Thread by @DavidDTSS

I flew to NY with $650 to my name. I stayed at my ex's apartment. So that I could go to the Complex offices and meet. I was 2 weeks removed from getting my masters of journalism from Northwestern

I walked into one of the editors' offices:

him: so, we're not hiring anyone...just taking unpaid interns, which, I mean since you live in Mass that's not bad
me: Mississippi
him: Wait, MS...that's...?
me: Mississippi not Massachussets
him: oh, well, you can still make it work

me: so why aren't you hiring people again?
him: I mean, we are, but you have to start as an unpaid intern
me: how would that work?
him: you come in and work every day
me: but...how does that work?
him: look, your pitches were good and your work is good. you'd make a great intern

I walked out of the office, grabbing the latest mad on my way out. I walked out to the street. I looked back at the building and knew it wasn't going to happen. I looked down at the magazine and saw a Donald Glover story I'd sent in the pitch portion of my application

I don't burn bridges and I'm glad I don't because a few of the people I've met thru Complex have been great and nice and awesome. that was just a bad experience and a reason the unpaid internship stuff is BS.

later that day I had a meeting with Popular Science or Popular Mechanics or one of them. We'd studied their company for my final project at Medill and I was the head of business strategy. I knew their business in and out: CMPs for each mag, pillars, everything

it was the best interview I'd ever had and the last interview I ever had. The interview was for an entry level marketing job or something. They called me back a few days later when I was back in NOLA

them: so you're way too overqualified for this job but we're going to offer it to you. but you have to do an unpaid internship first.
me: but i'm qualified for the job, right?
them: right, but if you intern for 3 months then we're sure you'll get it

me: so why not give me the job now?
them: it's basically like you have the job but you have to intern first
me: or you could just give me the job
them: after you intern

that was the conversation for 10 minutes before I hung up.

We never spoke again.

I was in NOLA with a couple of hundred bucks to my name. NY could might as well have been Mars. I didn't know anyone I could stay with or anything. So I stayed in the south and wrote about the south and wrote about the shit that's not in any of those newsrooms

no slight to those people but those newsrooms don't have motherf ckers who felt alive when Aquemini dropped. Those newsrooms don't have people who sit at E&L BBQ with their last $10 thinking about the trap and segregation and Goodie Mob and Katrina trailers. they needed us.

your unpaid internship newsrooms call Carter 3 Wayne's best album when the rest of us down here know better. unpaid internship newsrooms are shocked it's RULE instead of Are You Ellie. unpaid internship newsrooms say Kim Kardashian made hoop earrings popular.

your newsrooms needed John Gotty and Maurice Garland and a million people like them who are better than me and who can and want to love us with stories your unpaid interns can't tell. your unpaid internship newsrooms burned the culture down to save a buck. i hope it was worth it.

I wrote this 3 years later because I wanted to destroy the unpaid internship system. It was my 2nd or 3rd Guardian article

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

point.

https://twitter.com/Slate/status/1015508142568951808

Gonna just keep this thread going forever until I die and someone takes over in me name

https://twitter.com/ClutchPointsApp/status/1015646006120050689?s=19