“I’ve been reviewing Darren’s internship journal. Doing laundry, mending chicken wire, high tea with a Mr. Newman?”
“Well, it all sounds pretty glamorous, but it’s business as usual at Kramerica.”
“Far as I can tell, your entire enterprise is little more than a solitary man with a messy apartment which may or may not contain a chicken.”
“And with Darren’s help, we’ll get that chicken.” (Seinfeld, “The Voice”)
That’s how I started a blog entry I wrote almost exactly 5 years ago. Alert reader and best friend Trevor recently brought it up in conversation, so I went back and took a look at it. The timing was right because I’ve been toying around with the idea of a Stonemaier Games summer internship. So it made me smile to look at a few of the types of things I wanted my intern to do back in 2009:
- Retrieve cat toys from under the couch
- Remove cat hair from Jamey’s clothing
- Keep a transcript of all meetings Jamey has with friends, including lunch meetings and general discussions with his girlfriend that Jamey may need to reference at a later date
- Take Jamey’s popcorn back to concession halfway through the bag for a new layer of butter and salt
- Listen raptly when Jamey describes all the cool soccer plays he made that day at pickup and then later saying “Remember when you made that awesome play?” as though you were there
Of course, I was just joking–those are all things I’d have a personal assistant do, not an intern. An intern at Stonemaier Games would do things like:
- Playtest games
- Create and revise prototypes of games
- Playtest game submissions
- Design games
- Develop games
- Pack and ship games
- Pack and ship replacement parts
We haven’t seriously played around with this idea. I mean, I just went full time a month and a half ago. But I am intrigued by the idea. I work from home, so I envision something like subletting another apartment in the building and having two interns stay there (rent and food would be their compensation for the summer).
It’s just a thought. What do you think? Can we get that chicken?
Yes, why not. Teach your interns and they well hopefully return the favor in terms of helping you out. I have experience in this arena. We can continue the conversation over e-mail when you are ready.