A Different Internship

For many, the word “intern” can bring up unpleasant connotations. Spending long hours working on mindless tasks for domineering bosses who take credit for the work you did for little or no remuneration certainly springs to my mind, and for good reason. Both of the internships I’d held before coming to NOI fit squarely into the “unpleasant” category.

Last year, I interned for an (unnamed) United States Senator. My time was about evenly divided between two tedious tasks. The first involved having strangers yell at me on the phone while telling me I was going to hell. The second involved sitting in a back mailroom looking up phone numbers for every fire chief and township in the Senator’s state. The reason: just in case we need to call these people. And don’t even get me started on the 3,200 envelopes I had to stuff.

From the beginning of my interview I knew that interning for NOI would be different. Rather than asking me about my coffee-making skills, prospective boss Donny asked me how I would go about designing a research project. Instead of focusing on whether I knew how to operate a copy machine or what my WPM was, he tested me on how I would go about finding out all of the elected offices in Idaho.

The Candidate Project sounded fascinating, and I couldn’t wait to get working on it.
What I did not know when I accepted the internship was that I would be the first intern in NOI’s new internship program (and the first intern at all in many years). I was the groundbreaking Intern1, so to speak. I arrived to find co-workers eager to meet and work with me. They were anxious to get me situated within the NOI culture. I was told early and often that while serving as Intern1, it was the goal of NOI to ensure that I got the most out of the experience as I possibly could.
This job never changes

At previous internships, the work that I did stayed the same the entire time that I was there. The phone calls and transcriptions at my previous internships never changed. In contrast, I’m constantly being given new opportunities to use my skills at NOI. My responsibilities expanded from a handful of counties in Florida to the entire state of Nevada. At the same time I’ve been allowed to design part of a coming campaigns training, as well as to present at staff meetings.

Not to say that everything is all laughs all the time. The work of finding election information can be tedious, frustrating, and outright ludicrous. Special Districts, while special sounding, are in fact a monstrous pain in the rear. In fact, right now I have a list of over forty districts for which I can find their tax rates and the maturation date of all of their bonds, but not their phone number. Others teasingly offer phone numbers which are disconnected, wrong, or lead to full answering machines. When I can get in contact, occasionally the person I’m speaking to refuses to provide information, suspecting that I’m conspiring to oust them from their elected position.

Despite all the frustrations that the work can entail, the NOI Intern1 experience has been fantastic. I love the work that I’m doing, and can see how what I’m doing helps to build an important project. All of my co-workers are friendly and supportive. I am continually impressed by the work ethic and productivity that pervades the otherwise laid-back office. Although NOI may play host to many Intern__’s, I will always appreciate my status as NOI Intern1.

If you’re interested in becoming an intern at NOI, just fill out this quick form to let us know!

Paul Carlson is a Research Intern, and the first member of NOI’s new Internship Program

Photos from Mr.Thomas and irrezolut, via Creative Commons