The Search for The One

Credit: Anna Ginsburg (http://annaginsburg.tumblr.com/)

People often say applying for an internship is difficult, however I found the search for the type of internship the hardest part. In my first blog post, I wanted to share my experience with the processes involved in finding the right internship.

After interning around town and figuring out what I don’t want to be doing after graduation, the search for the industry I wanted to try next was proving a very hard task. With a PR degree there are so many options! From media advising in politics, to events management in fashion, and strategic planning for the government – the possibilities are endless.

The great thing about interning is that you can try out different fields (with little risk) and see where your interests lie.

After months of consideration (and probably procrastination and some help from this Tedx Talk), a couple of days before semester started I decided on the arts for my industry placement, and narrowed it down to performing arts. It gave me a lot more motivation once I figured out what I truly wanted to pursue.

I researched a little online, but figured that I wanted to work at an organisation that is less well-known in Perth.

With my interest in contemporary dance and the not-for-profit sector, I called up my organisation and asked whether they took on interns (knowing that an admin person usually answers and the standard response is “email us your CV”). In the email that went along with my CV, I pitched myself in a brief summary of my skills and exactly what I wanted from an internship with them, and didn’t beat around the bush.

I think a good tip is to research an organisation and kind of figure out what area they are potentially lacking in, and try and sell yourself for a position that would help with that, as they’ve probably realised they need help in that area too.

Anyway, discussing my role with the executive director was really interesting and has shown me that a lot of people see PR and marketing as the same thing (Maybe I should have shown him this) . It was good to clearly talk about my role beforehand and confirm exactly what I can bring to the organisation, what they can do for me and projects I would be working on within the PR department.  

Maybe you had a completely different process of going about finding your internship? Let me know in the comments! This is just some food for thought for future PR industry placement students, which I hope is helpful for the initial stages of finding somewhere to get experience.

Tl;dr: Don’t be discouraged if you don’t exactly know where you want to go, take time to figure out what interests you, research the industry and pitch yourself.  

- Aimee