Getting an Internship

At the beginning of the summer, the idea of an internship was rather depressing for me. Do not get me wrong, I wanted to work, but getting an internship here in El Salvador is not an easy task.
To give a temporary position to a student is not convenient for the companies, for they have to invest money and time into teaching the student about their business, in the knowledge that he or she will not stay to work for them and by the time the student comes back to apply for a job, the same training would have to be necessary again. It is more of an expense, rather than an investment, this is how they see it. Therefore, to get an internship in a good media company, you must know someone in a high position to help you getting in. Besides this reality, there is the fact that paid-internships are completely non-existent.
I applied for an internship in various media companies as if I was applying for a job. Many said they were interested in learning more about the internship system, but requested me to wait for them to call. The phone did not ring. One of the most prestigious TV stations of the country said they could not have me as an intern, but they would love me to apply for a job as soon as I graduate. Some just did not answer back whatsoever. But two companies showed real interest in helping me to gain work experience, two very different media agencies.
The first one is a newspaper, one of the two most read ones nation-wide. They started a multimedia section for their web page five years ago, and they are still learning how to produce TV-like news content. I am talking about La Prensa Gráfica of El Salvador.
The second company answered back until I had already signed the internship contract with the newspaper. It is the office of the authorized correspondent for one of the biggest Hispanic networks in the United States, Telemundo. A small office with the head reporter and representative of the network in the country, Samuel Arias, plus two extra reporters, a videographer, two video editors, and a secretary.
I decided to take on both opportunities, for they are very different and would offer me a more complete field experience in news production. So I did, and I will share with you some of my experiences while working in both media outlets.