Hey everyone. I’m writing this from a random coffee shop in San Francisco. I hope this finds everybody well.

I just noticed that my New Next column in Media (for May 2007) just came out. Here is the link to it. If you don’t have an account with Mediapost (I don’t have access of the hard copy to scan a PDF quite yet), here is the body:

We’ve probably all experienced life as an intern so that we could gain more practical knowledge of our industries. Depending on where you worked, though, your experience was either richly rewarding or very deeply tedious. If you are an employer and relish internship season, ask yourself why that is. Is it because you are finally approaching that time of year when you can pay somebody next to nothing to get your dry cleaning picked up, articles scanned and copies made?

If yes, then shame on you. You should relish it because you would be tapping into the minds of an emerging generation of potential employees. Interns and first-time hires (although they may lack experience) often know more about culture, trends and the new digital world than the corner-office suit - because they viscerally live it. To show this, I have interviewed Heron Preston, one of our part-time collaborators. He hails from San Francisco and currently studies design and management at Parsons.

>>Heron, how did you get into this industry?

When I first moved to New York City, I was a curious sponge. New to the design and management field, I attended lectures given by industry leaders. My tipping point was one given by Darrel Rhea, CEO of market research/consulting firm Cheskin. He was describing the different roles of CEOs in the innovation process. What really did me in was when he described a job he was working on that involved redesigning Australia’s tax system. My prior knowledge of design disciplines was typical: graphics, interiors, fashion. I never knew design could be considered a form of organization, a way of thinking, or a process.

>>What changes in this industry are you most excited about?

What I am most excited about right now are the creatively-thinking youth (DIYs) and the platforms that foster their inspiration, and crowdsourcing. What’s so cool about these two changes in the market occurring at the same time is that when they work together, they can produce some meaningful value.

Web 2.0-supported Web sites such as YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia continue to inspire kids everywhere to create content for themselves in hopes that their content will reach an audience. We show off our lives and work, and now we can network and share. At the same time, we have Web sites like psfk.com that keep us in touch with marketing and business.

Tapping into the talents of the world is a pretty hot concept to me. Could this threaten traditional models? When you look at sites like Opened.net and Coroflot.com, you have to think about what this means for the future of the business. Our industry is moving so quickly that it’s created a culture of experimentation.

>>What do you want to do when you graduate from Parsons?

I want to focus on how I can turn my passions for people and culture, creativity, networking, travel and skateboarding into a lucrative service. I’d love to continue learning from Naked because of the entrepreneurial spirit it has, and the different talents on the team.

The hiring is very strategic here - Naked celebrates diversity of experience in a calculated way. Another intern is from Luxembourg and speaks six languages; we have youth culture and entertainment marketing experts; we have digital jacks-of-all-trades; we have management and research veterans; we have creative strategists, and lots more. With all of us coming from interesting places and having strengths in interlinked areas, we can pool resources to develop more well-rounded (and less generic) solutions to our clients’ business issues.

Whether you’re hiring an intern, a junior or anybody else, always keep your eyes open for the brilliant misfits. You might find them straight out of school, breaking out of a traditional agency or at a recording studio. The key is to look for good people rather than a skill set. Young people are eager to consume and produce stimuli; they have unrestrained and untainted views on the changes that happen every day in our industry. This new generation has fast-forward futures ahead. If you ignore them, you surely will have a future behind you.

Now for the beauty of the democratization of publishing. This wasn’t my original article for this month. The interview questions were different, Heron did a bang-up job, but my editor refused to run it. Because I loved Heron’s responses to that one also, here are those questions, and a little anecdote afterwards:

>>Heron, where do you come from?

I was born and raised in the San Francisco bay area, so by nature I’m a skater and a computer geek.

>>What were you doing before this internship?

During my senior year of high school I started Heron Preston, my t-shirt line that was sold in Japan, NYC, LA and San Francisco. After high school I moved to New York to attend Parsons for Design and Management. I then started HeronPreston.com in my dorm room, which is now my full time blog. It acts as my platform for content on people and culture, networking, creativity, travel and skateboarding.

Shortly after that, I moved to Paris for six months. In addition to learning a little French, my hunger for discovery was fed. Here I built an international base of contacts and extended my name to Europe.

>>What was your previous internship like?

I was a planning intern at an ad agency - I was hungry and wanted to sit in on meetings, brainstorms and be active within the company. It didn’t really turn out that way. I felt more like a freelance guy who’d come in, get a job done and leave. Most of the time I would have so much free time I’d sit there and do my own thing. They paid me more than the average intern and I still wanted to leave. I got along with everyone there and am still friends with them today, but they didn’t work me to the point that I felt needed.

>> What have you been working on lately at Naked?

I was recently given the job of recruiting ten of the coolest kids in NYC for a Tastemakers panel. When Naked also asked me to develop a framework for the panel and guide the discussion all by myself, I freaked out. I had never done anything like that before; our clients were going to be present as well, witnessing my every move.

I also work on internal business development with the private company blog I started to deliver the newsletter I write in an efficient way. My title is intern, but I sure as hell don’t feel like one.

Before I close, a (related) short anecdote: I once had the worldwide planning director of a global ad agency gesture towards the bottom portion of my résumé that contained more personal stuff about me – places I had lived and the types of brands I was loyal to, for example. She said, “You could stand to get rid of this part. I don’t care about your life or personal preferences. I just want to know what you can do.” Boy oh boy.