Interns will research Utah technology companies, mostly software as a service (SaaS) companies, but also life science, biotech, medical tech, fintech and other consumer-oriented companies that are connected with Utah. Students will participate in in-person or Zoom interviews with CEOs, founders and executives of several dynamic Utah companies making a huge contribution to the economy and jobs of the state. Past companies include Divvy, Adobe, Ancestry, Clene, Health Equity, Pluralsight, Sarcos, Vasion, Recursion, MX, Qualtrics, Route, Brandless, and many others. Interns will first observe and eventually conduct interviews. The interviews are recorded in Otter.ai and/or Pickle. Interns will use the interviews to create a first draft of a story, usually between 800 and 1,000 words in length, reflecting the ideas, facts and content of that interview. They then work with TechBuzz staff to edit and refine the draft into an article suitable for publication on both our website, TechBuzz.news, and on partner sites such as UtahBusiness.org which is owned by Deseret News. Students are listed in the byline. Most students end the internship with several published articles that they can cite on resumes, applications, etc.. Utah Business has syndicated, or re-distributed, most of our stories, including those written by interns.
Expected Outcomes of this Internship:
This internship will afford interns an opportunity to become published writers and to build their resumes. They will learn much about journalism and the process of crafting news articles. They will learn about technical writing, as they cover technologies that are often highly specialized and technical. They will learn about corporate communication, such as using Slack and Zoom, and become a part of a writing team, working closely with others to craft the best possible story. They will learn or deepen their copy-editing skills. They will get to know Utah’s vibrant technology community and the economy in general. They will become acquainted with many of Utah’s business leaders and investment houses. Many of our interns have received job offers from interviewees based on their performance in interviews and the quality of the communication after the interview. Some have gone on to work for major broadcast news stations in Utah: KSL, ABC4 and others.
Other points:
- Article frequency. We would like interns to complete an article every 7 to 10 days.
- Interns will learn a particular journalistic writing style that we follow (see our site for examples). We will provide a style guide (compiled and refined by BYU student Mattea Gygi) that we expect them to study and follow. It reflects general journalistic writing principles that most news publications embrace. We strive for accuracy. Interns will have the opportunity to interact with interviewees to verify facts and accuracy before we publish the article.
- We will check in with interns via Slack on a regular basis to discuss progress on existing projects, new projects, new ideas, suggestions, etc. We encourage interns to communicate regularly with us via Slack, text or phone, as needed to continue progress on your writing projects. We may have a one-hour weekly call, usually on Fridays, with all TechBuzz interns to discuss projects.
- Internship Duration. The duration of this internship is flexible depending on your internship requirements. We are flexible on your hours per week you work on projects, but 10-12 hours will be typical for most weeks.
Mattea Gygi, one of our finest interns from 2021, is now working part time at TechBuzz while she attends BYU (English major) and is coordinating the internship program.
Interested students may reach out to me directly at mark@techbuzz.news or to Mattea Gygi at matteag@techbuzz.news.
