Your thoughts: Internship

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?