I am a recent college graduate hoping to pursue a career as a journalist (feature writer). Currently, I am a marketing intern at a respected, award-winning regional theatre company. In college I majored in theatre, although I also minored in journalism, wrote for the school paper and interned with two renowned journalists.

I have sent out resumes to a few newspapers for reporter positions and recently received an offer to work in a primarily administrative position as an editorial assistant (this is not the position I applied for, but it is the one that has been offered to me.) Time permitting, I might also be allowed to write feature stories on occasion.

I am unhappy with my internship — mostly because I am no longer interested in marketing — and want a job in journalism. However, they need me as an intern at the theatre company, and would be very angry at me if I chose to leave. My internship officially ends July 2010.

What do you think I should do?

The Career Doctor responds:

You don’t need to hear this, but I do wonder why you took the internship in the first place if theatre was not something you were going to pursue as a career.

I think before you decide anything, you have some big questions to ask yourself — and answer.

First, what is it you really want to do for a career? It sounds like writing, so perhaps you have answered this question, but humor me and ask it again.

Second, where do you want to live? I think it’s kind of odd that you would take an internship on the West Coast while now searching for jobs on the East Coast.

Third, why are you not using your network? Take the time to consult with your journalism professors and the journalists in your network. Get their advice — and perhaps get more names of editors you can contact about jobs.

Typically, I tell job-seekers to never burn bridges because you just never know who you will see again in your job search. That said, if you can answer all the above questions and want to pursue this editorial assistant job (or some better one that comes from your network), then you should do so… but be professional with the theatre company and give them as much notice as possible.

If you do take the editorial assistant job and you have not had anything published after six months, you will need to start looking again for another job. In all my past experiences, editorial assistants were basically go-fers.

I have applied several times to a particular company and just discovered, much to my horror, that I had been spelling the city’s name wrong (at least three applications so far). It’s a two-word name and I made it one word. Worse, it’s a company I do business with regularly and that’s one of my “ins” into the company, my “knowledge” of them, and yet I didn’t know such a small thing. How embarrassing, but worse, how damaging to my credibility.

I just applied for THE position I had been waiting for and it was after I mailed that letter that I realized the mistake I had been making. I was hoping so much to finally get an interview with this company and now this. Is there any way to recover from this error? Should I follow-up with an “at least I’m consistent” light-hearted, letter or hope they didn’t notice as it was going to a different department?

The Career Doctor responds:

If the job you are applying for is that of an editor or proofreader, then perhaps it’s a major blunder, but otherwise I think you can just let this error be. In the great scheme of cover letters, it is MUCH more important to get the name of the hiring manager and name of the company spelled correctly — and I am assuming you did that.

Look at DeLand, where I am based. Most of the mailed correspondence I get spells it as Deland, and don’t even get me started about how people pronounce it. Regardless, while I would of course recommend all job-seekers have perfect spelling and grammar in your cover letters, I would not make a big deal of your oversight.

I might be concerned, however, about someone who has applied for three different positions within the company. Are the positions similar? Do you have any sense why you were not interviewed for the previous positions? If you do have a few contacts within the company, I would ask them whether there is any “word” on your reputation from the people within the departments you are applying to.

And speaking of cover letters, wanted to share this comment from a job-seeker who had asked me how to make a bigger impact with his cover letter for an internship — and I told him to deliver it to the manager personally, but when doing so to be prepared for an on-the-spot interview, which is just what happened: “Just writing to thank you again for your advice with my cover letter for an internship and how to deliver it. I found the manager’s name, and went to deliver my letter to her today. She was so impressed with my initiative of actually delivering the letter by hand, that she interviewed me on the spot, and wants to set up a more formal interview in the near future. Thanks so much, your edits and advice about actually hand-delivering the letter were invaluable, and I really appreciate your time.”

I am 21 years old and I am going to enter the workforce in about a year. I am completely stressing out about my future as well as my major. I received my AA in communication studies. Communications is what I intended to major in for my bachelor’s, but instead chose sociology. The reason why I am so concerned is because many people have told me that there is virtually nothing you can do with a degree in sociology. I am not sure as of yet what I would like to do but my interests sway toward marketing, advertising, or public relations. My question for you is if it is possible for me to still have the opportunity to get into these fields with a sociology degree? I plan to intern at a public relations firm this year.

The Career Doctor responds: