week.

Week 4

This past week will likely be the last full week of straight research. We're meeting as a group again Monday to put our lists together and hopefully finalize the jobs that we want to report on. After that, we'll be able to do some reporting, make some calls, and hopefully even venture out to get interviews. At this point, I feel like I've hit a wall. I've found all the businesses I feel like I could have found.
A lot of the businesses we've been discussing look really interesting, and I want to know more about them. I'm sure the readers will too, which is why I think this will turn into a really good piece when it's all said and done.
In my opinion, actually traveling to the different businesses would give me a better feel for it. I might notice something about the workplace or employees that couldn't be portrayed over the phone. I'm definitely looking forward to it. First though, we'll see what kind of list we come up with at our meeting on Monday.

Week 3

This past week has been a little more focused and narrowed down than the previous two. We met last Monday as a group to share our list and brainstorm a few ideas that we had been thinking about with Mark. That was certainly helpful. It made me aware of what the other research assistants were thinking about. For the most part, everyone had come up with similar companies that are considered "good places to work." They were well paying, stable, fast growing jobs with good benefits. We decided that since we had a pretty full list of jobs like that, we'd look for some more "fun jobs." We thought of things that Delaware had to offer that maybe other places didn't. One idea was it's beaches.
That became my focus for the rest of the week. I spent my time searching Dewey Beach and Rehobeth Beach and the many different jobs/careers that one could have in a vibrant summer community like that.
One place I found was the Rehobeth Beach bandstand, which involves setting up for different bands to play on the beach. Another job I found was working as a physical trainer at the Rehobeth Beach Fitness Center. It was located directly on the boardwalk. Not to mention, I found out that fitness trainers and aerobic instructors rank among the ten hottest careers in 2009. This type of place was perfect for our list.
Things are still a little slow, but at least we're all way more focused. Next week things will pick up quite a bit. We meet again Monday to somewhat finalize our lists so we can all start making calls and doing actual reporting rather than researching. I'm excited for that.
I'm also pretty happy with what we've all come up with so far. I think this is going to make for a great piece when it's all said and done.

Week 2

I completed my first full week at Delaware Today. It consisted of a little bit of brainstorming and a whole lot of research. I came in on Monday and met with Erica. We came up with a list of criteria that each job could meet. It included stability, salary, benefits, fun at work, perks, job growth, and diversity. I then met with Amy on Tuesday and shared our list with her. Together, we came up with a few more, like varying opportunities that the workplace offers.
I'm working on Mondays from 1:30-5, Tuesdays from 9-2 and Thursdays from 9-2. Because Erica works Mondays and Wednesdays and Amy works on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I've become the laison between the two. It makes it a little difficult, but I only see it being a problem at the very beginning when we're all trying to get on the same page, as long as we can meet and share our ideas periodically (for instance, Amy's coming in for an hour on Monday so we can all meet and discuss).
Overall, things have been fantastic. I spent most of my time going through the 2007 edition of Delaware Today that listed the best jobs, researching what's new about them, and picking out which of those were still among the "best." For instance, W.L. Gore and Associates was on the 2007 list, but they were also on Forbe's Magazine's list of best places to work in 2008. There's no reason they shouldn't be on the new Delaware Today list. However, a Chrystler dealership in Newark was on the 2007 list as well. And, well, let's face it. I certainly wouldn't want to be working (or worrying about not working) at any Chrystler, Ford, or GM dealership right now. Obvioiusly, I didn't put that on the revised list.
I'm looking forward to actually sitting down with the other two research assistants and Mark on Monday. It will be interesting to see what everyone else has come up with, and if theres anything I should be doing differently. The project will be fun when everything comes together and we can start making calls and doing interviews and whatnot. I'm actually up for going on some roadtrips to see what these places are all about rather than sitting in the office making calls. We'll cross that bridge when we come there. For now, I'll keep my face buried in a computer screen trying to find some good places to work.

Week 1

It begins. My three month journey toward becoming a better researcher while learning the ins and outs of the magazine business got off and running Thursday.
It was certainly a lot to take in. I got to the office shortly after it opened and met with the Editor, Mark Nardone. He showed me around for a while. Two things struck me immediately. To begin with, the office was way bigger than expected. My experience in any kind of newsroom or journalism office was limited to the Review office above Perkins Student Center, and the Middleboro Gazette newsroom, which consisted of one room and eight or nine cubicles. Delaware Today had a Business Department, an Advertisement Department, and about seven other branches all dedicated to a specific task in the publication of the magazine. It was definitely impressive, to say the least.
The other thing I noticed immediately was that I was way underdressed. Everyone was dressed as if they, well, were in an office. My jeans weren't exactly cutting it. I'll have to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Mark sat me down at a desk and gave me my task: to work with two other interns, or "research assistants," as he prefers to call us, to research and create a story. The story we were going to be working on was "Delaware's Best Jobs." It seemed simple enough, until Mark left me alone and went back to his office. I was left with a gigantic task and didn't really know where to begin. I started by browsing through a similar story Delaware Today did two years ago. I created a folder to keep notes and brainstorm ideas, and actually had a fairly productive first day.
Amy (one of the other interns, or "research assistants") came in shortly after I did. We did some brainstorming together. Amy pointed out that perhaps our platform should deal with jobs that are good despite the depleated economy. For instance, they may make our list because they're stable, still hiring, or cover the cost of health care.
I'm working again on Monday, and on Tuesday I'll be meeting with both Amy and Erica (the other two "research assistants") to discuss in more detail the direction we want to head in. I can't wait to really get the ball rolling next week.