This summer the London bureau of FSN, PASSION for the PLANET's news partner and the world's leading independent news agency, has been blessed with a steady stream of talented, helpful and generally lovely work experience placements / interns.
In previous jobs though I've worked with some genuinely awful work experience people, so I'm drawing on them for my 'DON'Ts', rather than the excellent helpers we've had in recent months. (Promise).
In the incredibly tough current job market for journalism graduates, impressing a news editor on a work placement is more important than ever: you never know when he/she will have a job going, or will recommend you to someone else who's looking...
Some of these tips are less serious than others, but all are worth bearing in mind.
DO volunteer for anything and everything that needs doing.
DO ask for feedback on your work.
DO turn up on your first day knowing about the broadcaster/publication/company you'll be working for, and what it does.
DO check in regularly with your news editor if you're sent out on a story.
DO offer to make tea.
DO learn to gauge when someone is crashing on an edit or approaching a deadline and hasn't got time to chat.
DO arrive having read the newspapers (or at least having watched/listened to the morning bulletins).
DO turn up every single day with story ideas/coverage possibilities.
DO offer to go out with correspondents/journalists on stories, even if only to help carry stuff. You can learn a lot from watching a journalist work outside of the office.
DO keep in touch once the placement is finished.
DON'T grumble about being asked to go out to do vox pops. It is a rite of passage for you (and for the person asking you to do it).
DON'T blame the equipment if something goes wrong. You should have checked it...
DON'T be defensive if your work is criticised constructively. Lap up any advice going.
DON'T be late. News editors hate journalists that are late.
DON'T EVER come back from an assignment without the material you were sent to get, or admit defeat when given a task. Unless you can prove a near death experience has taken place.
Olly Barratt is FSN's Director of European News Coverage, and the regular World News anchor on PASSION for the PLANET.
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