Our interns do a lot more than fetch coffee. At Refinery29, we rely on them to pitch stories, study our site analytics, scout shoot locations, interview experts, and grab more bylines than hungry Trader Joe's shoppers grab samples at a mac-'n'-cheese-bite tasting. Playing off the Money Diaries series, we’re bringing you inside our New York office to tag along on five days in the lives of our busiest interns. (Spoiler: The office snacks are unreal.) See how they spent their packed days here this summer, from retouching photos to sipping cold brew in our famed communal space, the Refinery.
Ahead, meet Mariah, Megan, Martin, Talia, and Sophie, who specialized in different departments across our company. They represent their class of 52 interns this summer, who were all essential to helping us continue to create the dynamic, positive content we're all about.
Name: Mariah
Age: 23
College/year: Georgetown University, 2015
R29 department: Video, Production Management
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Town
Favorite NYC spot: The Groove
Dream job: Sportscaster
9:30 a.m.: I head into the kitchen on our floor. It’s summertime, so the Refinery kitchens are stocked with kombucha and Siggi’s Greek Yogurt tubes — like Go-Gurt, but with a low-fat-low-sugar-high-protein-real-fruit spin. I grab my (free!) breakfast and sit down at my desk.
9:45 a.m.: I log into my email and check to see if I’ve received any Rights & Clearances (R&C) requests. As the production management intern, I have to watch and “clear” every video before it can be programmed, versioned, etc. Today, I’m working on the most recent round of videos for our Facebook series Short Cuts.
10:50 a.m.: I continue working on transcribing an episode of the R29 podcast Unstyled, our second podcast, which will come out in September 2016 (check out the first one, Strong Opinions Loosely Held). The episode is absolutely packed with dialogue, and the producer needs the full transcription ASAP. My portion is only about seven minutes long, but I have to pause it every few seconds to get the wording right!
11:55 a.m.: I head down to the Refinery for the weekly Lunch & Learn intern speaker series — the company treats us to lunch and hosts a Q&A with one of its major influencers. This week’s edition is a Dos Toros Taqueria bar and a Q&A with one of the founders! We all leave wanting to be her.
1:45 p.m.: I start working on my first editorial piece for the R29 site. I’m writing a paragraph to accompany a video one-off called “Bedroom Deal-Breakers.” I internally pray that my mom still doesn’t know how to successfully Google-search.
2 p.m.: There’s a dog in the office. Pause everything.
2:10 p.m.: Cue writing again. My snap story is now five 10-second-long clips of a brown Lab puppy named Tama.
3 p.m.: Flash makeup sale in the Refinery — everything for $1. My coworker lends me some cash. I get Givenchy lipstick…for $1! And as I tell my team this, I learn that I have been pronouncing Givenchy wrong my whole life. Oops! You figure lots of things out here at Refinery.
5:15 p.m.: The video interns all head to a Snapchat focus group and brainstorm. The R29 Snapchat Discover team wants to pick our brains about a few things — what ideas we have about designs, themes, content, etc.
6:25 p.m.: I spritz our office plants, Audrey II, Horace, Fram, and co. TBD on whether they actually need spritzing. They’re desert-dwelling plants, so...maybe not? It’s a big debate among the PM team. Regardless, I like to give them a little hydration before heading out. See you tomorrow, Refinery!
Name: Megan
Age: 21
College/year: Gettysburg College, 2017
R29 department: Editorial, Beauty
Neighborhood: Midtown West
Favorite NYC spot: High Line park
Dream job: Refinery29 contributor (of course!)
10 a.m.: Arrive at the office. I’m immediately greeted by the sweet smell of New York City bagels. I hustle to grab a multigrain bagel, smear on some veggie cream cheese, and make my way to my desk with a smile on my face. Friday free breakfasts are among the many perks of working at Refinery29!
10:30 a.m.: Go to a photo shoot with our talented beauty editor. Today, we have an in-house photo shoot that is showcasing the summer glossy-beauty trend for an upcoming piece: glossy hair, glossy cheeks, glossy eyelids, and glossy lips — you name it, we’re all about extreme shine. I’ve never sat in on a photo shoot before, and the artistic collaboration is super-impressive.
12 p.m.: I size product images from NARS’ 2016 fall collection. Eyeliners, eyeshadows, lip pencils galore! These products got the team super-excited for the rest of the fall beauty launches!
12:30 p.m.: I attend the intern Lunch & Learn, where the company orders us lunch and has its major influencers do a Q&A with us. We munch on our Artichoke Pizza (yum!) and listen to one of the founders chat about her experiences building Refinery29. She takes time at the end to give us some of her professional advice.
