You’d never hear Jen Corelli tell you that as internships go, she had a pretty unique one and that it led to a job that would make a pop culture junkie turn green with envy. But it’s true, even if she’s far too modest to point that out.
The publicity co-ordinator for MuchMusic just blushes when she’s told people must be jealous of her position, replying, “Yep, but I don’t think they understand how much we work here.” Her internship at the music television network from May to August of 2007 taught her just how much: She spent her busy days drafting press releases, helping on-air video jockeys prepare for interviews and photo shoots and lending a hand at live shows such as MuchOnDemand.
“There is no typical day. They’re all quite varied,” says Corelli, 25, of life inside the iconic building on Queen Street West. “A big part of what an intern does is media monitoring: Print, broadcast, online media everyday and putting together a package so everyone knows what’s going on. It’s also the intern’s job to archive the information so we can always go back to it if we ever need it.”
It’s more than likely that her work during last summer’s MuchMusic Video Awards earned Corelli her stripes. Short a body during the MMVAs, one of the busiest times of the year for the network, Corelli picked up the slack and helped promote the broadcast that enjoyed an increase in coverage from the previous year, her peers in the PR department say.
“It was a busy time doing the MMVAs last year. Everything worked out well after that,” she says.
Corelli now heads the internship program at MuchMusic and has some words of wisdom for prospective volunteers: The elite pop culture status that comes with working there can be glamorous, but you have to earn it.
“We have a great staff. They’re very supportive. But we work hard, just like anybody else,” she says. “I don’t think any job is fun and games all the time, but if you enjoy what you do, then while you’re working, you’re still having fun.”
