I recently completed an unpaid internship at Texas Lifestyle Magazine as part of my journalism program in Texas. Initially, I thought it would be a great opportunity to explore the lifestyle niche, but it turned out to be one of the worst experiences I've had. The onboarding process was chaotic, and I didn't even meet my boss for a week. When I finally did, she apologized for the lack of clarity, which set the tone for the rest of my time there. Throughout the internship, I noticed several issues: my boss frequently changed meeting times last minute, the editorial content was more PR than journalism, and communication was generally poor. I submitted my own writing piece, and they advised me to avoid mentioning any negatives, which was frustrating. As the semester progressed, my boss offered me a chance to return as an unpaid editorial intern, but I was already in the final round for a paid internship elsewhere. When I declined the offer, my contributions went unacknowledged during our team meeting, which felt disheartening. To make matters worse, I learned that my internship would extend beyond the semester without prior notice, which I hadn’t planned for. I had already completed my class credit and was juggling multiple jobs and classes. I reached out to my boss for analytics on the posts I created, which garnered over 100,000 views, to help build my portfolio, but I never received a response. This experience has made me realize how some companies exploit unpaid interns, and I’m now actively applying for more legitimate internships for the fall.