1:30 p.m.: Pull together pictures, text, and analytics info for a story. I enjoy building stories because it allows me to read most of the stories that are written daily by our brilliant beauty writers!
2:30 p.m.: Attend a Beauty-team pitch meeting, where the Beauty editorial team meets to discuss the ideas that we have to pitch to the Refinery29 beauty director. The whole session is really synergistic and collaborative. Everyone comes with unique and creative story ideas. It’s even better because we have ice cream sundaes to celebrate the birthday of one of our writers! I leave with a sugar high and a creative buzz.
3:30 p.m.: Organize the beauty closet. The Refinery29 Beauty team receives an insane number of packages each day, so there are actually three separate closets for hair products, skin-care products, and makeup. It’s essentially a beauty lover’s dream!
4:30 p.m.: Transcribe an interview that one of our editors did with an expert. After I finish, I feel like I have carpal tunnel from extensive typing! I reward myself with a snack break, grabbing a bag of Pirate’s Booty from the (always stocked) kitchen.
6 p.m.: I start working on a story about Margot Robbie I pitched to the Beauty team — being around so many creative writers makes me eager to produce my own content.
6:30 p.m.: Look at the clock, and I’m shocked to see that the day is over! Time definitely flies as an R29 intern — I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Name: Martin
Age: 22
College/year: School of Visual Arts, 2016
R29 department: Editorial, Photo
Neighborhood: Formerly Lower East Side
Favorite NYC spot: Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
Dream job: In a dream world, I’d write and star in my own TV show while actively making photographs.
10 a.m.: I make it into work at exactly 10 a.m.! I had a busy weekend at the Del Close Marathon that the Upright Citizens Brigade has every year. It’s 56 straight hours of improv and hanging out with other people in the community, so needless to say I’m quite tired! Luckily, my day started with someone from the Beauty department complimenting my hair — how could I not trust her opinion?
10:05 a.m.: On the agenda for the day: Go location-scouting in Little India. Retouch photographs I took for the Beauty team. Pick up a projector. Who says interning isn’t glamorous?!
10:15 a.m.: There are free doughnuts at the table I’m working at. I’m really trying to stop myself from eating one.
10:16 a.m.: I eat one.
10:20 a.m.: I go to look for the laptop charger in the studio and see a favorite celebrity of mine sitting in the hair-and-makeup room. One of the biggest no-nos for an intern is bothering the talent, so I had to just keep walking.
10:45 a.m.: I took a quick break to watch Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s performance of “Freedom” at the BET Awards, and lose my mind! I was not ready to die because of Bey at 10:45 a.m.! I now have my motivation for the day, maybe even the whole week.
11 a.m.: Went to the mailroom to pick up a package. I long for the day someone sends me a letter.
11:20 a.m.: I begin retouching the photographs for Beauty. One of my favorite parts of the job is doing these shoots!
11:30 a.m.: I say hello to one of the many dogs of Refinery29.
1:20 p.m.: I begin my trek to Adorama by Union Square to pick up the projector.
1:45 p.m.: I get to Adorama to pick up the projector. The man at the counter called me “sir,” and it made me feel extremely regal.
2:15 p.m.: I just got back to the office. I’m super-sweaty from the subway and genuinely feel like Shrek. Thank you, NYC humidity!
2:20 p.m.: Just a few additional edits to make on the Beauty photos for an article.
2:30 p.m.: Having one of those doughnuts for lunch! Free food is my green light at the end of the dock.
3:45 p.m.: The photographs are officially done! I’m going to watch the Beyoncé performance again to help me get through the final stretch of the day.
4:30 p.m.: Looking up some photo essays to potentially be considered for the site.
4:40 p.m.: Heading out to scout locations in a spot in Queens called Little India! Every now and then, I get to go to different neighborhoods in the city and look for places that Refinery can use for photo shoots. It’s really fun for me as a summer intern, though I can imagine why you wouldn’t want to do this in the winter!
6 p.m.: Finally arrived in Little India! I got a little lost getting off the subway, but asked a mom with a baby stroller for directions. Is there anything moms can’t do?
6:15 p.m.: Seeing a lot of cool places! This is possibly the worst place to come to hungry with no money.
6:30 p.m.: Walking around and taking a few shots inside of sari stores. Not sure if I’m finding a lot of locations for photo shoots, though.
7:30 p.m.: Done walking around for the day! Officially heading home to eat, watch more Beyoncé, and have a great night’s sleep for work again tomorrow morning!
