When I first got the email from my Penguin Random House (PRH) recruiter, I almost fell off the treadmill. In the preceding months, I’d completed two rounds of interviews, both of which had been scary at the start but had turned surprisingly conversational. Both my HR recruiter and my PRH supervisor really wanted to get to know who I was over those brief interviews, and the things I shared with them, they remembered, even on my first day of the job six months after that congratulatory email.
During my summer internship at PRH, I worked as an Editorial Intern for Random House Books for Young Readers. My supervisor, Tricia Lin, was so excited to welcome me for my ten weeks on the team, introducing me to her coworkers and setting up coffee chats with people in other departments. Some days, I had back-to-back meetings with people simply excited about sharing what they do with me. I got to hear from people who worked in sub rights, production, marketing, sales, managing editorial, and publishing. And the more I heard, the more puzzle pieces clicked into place. I started to understand how each individual role contributes to the bookmaking process. But more than this, I started to feel at home.
PRH employees are from all over the place, and the first person I really connected with outside of my own department happened to be from the same county in South Florida where I grew up. We swapped high school stories and phone numbers (recognizing our matching area codes, though neither of us lives in Florida now), and she set me up with more people I could network with from different parts of our home state. There were also a lot of employees from California, and talking with them about where I go to school and what bookstores I just have to go to one weekend made me feel like there was no distance between me and their home offices at all.
While I learned about the different tasks that make up an editor’s day (including a not-so-surprising amount of emails and meetings), the most valuable part of the experience was discovering that I just might love it. More than developing a feel for the roles I am interested in pursuing from here, I fell in love with the sense of home fostered in my imprint. I loved being part of a community that worked together to achieve such incredible goals, and I knew these were the kind of people I could be friends with for a lifetime. I am excited to keep in touch with all the wonderful people who I connected with as I begin to charter a career. I know they are in my corner, rooting for me (and also begging me to start watching Star Wars) every step of the way. Even now, after the internship is over, the distance between California and New York does not feel very large.
This opportunity has felt like a fever dream, something so impossible, I doubted its existence every day. It’s also something that never could have come to pass without Sigma Tau Delta, literally and financially. The stipend from the Penguin Random House Internship Priority Application added the extra income I needed to keep me focused on learning instead of frantically searching for side jobs. Every time I was asked how I came to the internship, I was proud to say it happened through Sigma Tau Delta, and I am so thankful to say this dream of mine became real.
Kelly Taylor
Penguin Random House Internship Recipient, Summer 2024
Student Advisor, 2024-2026
Alpha Zeta Iota Chapter, President
Chapman University, CA
Penguin Random House Internship: Priority Selection Application
The Penguin Random House internship program offers candidates the opportunity to work in the Penguin Random House Adult & Children’s divisions, attend weekly professional development programming, and learn about the world of publishing. This program is intended to provide opportunities for racially/ethnically underrepresented groups in the publishing industry. Active chapter members interested in learning about the world of marketing in book publishing are encouraged to apply. No prior publishing experience is required.
Interns will work remote for 21 hours per week at a pay rate of $20/hr. Intern schedules will be flexible to account for candidates who may be located in a variety of time zones. PRH offers internships in such areas as Editorial, Marketing, Publicity, Sales, Art/Design, Legal, Book Making, Finance, and Subrights. Internship offerings vary from cycle to cycle and will be announced by PRH when they open their application portal.
Eligibility
Applicants for Priority Consideration for a Penguin Random House Internship must be:
- an active student member of Sigma Tau Delta;
- pursuing an undergraduate (junior or senior) or graduate degree;
- enrolled part- or full-time in a degree-seeking program;
- enrolled at a school within the United States (includes DC); and
- legally authorized to work in the United States.
Application Dates
Applications for the 2025 Fall/2026 Spring Penguin Random House Internship Priority Consideration will be accepted on the AwardSpring platform through February 3, 2025, at 4:00 p.m. CT.
The fall/spring internship is a single internship opportunity offered to an individual student who will work ten weeks in the fall and then an additional ten weeks in the spring. Internship dates will be announced by PRH when they open their application portal.
Applicants must apply for Sigma Tau Delta priority consideration via the Sigma Tau Delta AwardSpring platform AND apply for the actual internship directly through the Penguin Random House Application Portal.
Past Penguin Internship Recipient Blogs
My Summer with Penguin Press
Delving into Publishing with Penguin Random House
My Summer with Penguin Random House
The Summer I Turned Into a Penguin: My Surreal Time as Penguin Young Readers Intern
Exploring the World of Children’s Publishing with a PRH Internship
Hidden Heroes: Working as a Production Editorial Intern at Penguin Random House
Interning at Penguin Random House through Sigma Tau Delta
An Internship Like No Other: Perseverance and Publishing at PRH
Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together: My PRH Internship
The One Where I Remotely Interned at Penguin Random House
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome to Apply for a PRH Internship
Saying ‘Why Not’ to a Career at Penguin Random House
Publishing in the Time of Covid: My Virtual Internship at PRH
Not So Random Memories from My PRH Internship
Making Protagonist Choices: My Internship at PRH
Perfect is Penguin: My Internship at Penguin Random House
My 140 Hours Interning at PRH’s Razorbill
How an Internship Shaped my Career
Spending Summer in an Igloo: My Editorial Internship with Penguin Random House
Interning at Penguin: Life of a Book Nerd
The Halfway Point: Penguin Group (USA) Summer Internship
More from Footnotes: January 28, 2025
Summer Program Scholarship
My Incredible Experience as a Sigma Tau Delta Journal Intern
Book Club Quick Kits
2025 Convention Update
Lifelong Learning Summer Program at Girton College
Sigma Tau Delta Chapter Fundraising Week 2025
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