There's a new set of internship rankings for Mad Men in training who are scouring America for the perfect first-advertising gig.
Internship King, a year-old website, has collected the top advertising internships across the country and is asking former interns to rank them until midnight Friday. (Click the link to vote). Interns have also listed pay, pros, and cons about their experiences.
Click here to see the results so far>
"Some agencies will have unpaid programs so it's a way to have cheap labor, but others provide a platform," Ted Williams, founder of Internship King, told BI. "And the feedback from the agencies is great—they're happy to have a place that's a hub to talk about agency programs."
Right now the race for first is close between Campbell Mithun and MRY, which have overwhelmingly more votes than other, bigger agencies.
Although this information proves useful, two potential problems stand out. Even though an experience at CP+B Miami is probably very different from CP+B Boulder, the ratings are compiled into a single result for the agency as a whole. Salaries also only give an approximate amount since it averages pay from various years and different seasons (usually school-year internships are for course credit while summer is compensated).
Oddly, interns are encouraged to vote 25 times a day, so if you don't think that programs are being properly represented, now would be the time to cast a vote.
What do you think? If you have internship stories of agency experiences, email them to LStampler@businessinsider.com.
1. MRY
Headquarters: New York, NY
Annual Interns: 15
Average Pay: $10/hour (although many said it was unpaid)
Pros: "HUGE clients;" "Listened to my ideas;" "I think the best part of the internship was the intern project. I had an intern group of 7 and we created a campaign for a well known consumer product brand. This was a great experience and we got the chance to pitch to the whole agency at the end of the internship."
Cons: While most past interns listed that there were "NICHE players" and "You would be CRAZY not to love interning here!" one noted that he/she "wanted to see more production (TV, Print, etc)."
2. Campbell Mithun
Headquarters: Minneapolis, MN
Annual Interns: 13
Average Pay: $10.30 (ranging from $13 for Copywriter to $9 for account manager)
Pros: "Get credited as an Art Director on campaigns (as opposed to being a junior or intern)," "Led to an entry level position," "I became super close to all the other interns and I learned what it's like to work at an ad agency day in and day out. Everybody at Campbell Mithun was outstanding to us interns and easy to work with - I could tell they took pride in their well known internship program."
Cons: "The client/product isn't as sexy as shops on the coasts. However, the product is always strategically sound and managed in a manner that impresses their clients." Although one other noted that some clients were "conservative."
3. Erwin-Penland
Headquarters: Greenville, SC
Annual Interns: 20
Average Pay: $8.11
Pros: "Down to earth people;" "Erwin-Penland allowed me to see all different parts of the business: media, creative, and production;" "Learned paid search on Google and Yahoo!/MSN. I ran analysis on these campaigns which is a great hard skill to have."
Cons: "It's only 8 weeks," "Greenville is definitely a family town...not as accommodating for the young crowd," "not the agency of record for Verizon, they just get a large portion of the budget."
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