Not that it matters, but this is what we know from the show. In TPvLL the hologram of Perry states* (and nobody objects) that she started at the Planet as a research assistant between '86 and '88 (she would have been 19-21 years old at the time, so this would have been during college or right after if she graduated a bit early). I'm assuming she worked and went to college at the same time. Maybe she started out as an intern and got hired as a research assistant.
Good point. Since she went to the University of Metropolis, she probably did an all-year internship kind of thing and they rehired her. We have them at my paper and they last the duration of the school year. Lois, like most interns, probably was assigned to do research for the real reporters' stories, and once she proved herself (and we all know that would be first on Mad Dog's agenda), was assigned some smaller pieces, maybe puff pieces or obituaries, and took advantage of being able to get experience at a REAL newspaper during college, and worked her way up to where Perry hired her right out of school.
I have remarked more than once that it is not common for a reporter who is in her mid- to late-twenties to be THAT successful at such a large paper. It's just ... not. So I am sure her internship there helped her hit the ground running.
Clark, on the other hand, would probably have struggled to get a good internship being in the middle of nowhere at Midwestern University. I bet he did his internship at the Smallville Gazette, which would contribute to Perry not thinking he had enough experience when he applied at The Planet the first time.
