Ahhh, I have my computer back. Yay. Apparently it was filled with viruses. $140 later they were all gone.
Onto my internship and today’s “your thoughts” post..
I feel kind of silly now about all the stress I was having this summer about internships. Everything is falling into place. I sold two articles about trail running to a new outdoor magazine that is launching in Kamloops. I also recently made a deal with one of the local papers in Fort St. John that I would write five or six stories leading up to the bodybuilding competition in June (a very interesting topic, btw, that I hope to post more on later). And, next Monday I start my internship!
I decided to do my internship at a public relations agency rather than a newspaper. I am a journalism and public relations major and I’ve already had a lot of journalism experience so I want to try out the PR side of things. I love journalism, I do, but I don’t know if it’s my niche or not. I did a week at the local paper in Fort St. John back in December and it wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped for. It was fine and I really liked it. I didn’t love it. I’m hoping that this internship will help me figure out whether I want to do PR or journalism, or maybe a bit of both..
I want a challenge. I want the kind of job that makes me feel nauseous because the tasks at hand seem so daunting. I want a job where I have adrenaline pumping through me as I work. I want a job where I can get through a whole eight hours or more and not even think about checking my Google reader, twitter or facebook. I want a job where I will be consumed by my work, thinking about it even when I’m not at work. I want my work to frustrate me and make me think. I want it to push me to the verge of tears so that when I do accomplish a large task, I will feel truly proud of myself.
During my interview, the owners of the agency told me the position would be challenging but I would learn a lot. To be honest, I don’t really know that much about public relations. My first year in the j-school was centred on writing and print journalism. I don’t start taking public relations specific-courses until next year. I’m hoping this internship will help me get on the right track. I’m actually looking forward to being an intern; famous last words right.
For all of you that have been there, what kind of advice do you have for me as I’m about to embark on my very first internship? For all those other public relations majors and professionals, is there any PR specific advice you can give me?
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Honestly — I wish my college made internships/co-ops a requirement. they weren’t, so I just got jobs that i could just find. 7-8 years ago there weren’t as many internships that were paid, it seems quite a bit more nowadays.
Honestly, You’ll probably learn more at this internship about Public relations than you’ll learn in the classroom. Everything that i went to school for in graphic design/photography, most of what i really needed to know, I learned on the job. so soak up all that knowledge and NETWORK. get to know people, it might lead to a job after you finish school!
I don’t really have any advice…but I know what you mean about wanting to be challenged!!!
internships are hard, but you learn SO much! Learn as much as you can from this experience and it will help you in the long run like crazy. i loved interning!
Well I’m not in PR/Journalism but I did a few internships. All I can say is being open minded the first few days, understand you may be a bit overwhelmed and that yes, you may want to throw in the towel BUT it will get better, you will learn a lot, make new friends and overall have a great new experience =)
I found that smiling a lot, taking on new projects (even if I had no clue what they were) voluntarily and being positive in the office helped a lot. They even offered me a full-time position (granted it would have been unpaid for awhile, but still!)
Can’t wait to hear all about it!!!
I was reading your post and the whole time thinking to myself I can relate. I’m in a position where I get paid really well with great benefits, and I sit on blogger all day. I say since you have the chance take advantage of it! go for what may be hard but you can feel accomplished some days!
Good luck
I have had three internships, all journalism, but I think I have some advice for you:
-Listen well, take notes at meetings, observe your co-workers. You will learn a lot just be seeing and hearing.
-Don’t be afraid to ask questions. In my experience, my editors/bosses always would rather me ask too many questions but do the job right than ask no questions and do it wrong. When you’re an intern, there’s no stupid questions because you’re learning!
-Take on any task, no matter how small or menial, with a smile. Be positive and don’t complain– at least not in front of your boss.
-Now, you don’t want to start interns wars/competition, but if there are other interns, you kind of are competing. You want to be the best. Sometimes that means staying later than the others. Just work hard and stay on top of things and your boss will take notice, especially if the others don’t take the internship as seriously as you.
-Take initiative. Some places don’t want to hear from interns, but others love new ideas. If your place is the latter, feel free to pitch!
-Lastly, just be friendly. Everyone likes a friendly person, right? So go to lunch with colleagues, fellow interns, offer to bring back a Starbucks for your boss, you know…
you already got the wardrobe down and the smarts so I’m sure you will do fabulously!!
oh, one more: keep a running list of the contacts you have made with their phone numbers/emails etc. you never know when you will need them in the future!
btw, my job seems to fit the description of what you want yours to be. mine is challenging, can make me nauseous, lots of adrenaline, especially on deadline or in the field, it definitely frustrates me at times and always makes me think and there has been more than one occasion where it’s pushed me to tears. however, I still get distracted by blogs! haha, I think that is also just a symptom of working from home.
I totally agree, internships are a great way to network. Make sure to stay in touch with all of the people you meet and take up any offers to be put in touch with other people in your field. I still find myself calling on some of those people I met during an internship to help me with stuff for my job now!
pr is cool, that’s all i really know. you get to deal with cool people, and spin important shiz. pr people get into (and create) the coolest parties and social situations and get tons of free stuff. and that’s all i know about that.
Good luck w/ your first day. I totally wish I would have done an internship when I was in college. But they weren’t really pushed when I was going to college.
I too pine for a job that challenges me! i want to be so busy that I don’t even think about checking Reader or FB!
Hopefully some day!
LOL I’m useless I don’t have any advise….I did like your post though…lol you totally sound like me!! I thought I could carry the world on shoulders…lol I still do!! That’s awesome!!
Your so young….take the world by storm Amber!! 
Katrina
You’ll be great. PR requires the ability to research a lot, find an interesting way to talk about a product, event, etc and to be able to ask a lot of questions. I think the important part of an internship is use that opportunity to show yourself. Offer to do things that go above and beyond your scope so you get the experience and so that others at the agency see you as a go getter who they will be excited to give a future recommendation to.
I’m hoping your internship works out better than mine did in college. Really all I feel like I learned there was how to get really good on solitaire. I’m sure yours will easily top that!
Everybody has such great advice!
I’m hoping to go into research, so instead of “internships” really I’ve taken a lot of grunt work jobs at labs. One thing I’ve realized is that every job/lab is different, so they may not represent the whole field as far as excitement or pace or atmosphere goes. That’s just something to keep in mind. Internships really help you see the basics of a job though: is it more hands-on or desk-job, is it inside or outside, what exactly do you do during the day? And you have to decide how that fits with what you want from life. You’re going to do a great job there!
~Amanda
Amber,
“I want a job where I will be consumed by my work, thinking about it even when I’m not at work. I want my work to frustrate me and make me think. I want it to push me to the verge of tears so that when I do accomplish a large task, I will feel truly proud of myself.”
This comment could have come out of MY mouth. All I can say is, “Amen, sista!”
Have a great night sweetie!
With Love,
Emily
Internships are really the way to learn about PR - you can only learn so much from theory, it’s all about putting things into practice. I completed 4 internships while in school and they were all valuable in some way or another. Keep in mind that some tasks for interns aren’t necessarily the most interesting (data entry), but make sure that you ask for more work. Don’t finish a task and wait for the next one, show your initiative! Also, talk to the people in the office - get to know them and how they got involved with the field. They will be useful references for the future.
Much of this sounds like common sense, but just keep it in the back of your mind. I’m sure you’ll be great and learn heaps!
My two internships were both in PR/Marketing. The first was at CMT in Nashville, and the second at Capitol Records. Granted, neither was a PR agency, but the experience I got was valuable nonetheless. Be prepared to make a lot of copies and put together press clippings. Definitely be proactive - I wound up freelancing at CMT while I was interning at Capitol because I was always proactive, not only in the Press Department, but anywhere I could help. Good luck!!