Hands-on practice in-house

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

After having completed my second week at NEUW I feel that I now have a good understanding of the business. With a more hands-on focus this time, most of this week I prepared and edited their winter ’13 look book. What does that mean, some of you may think? Basically, it's everything from shooting flat-lays of the products to edit the layout in InDesign. I would like to recommend everyone wanting to pursue a career in public relations or marketing to learn InDesign and Photoshop. I’m self-taught, and have found it very useful for uni assignments as well as editorial pieces.

My first two weeks at NEUW confirmed what I already knew: PR involves numerous different types of tasks. It could be anything from research, strategy and layout to conferences, brainstorming meetings and events. PR is not a career where you only deal with one type of people – and that is what I like about the profession.

One of the reasons I wanted to complete my PR internship in-house was simply because I have found it fits my personality better. I have always enjoyed the thought of understanding the company you’re communicating for inside out, and that way being able to using all information to either improve/promote or sustain how the business operates. In-house practice is not for everyone though, and there are definitely positive sides with consultancy. Handling several different accounts across sectors might be the most motivating, but also that you usually specialise within a few areas.

NEUW employs both in-house experts and consultants. In other words - you get the best of two worlds, especially when dealing with consumer relations. Because we are living in a hyper modern fast-paced world, a consumer's mind-set and buying patterns change rapidly. In my opinion, behavioural and attitude change are the two most interesting aspects of communication. Does anyone agree (or disagree) with me? 

On my last day before the Christmas break I presented my own business recommendations to my supervisor. Next step, to begin when I’m back in mid-January, is to execute some of my suggestions. My supervisor initiated this structure, as we knew I was only going to be available for a short amount of time. I have to say it makes me feel important and very much more a part of the staff team than 'just' being an intern. It’s also definitely one of the better ways of learning.

Sara