Journalism internship at BILD.com - Berlin

BILD.com is the English language site of Germany's largest news and entertainment portal, BILD.de.

We will soon have a journalist internship position open and are currently looking for someone to start work at our offices in Berlin, Kochstrasse (main Axel Springer headquarters), from 1 Sep 2009.

There will be no time to make coffee as you will be a fully integrated member of the editorial staff! Your main responsibilities will be translating German articles to English (and copy editing them to fit our English style) and writing articles based on your own ideas and research on a variety of topics.

It will be an excellent chance for someone wanting to make a career in journalism, particularly online. You will also learn a lot about Google optimisation, social media and internet journalism in general. You will also be required to use our content management system, a skill essential for working in any internet newsroom. And of course it will look great on your CV.

The internship is set to last 3 months and is a full-time job. The salary is 400 Euros per month.

If you are interested then please send an email with your CV to david.knight@bild.de

That's like 2.50 Euro an hour?! WTF?

How would you expect anyone to live on this?! I'm doing an internship in Berlin and am earning about 800 a month for about 15hrs a week! I know it's an internship but for christ's sake, you can't survive on just that!

Are there any opportunities in the BOOBIES department?

Thank you

It does, actually, sound like it could be a great opportunity for someone out there.

But yeah, 400 Euros a month - the already wealthy are really the only ones who can afford to take it on.

From someone who was a journalist, until coming to Germany two years back, good luck to anyone going for it.

Yes, internships are the new "mummy and daddy have got money" marker, aren't they, particularly at the best known media names? Or perhaps "I'm here on a trust fund".

However, I agree with you, if we have the luxury of disregarding the 2.50 an hour pay. For anyone who can meet the spec and afford three months of low paid work as a credential that's an "investment" in their journalism career in Germany, it does sound like a good op. If I were one of the many journalists popping up here saying "I'm moving to Berlin and where's the work", it'd be great "foot in the door", for those with fluent German, at least.

in the u.s., most internships don't pay anything. i did 2 internships while studying and it was horrible - internships were good, but i was so broke, i had to work evenings just to afford buying food. i was exhausted.

the reason i ended up doing a full-time internship in germany is cause they paid me, at the time 800 DM a month (plus room and board).

Internships have always been an integral part of journalism careers and they are usually done for college credit, not cash. The chance to work with Arsenal Dave alone is worthwhile -- I did my internship on the business desk of a crappy New England paper. Bild would have been way better.

Internships in Germany are rarely well paid, most are free. Sure €400 isn't a huge amount but there will be plenty of people coming here for a small chunk of time who were planning to mainly live on savings, and 400 would definitely top that up.

Besides, the main thing is the fact it looks great on your cv and you get a chance to learn from (at least 2) excellent journalists.

Yes, yes, yes -this is pretty much slave/free labor- just like most internships, but at the same time it IS also actually a "good oppoertunity," really.

as someone who has done this very same practinkantship, and who knows a few others who have done it, all I can say is stay away. Rowans not a bad bloke, but some other members of his team are, and it will lead to nothing.

If you know where you are going and want some cool experience on your CV this could be very good. Many places don't pay anything at all - interns aren't always very useful and can cost a lot of time for the trainer - especially if the next intern is coming in 3 month's time. Internships can be a great foot in the door in some countries; maybe even here but don't count on it.

Yeah basic free labor. I did one briefly for OHS before signing on , with grant money, only to be let go a few months later when grant was canceled. Did not mind though summer was upon us and when I got the call I was high so everything was cool....

To be more mean I recall it was often a joke when you heard someone brag they got an internship at the Willamette Weekly. I mean anyone could get it as long as you worked for free and on their whim. It was also a shitty paper after 2000 so why place it on your resume?

Any of those unfortunates who have been an intern at Bild know the real reason for the translation of their "stories" into English?

I say translation in the loosest sense of the word, translating "Die Linke" as "the Left Party" is an absolute shocker.

@ Healthy Physicist - You sound as if the place scarred you for life. What was so bad about the praktikum? It's always the big companies which treat interns the worst.

@ The Overcoat - what is the real reason for the translation of their stories into English? Someone once told me it was to give English speakers an alternative to Deutsche Welle.

I personally think praktikums/work experience/internships should be outlawed. They are soul destroying for the praktikant and the full time workers get annoyed if the praktikants get in their way.

400 is fairly standard, and is what I'm on currently (intern status, not actual intern tho)

I did get 900/month for my last one. I've heard of some higher ones. Depends on field, company, location etc.