Confessions of a PR Intern: Just Getting Started!

Hi everyone,

I hope you’ve been enjoying a fulfilling and fun-filled internship!

I’m Cheryl, currently a final-year student at Curtin Singapore studying for a BA in Marketing and Public Relations.

I’ve been at Fleishman-Hillard Singapore for about 14 weeks now, and I must say, time really flies! For those who haven’t heard of FH before, the agency is one of the best in the industry globally (a word of caution: I might be biased!).

Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, based in St. Louis, Missouri, has a network of 80 offices worldwide. FH is under Omnicom Group, a holding company that also manages numerous other agencies – Porter Novelli being one of them. The agency’s capabilities stretch across multiple areas of PR; including, branding, web management, CSR, crisis management, media relations, et cetera.

At FH, the emphasis is on “old-fashioned client-comes-first” customer service, creative solutions, relationship management and hiring the best talents. Since I’ve been in the agency, I’ve seen how committed everyone is to delivering their best for our clients, even if this means keeping insanely late nights. Pretty inspiring, I have to say.

Before I jump in and share more about what I do, I’d like to share my story on how I ended up at FH.

I’d already worked for a small, local PR start-up before commencing my studies at Curtin Singapore and was quite insistent on not going down that route this time. I wanted the challenge of working at a reputable agency, and I knew getting in to one was not going to be easy.

It started with a quick search on Google for internship opportunities in Singapore. I found one from FH almost immediately, calling for interns. Bonus - strong command in Mandarin not needed. Of course I jumped on the chance!

Here, I thank PR220 for teaching us how to prepare for job applications – résumé, cover letter, a decent passport photo, gathering whatever assignments I thought showed my writing capability… I think I stressed myself (and my friends) with the somewhat-massive list of things to do.

I sent that first and only internship application to FH. It must’ve been God’s grace that they called back almost immediately. Within two weeks - post-interview and writing test - I was offered my 19-week internship with the Technology team at FH!

My job scope involves me supporting the various accounts I’m on – Philips Consumer Lifestyle, Philips Lighting, Philips Lighting Digital, MSIG, TLL – though also helping out with new business proposals and pitches, research, compilation, et cetera.

What’s really exciting to me is the many facets of PR – being on five accounts isn’t quite as boring when the expectations and requirements of each is different.

For example, supporting the Philips Consumer Lifestyle account gives me a glimpse into product branding and promotion; MSIG lets me practice first-hand what I’d learnt in PR360 – internal communications and employee management; and being placed on the Philips Lighting Digital team has proven to be a great chance to learn about a very ‘hot’ area in PR – social media, web and community management.

Tasks I’ve been involved in so far include editorial pitching, editorial development, research, organising media drops, compiling monthly reports and daily monitoring and posting on social media pages… Are you thinking there’s something very common not in that list? Yes, I’ve been one of the few lucky lucky lucky interns not tasked to do media monitoring – three cheers, hip hip hurrah! :)

I’ll share more about my time at FH, and what I've learnt through this internship in a bit. If you have any questions or would like to suggest a topic you’d like me to touch upon in my next blog post, shout out in the comments below! I love fan mail. :)

Have a great week ahead!

Cheers,
Cheryl

15062105 / Curtin Singapore