FT Life and Arts By Jessica Abrahams

Wednesday 20 July 2011

I strode proudly into the FT offices on the first morning of my internship doing my best to look natural in a suit, in a pathetic attempt to convince passers-by that I actually worked there. Little did I know I’d already given myself away. The atmosphere on the 2^nd Floor, home of the Weekend edition, is busy but relaxed and I didn’t see another suit for the rest of the day.

After a tour of the building and its different departments, having seen everything from World News to Illustrations, we were invited to sit in on the morning conference. This is run largely by the daily newspaper editors (they were wearing suits, actually, but I suppose it’s unlikely any passers-by mistook me for them) with the occasional interjection from the Hong Kong office who were just closing up for the night. It was an exciting opportunity to see how this international paper is run from the top on a day-to-day basis, and a taste of what – fingers crossed – the other interns and I could achieve in our careers.

Having been returned to Life & Arts, I was immediately thrown into it and introduced to everyone, who showed me the ropes and couldn’t have made me feel more at home. At the end of my first week here, I have done everything from fact-checking, proof-reading and updating the events calendar to writing a sidebar for the travel section, going through full training in the FT’s content management system and attending a talk by CEO John Ridding. There are a lot of other interns spread across the different departments, which creates a really friendly atmosphere and talking to them all has given me a good sense of how the newspaper operates in different areas. I’m really looking forward to spending the rest of the month here.