PR Expanded Guest Post: My Experience as an Intern

A Guest Post By Rosaria Robidoux, Intern, Pure Performance Communications

Every internship is different.  Different location, different department, different field. Within these internships there are five things every intern learns in different ways.  When Deirdre asked if I would be interested in writing a post to discuss my experience as an intern, I immediately began talking to my friends who also have internships and started my brainstorming.  I compared the tasks I do to the tasks that my friends are told to do.

1. Organization is key. Yes, I knew coming into my internship with Deirdre that I would need to be even more organized than I already am, but I did not expect just how organized.  Whenever Deirdre gives me an assignment to do, I immediately write it down in my planner so I don’t forget.  Little did I know, that soon it would begin to overfill the pages.  I look at what I need to do and all my notes for one week. Sometimes, I do not know where they begin and where they end.  Honestly, I love this part because it keeps me busy and keeps me on my toes for whenever I get another task handed to me.  This also works well with time management.
2. Time Management is necessary. Even though, my internship is remote, my tasks still need to get done. I need to stay in an appropriate time frame.  There are times where I feel overwhelmed, but, what intern doesn’t feel overwhelmed at some point in time?  It is all about the learning experience and learning to juggle so many tasks at once.  Deirdre, she has a hectic schedule; contracts to uphold, and nonstop media needs to be posted.  My job is to help her out the best way I can, but when I do run into some difficulty, she is there to help me through it all.  I think that is part of the reason why I have been able to learn so much through her in the Public Relations field.
3. Pay attention to detail. I have come to learn, especially when dealing with any client, to pay attention to what they say, and what they want done.  Approximately once a week, I joined Deirdre on a client call and took the notes for both parties.  After my first time taking notes, I realized that I need to listen to everything that is being said.  If there is any mix up, it can really confuse the team, and probably create some conflicts.  As one of my other tasks, I am to help her create her social media calendar and make sure it is posted twice a day on all her media channels.  Here, is where I need to pay attention to her brand voice and make sure that everyone involved in the post is mentioned.  It’s really important to pay attention to the little details, instead of skimming over it.
4. Stay positive. This may sound cliché, but as an intern, when you are at that point of feeling overwhelmed, you need to stay positive.  Every internship there are some rough times, whether you are struggling to write an article or you can’t seem to build the prototype the correct way.  You are an intern, you are going to feel discouraged at moments but once you get through them you realize that you have learned more about the field and about yourself than you originally thought.  I know from personal experience, there was a point in time where the posts I created just were not right, and I became discouraged, but then I just went through them again, comparing them to how Deirdre writes, and went from there.  Deirdre is great about checking over things.  When she needs me to look over a post and re-word it, she gives me some guidelines on how she would like it done, which is honestly very helpful, and I go from there.
5. Lastly, love what you do. Even though you are an intern, you should appreciate the opportunity you get to explore the field you want to pursue.  Whether you are just delivering coffee, or creating calendars, you are one step closer to your dream than you think.  Looking at how hectic Deirdre’s schedule is, and everything she is involved in, puts in perspective what I want to do as a career.  I love the feeling of being behind-the-scenes, because then once I reach my career goal, I will know how it works inside and out.  I feel like this internship is one that helps me learn how this crazy busy field I am getting myself into, but it made me love it even more.

Rosaria Robidoux is currently a junior at Curry College studying Communication and Business Management with a concentration in Public Relations.  Rosaria graduated from Agawam High School in 2015 and expects to graduate from Curry College in May 2019. Rosaria is on her school’s women’s tennis team and Vice-President of Curry College’s Public Relations Student Association chapter.  She is currently an intern for Deirdre Breakenridge.