11 Reasons Why Interning In LA Beats Interning In New York

They say if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. So why not go and make it someplace where life is going to be nicer to you? Don’t get me wrong—I love New York. It’s the center of the universe, the city of all cities. I lived there for four years, I guzzled the Kool Aid, I fell in love with everything about the place. But New York also broke my heart, and after trying to “make it” in the major metropoli on both coasts, the verdict was made abundantly clear. If you’re gonna work your ass off for free, LA is a better place to do it. Period. And here’s why:

1. There is little chance that your boss will propagate the abuse they experienced during their own New York internships.

2. No corporate dress code. Jean shorts: great. Band t-shirts: wear them. Panty hoes: burn them. Blazers: toss them into the Pacific. Casual comfort for all.

3. You don’t have to schlep your school stuff and heavy notebooks all around the town like a bag lady if you’re heading to your internship after class. You can leave them in your gloriously convenient automobile.

4. People in LA are generally less formal and uptight, thus you’re more likely to have a friendlier and more flexible boss.

5. Real estate is cheaper, which means overall bigger, nicer offices. No more dark, cramped slave quarters for the interns. Yes to windows and breathing room.

6. If you’re not interning in the entertainment industry, your field is automatically less competitive than it would be in NYC, which means more legitimate opportunities/responsibilities.

7. There’s always the chance you’ll run into a beautiful Hollywood type while on coffee runs. Or green juice runs.

8. There are fewer hyper-ambitious and professional go-getters than in NYC, so if you are one, you’ll climb the ladder pretty damn fast.

9. It is customary to take actual lunch breaks instead of hurriedly gulping down a bagel while furiously typing at your desk. Again, this is simply because people are overall less comfortable with stress and misery.

10. Angelenos aren’t unimpressed by what college you attend. Employers in New York have already seen every degree from every school in the world, prestigious or not, a million times. They don’t care. They interviewed half a dozen people who are twice as over-achieving as you are before lunch. In LA, no one will shrug off your school or area of study.

11. When you leave the office at the end of a particularly sucky day, you get to sit in your car by yourself and cool down, instead of sitting next to a billion people on the subway, soaking in their equally annoyed and burnt out energy.