How To Excel in Your Public Relations Internship With These Seven Strategies
Becoming a PR intern for the first time can often involve a combination of both excitement and trepidation as you navigate the unfamiliar and possibly even intimidating aspects of the PR industry. Whether completing your first assignment independently or collaborating with other team members, you must be prepared for anything. Think of your internship as the first chapter of your professional story, and like the beginning of all impactful stories, you will want to make it memorable. Use these seven strategies to write the memorable first chapter of your professional story as a PR Intern.
#1 Be prepared. How do you want to develop your professional story?
Research is key. In the PR industry, preparation is essential to any project you will be working on, so it’s important to research the company you will be interning for before your first day. Familiarizing yourself with the company helps you minimize the nervousness that often comes with the first day and will enable you to take initiative, contribute at meetings, and discuss ideas with fellow interns or mentors. Here are some questions to ask yourself before your first day (If you can't answer them yet, then take this time to do some research. Bonus points if you did your research before your interview!)
What are the company's core values?
What is the company’s professional story?
Who are the company's clients?
Who is the team you will be collaborating with on projects?
What will you be working on during your internship? Once you know this, you can start generating ideas for your future projects and assignments.
What are previous notable campaigns the company has worked on? What made these campaigns successful?
Another excellent way to prepare yourself is understanding how to navigate the PR industry and apply the strategies you learn to your internship. At Moresco PR, our founder, Ali Moresco, created a Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Healthcare PR + Social Media that will help you conceptualize the complexities of the PR industry.
#2 Plan Ahead. What is the next chapter in your professional story?
Formulate a plan of action for yourself. What do you want to learn during your internship? How will you execute this plan?
What are my objectives and goals during this internship?
What skills do I want to cultivate and hone?
How do I plan on applying these skills to my professional story after this internship?
Am I open to working at this company in the long term?
How do I build connections in the industry at this company?
After you've asked yourself these questions, you can establish what you are truly looking for from this internship experience.
#3 Be Organized. How will the aspects of your professional story be arranged?
Once you begin your internship, you will likely be managing multiple projects and assignments at a time with strict deadlines, so it is important to create a calendar outlining your daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities. Managing your time on a tight schedule can become overwhelming, so even accounting for each hour of your day is helpful. I use the Structured app, which helps me to schedule what I will be doing every minute of the day, minimizing any additional time that I would not be using productively. For important dates and meetings, digital calendars such as Google Calendar work well for providing you with reminders hours or days ahead of time for optimal preparation when synced to your mobile device. Most importantly— don’t forget to take regular, consistent breaks to avoid burnout.
#4 Ask Questions. How will you remove the big “what if” question in your professional story?
Feel free to ask questions. During your first internship, you are still learning. You will inevitably have questions, so be bold and ask for additional information on an assignment or support with completing a task. This approach saves you the time of explaining why an assignment was not completed efficiently and minimizes delays if you did not ask for help earlier (because, yes, it will eventually be necessary, so it is better communicated as early as possible).
#5 Use Your Resources. How will you use the plot devices in your professional story?
While navigating your first internship, you will have a wide range of new experiences. Working in an in-person office space may involve an experience as simple as the excitement of having a coffee machine while working remotely may allow for more flexible communication. Regardless of what opportunities you have, use them to your advantage. Depending on the company's size, various unique opportunities will exist, from working at an international firm to a boutique firm– each with their own beneficial resources.
#6 Learn from a Mentor. Who will matter in your professional story?
Build meaningful connections with your colleagues. Whether it be a fellow intern or other team member, creating relationships between your colleagues supports your career even after the conclusion of your internship. Finding a mentor in a superior role can be especially helpful in navigating your first experience as an intern and help you learn from their own experiences in the industry and build your credibility within the company for a future career opportunity.
#7 Express Gratitude. How do you want to end this chapter of your professional story?
Before and after your internship experience, express gratitude for this opportunity. After a tedious application and interview process, this company selected you out of the other candidates to represent them, so be excited, and most of all, show gratitude!
Expressing gratitude can be done in a plethora of ways. It is in the way you value other colleagues ' time by arriving early to meetings. It is in the way you complete your projects efficiently and effectively. It is in the way you always meet an important deadline and consistently show up for your team and yourself during this experience. Every moment matters, especially if you are interning for the company for a short period, so be present and willing to go above and beyond in your work and interactions with others. Make your presence memorable and develop a positive narrative of the first chapter of your professional story.
Final Chapter: Lastly, do not underestimate the power of a thank you note.
Formal "thank you" communication is equally important at the beginning and conclusion of your internship. I often like to personalize the communication by handwriting a card, but an email is suitable too. You are articulating your appreciation for this experience, so it is crucial to detail the valuable skills you learned, the projects you enjoyed working on as an intern, and emphasize how much you valued the internship. Include specific examples of these experiences, and try not to generalize your gratitude in one sentence. If you are interested in working for the company in the future, do not be afraid to say so. Create an opportunity to stay in touch by sharing your LinkedIn profile or other contact information.
With these seven strategies on how to excel, you’re well on your way to successfully completing the first exciting new chapter of your professional story as a PR intern.
Check out Moresco PR’s Intensive Guide to Healthcare PR + Social Media to gain an invaluable resource on how to create compelling content that you can apply to your internship.
Follow us on Instagram to learn more about the PR industry with our Fundamentals of (Moresco) PR educational content series, where you can enhance your public relations vocabulary and strengthen your knowledge as a public relations professional.
At Moresco PR + Communications, we specialize in amplifying the voices of clients to authentically foster impactful change in the Wellness and Lifestyle communities. Do you have questions? Email us at info@amorescopr.com.