Sander Thoenes fellowship is an exciting way to learn the trade on one of the world’s most respected dailies. You will rotate around the newsroom and work on several desks. During my three months, I wrote on Americans who trade their presidential votes across states, the shortage of large cargo ships to carry Brazilian bananas to Japan, Kazakhstan’s space programme, fresh setbacks in the fight against AIDS, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine - and a lot else.
The pay - £5,250 over three months – is quite enough to live on in one of the world’s most expensive cities. The editors treat you like a member of the staff and management is concerned that you get most out of your experience.
A word of advice: if you are genuinely interested in writing about business in emerging economies, make sure to position yourself to do just that – either with the International Economy or the Companies Markets sections. Pitch ideas or get yourself involved with developing world coverage, and pay no heed to territoriality. A stringer in Colombo, for example, does not preclude you from writing about the effects of tsunami on Sri Lanka – if you find a fresh angle from which to do it.
Alex Fak was the 2004 Sander Thoenes intern at the FT.
