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.

Rita Madlock

One of my greatest recollection was during my apprenticeship as a commercial interior architectural designer in the MidWest. To graduate students were required to spend so many hours interning for various designers and studios in the area. Although, I was a good student, I was unable to secure an internship once my interviewers saw that I was black. Their concern was that customers might not be comfortable with a person of color designing in their suburban businesses and homes. When I finally did secure an internship with a then popular local designer, she candidly assured me that she was the one taking the risk, and felt for me, as she knew no one else in her field would have me. Read more>>

Itraeu Compton

Early on in my career, i went to MCTC, a local community college for photography. While I was there, one of the classes required us to seek out a possible internship with either a studio or under a local accomplished photographer. I managed to land an internship at a local gear rental/photo studio called Shelter Studios. This was possibly the best way to start my career in my opinion. I was able to learn a ton more about the gear while also putting it to the test (had to test each item before it went out). Coming into the industry I knew very little about lighting equipment, diffusers, different light mods there were, so being around this daily was a shock, due to the amount of stuff they had. Read more>>

Maria Ingalla

When I entered my graduate nursing program, it was significantly more competitive than it is today. I recall having a clinical rotation in Boston that required a two hour early morning commute. One morning, it was raining and storming extremely hard. I was unprepared, and ended up arriving to my clinical site with my clothing completely soaked. I took off my sweater and hung it up to dry. My clinical instructor looked at me, saw my tattoo sleeves, and told me immediately to put my soaking wet sweater back on. She reprimanded me on professionalism, and told me that it would never be appropriate to show my tattoos to clients. I was not even allowed to have it off before the clinic opened. Read more>>