Internships and apprenticeships are a time-honored rite of passage in many industries. We’ve asked some brilliant folks to share some of the most important lessons they learned during these early experiences in their career.

Emily Roose

My journey into interior design actually began after a career transition from radio. During my first year of interior design studies, I had the incredible opportunity to complete a six-month internship in Los Angeles with Sarah Barnard, a renowned interior designer specializing in LEED and Historic Preservation design. This experience was truly transformative for my career trajectory. Read more>>

Teresa Irwin

In my third year of residency, we came back from our honeymoon and my breasts were extremely sore, so it occurred to me that I should check a pregnancy test. Sure enough I was pregnant. I couldn’t believe it, and sat on the toilet crying incredulously, and paging 911 to my new husband. There were 3 reasons for this. First of all, I had polycystic ovarian syndrome, which means that your ability to get pregnant is significantly lower than the rest of the population w/o PCOS. Secondly, we were on our honeymoon at an all inclusive resort and we drank wine each night. So I thought I had caused major complications in the fetus. During the first four weeks of pregnancy, it is the “all or nothing principle.” Read more>>

Katie Gamby

I had many supervisors over the course of my life, but Wendy Nathan was by far the most impactful. I interned with her while I was wrapping up my PhD and was completely overwhelmed and burnt out with school and the counseling field. I remember she took me to Panera one day and sat me down and through the conversation I told her that I wasn’t going to work in the field after I was done. She looked me square in the eyes and said, “yes you will.” I really honestly hadn’t had anyone be so direct with me before. She continued and said, “you’re burnt out, that just means you need to take care of yourself, that doesn’t mean you need to leave the field for good. And, burnout is the worst time to be making lifelong decisions.” Read more>>

Evie Hansford

I feel really lucky that my first few jobs working in the industry were lead by amazing women. Read more>>