Berklee Blogs introduces Valerie Teicher, a Music Business major and spring intern, as she begins her internship at BMG Chrysalis, a rights management company representing publishing and recording rights, as well as at The Windish Agency, an independent NYC booking agency serving musicians, bands and DJs. In today’s blog, Valerie tells us how her Berklee skills have come in handy in her professional work environments, as well as the challenge of charting a career path with her internship experience.

Throughout the past few weeks at my internships, I have been observing office dynamics and the work environment in order to gain a better understanding of how the music industry operates on a day-to-day basis. Both of the work environments I have been exposed to are very fast-paced and dynamic, yet I was surprised to see how casual and open the attitude is at both. Relationships between colleagues are very relaxed and personal, and I have come to realize that part of the reason why the industry can move so fast and fluidly is because the relationships between people move it forward. The straight-forward, informal approach to getting things done allows for a quickly adapting environment, and the casual nature of the people keep work light and highly motivated. I have come to realize that in this sense, this balance is crucial. 

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Berklee Blogs introduces Valerie Teicher, a Music Business major and spring intern, as she begins her internship at BMG Chrysalis, a rights management company representing publishing and recording rights, as well as at The Windish Agency, an independent NYC booking agency serving musicians, bands and DJs. In today’s blog, Valerie tells us how she approached her internship search with tips for first-time interns…

My internship search this past semester was a learning experience. It was quite a long process, but in the end I achieved the internships I wanted from the start, and learned a lot throughout. I came to the OEL with a few internship possibilities in mind—I wanted to intern at The Windish Agency, but was also interested in an internship at BMG Chrysalis that I had previously had to pass up last summer due to personal circumstances. I was open to other opportunities as well, and overall I applied to about ten different internships in New York City. I had about six interviews, and I was offered all of the internships I interviewed for! This allowed me to choose what felt like the best fit for me, and gave me flexibility. I ended up choosing to do two internships, at both The Windish Agency and BMG Chrysalis.

If I were to give summer-bound students advice on the internship search, I would tell them to stay open to all opportunities, and not close themselves off to only a few options. It is important to have focus on what you want to achieve internships-wise, but also important to not put all of your eggs in one basket, and the opportunity to interview and interact with a variety of companies is invaluable. I found that each interview allowed me to prepare better for the next. I would also say that choosing one or two cities to target would be a good idea, because different cities offer very different environment and opportunities. I think having in mind the kind of environment you want to live in and can afford to live in is a very good starting point. For me, deciding from early on that I definitely wanted to be in New York allowed me to target my search in a smarter and more practical way. Nevertheless, I stayed open to opportunities in Los Angeles, and did a couple of interviews just in case. This allowed me to get a feel for the different vibes in both the New York and LA music industry setting.

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