A REFLECTION ON MY TIME AS AN INTERN AT AN EDINBURGH PR AGENCY

By Toby Trees

DONE. It doesn’t quite feel right to be at the point of having to be writing my Final Week Blog, the time has flown by and that’s quite scary.

My time as an intern at Holyrood PR has almost come to a close. In my First Week Blog I said how this internship was the best internship I had undertaken, and in the weeks that have followed since then that feeling has only been more assured.

These four weeks have been so much more than just a learning experience – they have been a growing period. I have experienced the day-to-day workings of an agency, through my own tasks and by seeing how everyone around me operates. With that, I feel a lot more confident in myself.

In the mix

For anyone reading this who might be thinking about undertaking or preparing to undertake an internship at Holyrood PR, then the last thing you need to worry about is whether or not you are going to have enough work to do.

You will never be short of tasks and challenges.

I’ve still been being kept busy with press releases and blog posts but, alongside those I have also been challenged to juggle other tasks that have allowed me to gain valuable experience and develop new skills that I can add to my arsenal.

Being asked by Scott to complete a competitor press coverage analysis task for Dermal Clinic was a task that I was really glad to have been assigned. From my background I understand the importance of competitor analysis and it felt great to be able to implement some of my already established skills into my work here.

I know the importance of SEO as it was a key feature of my studies at university and is key throughout my Google certificates. So, being asked to do a manual SEO rankings check was quite an experience. Seeing and understanding, first-hand, the significance of SEO and the competition it generates was, for me, rather fascinating.

These two examples demonstrate the wide range of tasks that can be assigned to interns. This internship equips you with far more skills that writing press releases and blogs – it also allows you to see almost every cog that turns to keep the Holyrood PR machine functioning and gets you fully integrated into the team.

But it’s only right to talk about the blogs and press releases again as, when I’ve been assigned one of these writing tasks, they’ve been utterly fascinating and ultimately very rewarding. Two stand-out press releases for me were for clients Bield and Blackwood.

To get information for my release for Bield, I spoke with Private Glassford, a war veteran, about his experiences and his life – it was a real privilege to speak with him. And for Blackwood, I spoke with a tenant who is the founder of a powerchair football team – that was very interesting. Since our chat, his team are top of the league and hearing his passion for the game I really hope that they finish there at the end of the season.

What next?

The feedback I have received for my contributions has been very positive and constructive. Having been unsure of how I would fare in both PR and agency environments I’m a lot more aware of my strengths – the ones I knew and the ones I didn’t – and know how to improve upon my weaknesses.

For all the feelings of being unprepared to start here, they are now nothing in comparison to the feelings of being unprepared to leave.

It has been great working here, with the people and the clients. My time here has flown past and it almost doesn’t feel right to be leaving.

I took a leap and tested myself by trying something new – a decision I’m delighted I made and I’m truly grateful to Holyrood PR for taking me on. I’m taking away a lot more than I could ever have imagined.

Think you could find success as an intern in our Edinburgh PR Agency?

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