Name: Talia
Age: 21
College/year: University of Pennsylvania, 2018
R29 department: Growth, Marketing
Neighborhood: Teaneck, NJ
Favorite NYC spot: Tie between 16 Handles and anywhere in Soho
Dream job: Anything in the music-tech world
9:35 a.m.: Time to start the day on the right foot, a.k.a. iced coffee (on tap!) from the Refinery, which is easily the greatest place in our office.
9:40 a.m.: Settling into the day. There’s always something brewing, whether it’s pitches from the Living team (Did you know there’s a Museum of Ice Cream?), our global editor-in-chief Christene’s next big project, or some record-breaking numbers from the Growth Marketing side of things.
10 a.m.: On today’s to-do list: Recap our Living vertical’s monthly performance, optimize the homepage, prepare for the weekly Snapchat meeting, and track our international growth. (Did you know we have an office in London? Berlin?)
10:20 a.m.: Work with the editorial and social teams on running the homepage and positioning our latest and greatest content there. Between images, headlines, and timing, we’ve nearly got it down to a science. It also means my inbox is kind of crazy… So when you’re hanging out on our site, picture my team and me behind the scenes!
12 p.m.: Analyze a month of Living content performance. Have we reached the right audiences? What kinds of trends are we seeing? After all, we’ve written a lot, from food to work and money to travel. And from the looks of it, you seemed to like it!
1 p.m.: Time for our weekly Snapchat update meeting — we run through our successes, failures, and what opportunities lie ahead. This meeting is definitely a highlight — it’s as if creativity and data had a baby and it manifested itself in a highly optimized Snapchat Discover edition. That’s data-speak for a really, really awesome Snapchat story.
2 p.m.: A quick break — I head over to our backyard, a.k.a. City Hall Park, take a walk, eat lunch, catch some sun, and people-watch, or just watch some tourists play Pokémon Go, which is never not entertaining.
2:30 p.m.: Back to work. More time spent on the homepage end of Refinery, and I think we can all agree that’s a good place to be.
4 p.m.: We’ve now gone global, with offices in the U.K. and Germany, and we’d like to track our growth in these regions, namely on Snapchat. As they say in Berlin, "Hallo!"
5:30 p.m.: Dive into our Snapchat Discover narrative editions — think the Body Image issue, the Comedy issue. I’m analyzing each special edition, the topics we tackle, and how our audience on Snapchat (read: the youth) takes it all in. To be continued…
6:30 p.m.: It’s time to head out. After all, I am commuting from New Jersey… Over and out!
Name: Sophie
Age: 18
College/year: Barnard College, 2019
R29 department: Editorial, Health & Wellness
Neighborhood: Morningside Heights
Favorite NYC spot: Brooklyn Bridge Park
Dream job: President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (basically, I just want to be Cecile Richards).
9:20 a.m.: I arrive at the office and head to my team, the Health vertical. I grab some cold brew (which we have on tap in the office) and a bagel (because “bagel Fridays” are a thing here — amazing).
9:30 a.m.: I scroll through the latest news in health, science, and wellness to put together my daily trending-story pitches. I send along a couple links to stories I think are interesting, and come up with potential headlines.
10 a.m.: To help the team get a better feel of which stories are being promoted through our social media outlets, I compile a list of “What Made It/What Didn’t” from the Refinery29 Wellness Facebook page.
10:30 a.m.: I’m writing a feature story about some super-badass sex educators from across the country, so I prepare questions for a phone interview that’s scheduled for this afternoon. As a self-proclaimed “sex-ed nerd,” I’m super-psyched to talk to this woman about her work.
11 a.m.: One of my articles is going live today — "11 Detailed Sexual Fantasies Better Than 50 Shades Of Grey." This was so fun to write; I got to send around a Google Form where people could anonymously share their sexual fantasies. Reading them feels like a risqué thing to be doing at work — but not if you work on the Refinery29 Wellness team! I build it in our story editor and pass it off to be published.
12:30 p.m.: I hop on a quick phone interview with a super-cool sex educator from Brooklyn who specializes in doing workshops about pleasure, consent, and communication. She’s great at addressing taboo subjects in a way that’s conversational and fun. She even does workshops at bachelorette parties!
1 p.m.: I run to the Refinery. Why? The fashion team cleaned out their closet and is selling clothes for super-cheap.
1:15 p.m.: I transcribe the interview from earlier. I hate hearing my own voice in recordings, but don’t we all?
2 p.m.: I reach out to a PR person from Planned Parenthood to talk about interviewing one of their educators.
2:30 p.m.: I do another news sweep to send to the overnight and weekend teams — apparently, dudes are "oblivious towards their attractiveness to potential dates " when it comes to online dating.
3 p.m.: Happy summer Friday, R29ers! Most people (including myself) peace out early.
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