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I'm planning to move to D.C. in the next few weeks-month. I just started a brand new career path, and have one substantial internship under my belt. This is in the marketing and business sector, but I mainly want to focus on non-profits. From the research I've done, it seems as though I need one more internship to get some sort of coordinator job in the field.
These internships are almost always part-time, with paid or unpaid options. So I will need a full-time job in order to make a living. What do you guys suggest that I do, one that I can start with right away, while I pursue my career? I would like to make at least $40,000/year (or thats what I've read that I can live off of). I'm a young female, people person, and I think I would need $1,000-$1,600 for rent to live comfortably (or so I've read, again).
I had a friend that got a full time job here with a nonprofit making I think 39K. She had very little debt and got a studio apt for around $1400. She made it less than a year before she had to move back home because she couldn't make ends meet.
Another internship? I spent the last 20 years of my career in the non-profit sector, and have never heard of this for any of the organizations in our arena. Plunge in: get an entry-level paid job and prove yourself.
The best way to make ends meet on an entry-level income is to live with others. A group house or shared apartment. And if you can locate near mass transit so you don't need a car, even better.
It depends on your debt, but $1500 will yield you a decent studio, but...... very little else wiggle room for much of anything else. You also would have to factor in electricity, gas, water, internet bills.
Then you have to factor in the cost of just living, food, having a social life being a young girl in DC. You're going to be hurting and struggling. Even if you had 60K, that would work, but it's hard to make all of that work on $40K.
I like Chriz's advice. A roommate might work out better for you, you could find something where you're paying $1000 a month. DC isn't the cheap-ish city it used to be, especially on that salary of $40K.
Another internship? I spent the last 20 years of my career in the non-profit sector, and have never heard of this for any of the organizations in our arena. Plunge in: get an entry-level paid job and prove yourself.
The best way to make ends meet on an entry-level income is to live with others. A group house or shared apartment. And if you can locate near mass transit so you don't need a car, even better.
^^^ This. Internships are almost always a waste of time and money, you money. Get a job and get a roommate or two or three.
Thanks for all of the informative help, guys! I think my plan is to join a temp agency, stay out there for a week or two, when job is established, find roommates. Here's to making it!
^^^ This. Internships are almost always a waste of time and money, you money. Get a job and get a roommate or two or three.
But aren't internships where you learn valuable skills in marketing, operations, etc.? I'm looking for a job to pay the bills, and an internship to actually learn what I need to know for a higher-paying job in the future..
I've seen quite a lot of people who have a 'second' internship after they graduate. If this is what you are talking about, I wouldn't recommend it (unless you absolutely can't find any full-time job) for several reasons:
--if the second job doesn't segue into a full-time job offer, every employer you apply to will wonder why. Even with good references and a good explanation, people will wonder.
--If you consider two employees one year after hire, most people won't be able to tell the difference between one that had an extra 3-month internship, and one that didn't. As an intern you won't likely be given as much responsibility so the skills you will learn won't be as beneficial or informative to a subsequent full-time position. You're just postponing starting your career, not preparing yourself for it.
--An internship is supposed to be a learning experience. Legally speaking, an internship is supposed to be of primary benefit to the student, not the employer. If you have already graduated, your learning period is over (other than that in the general sense we are always continually learning). The benefit to hiring an 'intern' who has already graduated, then, is really to the employer, not the intern. They are hiring an 'intern' so as to avoid paying benefits and committing to a full-time position. Do you really want to work for an employer who is only hiring you to avoid paying you or someone else a fair wage?
--It doesn't matter if your title was 'intern'....your resume will always show that after graduation, you worked for your first employer for only 3 months. Job-hopping isn't as much of a stigma as it once was, but it would still be preferable to avoid starting your career with a short job stint.
As for what you can afford, the typical formula landlords use is "1 mos rent x 40 = annual income". It's extremely unlikely that you could afford an apartment for $1600. And I know of no apartments for $1000/mo in any decent neighborhood. Not even a dingy basement apartment in a sketchy neighborhood. I mean you might be able to find one in the middle of an open-air drug market but I would seriously not recommend it.
If you want to intern in DC, you need to plan to live with many roommates (possibly more than there are bedrooms) and probably have a part-time job too. Or have wealthy parents (which is what most interns in DC seem to do).
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