SEO, WORDPRESS AND SALT’N’SAUCE – LEARNING TO SPEAK A NEW LANGUAGE
By Mary Taylor
SWAPPING the Moray Firth for the Firth of Forth I moved to Edinburgh to begin my month as an intern at the award winning agency Holyrood PR. I undertook an internship with an Edinburgh PR Agency, here I detail how I got on.
I applied to the internship as my final year at university was drawing to a close and the fear of ‘what now?’ was starting to spread among everyone. The dreaded question of, ‘What are your plans for after university?’, began to emerge with many assuming, thanks to my languages degree, that I was off to pursue the only two possible careers available to language students – teaching or translating.
I had thought about PR for a while but having no previous experience I wasn’t sure in what direction to go or whether it was the career for me and the internship at Holyrood PR offered the perfect opportunity for me to discover this.
Walking into the office at 9am (after waiting in the car park for 20 minutes because I was far too early) I had no idea what to expect even after reading all the previous intern blogs but I was immediately made to feel part of the team and was put to work as soon as I sat down.
I won’t go into detail about all the tasks you’ll be doing as everyone’s time here is different but I can assure you that you’ll be thrown into it and you’re going to enjoy it, promise.
DON’T BE SHY
I’m quite a quiet person normally but in this job I’ve realised that you need to speak up, ask all the questions you need to and if there is an opportunity for a brainstorm come prepared with ideas, no matter how silly they may seem it’s good to speak up.
THAT FIRST PRESS RELEASE
I was given my first press release to write on my first day and I can say it was absolutely nothing worth putting on the kitchen fridge – I’ll leave the property selling to Kirsty and Phil. However the more you write the better you’ll become and by the end of the third week you’ll be surprised by how far you’ve come, just don’t be afraid to take your time and ask questions and don’t beat yourself up if your first attempt is pretty awful, remember you’re here to learn and gain experience.
THE PHONE
I stared at it with the same fear of past interns when I was tasked to phone up journalists. It’s a daunting task but just write out a small draft of what you’re going to say, know the contents of the story and don’t just sit there and stare at the phone, there is no one scary at the other end. By the end of the second week I was a lot more comfortable on the phone and the whole procedure came a lot more naturally.
THE TEAM
The team are arguably the best part of the internship, they make the continuous alarms (6:30, 6:45, 7:00, and 7:15 before the eventual stumble out of bed at 7:20) and the occasional run for the bus worthwhile. They are really supportive, friendly, a good laugh and are something to be admired, they see PR potential in all things and can turn a chat about Pokémon Go into a PR campaign for one of their clients in a matter of minutes. Listen and learn from them and get stuck in on the tea runs (sorry guys I lacked on this) and they’ll provide you with good banter in return.
Joking aside this internship has provided the perfect insight into the world of PR and has highlighted my strengths and my weaknesses. It’s given me valuable experience that I won’t find anywhere else and I’m sad to be leaving.
If you’re dead set on a career in PR or just want to find out a bit more about the realities of a job within it apply now, you won’t regret it.
YOU COULD BE STARTING YOUR INTERNSHIP WITH AN AWARD WINNING PR AGENCY.
Fill in the form below to apply for an internship with us.
