Throughout my life, I have worked with a lot of people. Some of my colleagues were in the beginning stages of their career, some were in the prime years of their career – and some were at the tail end of their career. Whenever I would leave a job, I would always wonder what happened to those former colleagues of mine. Do they still work in the same field? Have they been promoted? Do they still work there? In most cases, I would never find out or I would hear what became of someone through the grapevine – but last week, I got reacquainted with an old colleague of mine – and learned just how far she came since we worked together.

I met Mary when she came to The Brooklyn Baron and applied for an internship/writing position in January of 1997. From the moment I met her, I saw the hunger and desire for journalism in her eyes. She was a very eager, young lady who wanted very much to write for a newspaper and learn as much as she could about journalism. After a brief interview, I decided to hire her and saw immediately that her hunger and desire were valid. From her very first story, she showed signs of a veteran journalist. She always made deadline, never turned down an assignment presented to her – and even asked for more stories when she felt she wasn’t given enough. After only a short time on my staff, I was glad she was a part of my team of reporters.

There was, however, one problem with her working for me. My publisher – although owner of a newspaper – had no interest in reporting the news, only profiting from it. So he insisted that I only hire those reporters that would work for experience rather than a paycheck. So despite her excellent work – I could only pay her with compliments. I did try many times to lobby to my publisher on behalf of her and the rest of my staff – but he would not hear it. “We’re giving them exposure, they should thank us,” he would say. No matter my staff’s dedication, productivity, or level of performance – everyone got paid but them.

Don’t get me wrong, we had some reporters that were not worthy of a dime – because when you don’t pay – you don’t exactly get the best help, but Mary was different. She was one of the few reporters out of my team who deserved a paycheck – but I could never give her one.

Mary and I worked together until I left the Baron in October of 1997 to go to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. When I left, I apologized for not being able to ever pay her, but tried to convey to her that her work was worth an executive salary. After I left the paper, we lost touch – until now.

Mary e-mailed me after finding my website through a Yahoo! search. She wanted to get together and so did I. I was very interested to see what had happened to her since she worked for me at the Baron. I had hoped that despite the fact that she did excellent work for a payless job, she at least gained something out of her time at the Baron – boy did she ever.

It turns out that Mary has gone from an unpaid intern and reporter to a member of a prominent Public Relations firm. Her innocence and politeness has remained, but that is now coupled with strong confidence and a good head for business. She is quite well versed in the ways of Public Relations and deals with an impressive list of clients – yet she is just as eager as she was when she was looking to get her first article published. It was then I realized that despite my publisher’s adamant effort to not pay her – she earned a lot more than money could have ever given her – she earned the experience necessary to propel her into the business world and become successful – experience she has used wisely.

I am very proud of Mary and very glad that I knew her when she was just starting out. She has tried to thank me for her success, but I told her that the only person she should thank is herself – because if she wasn’t as good as she is – the company she works for now would not have hired her – and I wouldn’t have either.