Once upon a time, paid internships were like gold dust. Every student and ambitious professional wanted one, while only a handful of employers offered such opportunities. Thankfully, the story is a little different now, and the amount of paid opportunities are on the rise. But even so, it can be difficult to know how and where to find them, as well as figure out which one is right for you.
As someone who’s been a PR intern for coming up to a year now, I thought I’d share some of my key learnings, as well as reveal how I came to land this position.
How I found my internship at Nellie PR
There are lots of excellent reasons to seek out an internship: experience, learning opportunities, career development. My decision to pursue a PR internship came from wanting a career change. I’d been stuck in a rut for a few years, and when Covid19 hit I - like many others - saw an opportunity.
So at the start of 2020, I went back to university. I’ll mention here that you in no way need to be in higher education to land an internship. Internships are educational experiences in and of themselves, and so a decent employer will be looking at your natural skill set and work aspirations, rather than your educational background.
During my master’s degree in professional writing, I gained insights into the range of career options for writers, including copywriting, journalism, copyediting and marketing. These all appealed to me for different reasons, but I was finding it difficult to narrow down a career path. Thankfully after doing some research, I realised that there was a role that would allow me to experience them all - PR. From writing content for clients, press releases for journalists, and generating digital marketing campaigns, it was a role I knew would give me ample opportunity to explore my interests.
Wanting to learn more, I reached out to a friend of mine who worked in PR, who in turn suggested I got in touch with Nellie PR - my now-employer. Ellen Carroll is the founder and director of Nellie PR, and she also provides in-house training for other PR teams throughout the UK. Situated in the South West, I knew she’d be an excellent contact for me to have, particularly with her extensive reach with other PR professionals in my vicinity. I emailed her requesting a zoom chat, referencing the mutual friend who had put us in touch, and prepared a list of questions - about the job itself, the industry, where I could fit myself into it, the best ways to start out as a novice etc. I’d done my research on her company too, of course, and noticed that she offered paid internships, but I was careful not to get my hopes up.
But then we met, and we just…clicked. We got to know one another and what we were looking for, and at the end of the meeting she offered me an internship.
I’ve been the PR and communications intern at Nellie PR for 10 months now, and in that time I’ve learned so much - about the job, but also about myself and how I like to work.
My responsibilities as PR and communications intern
Internships are inherently diverse, depending on your employer, your experience, and a number of other factors. For me, I wanted a PR internship that would allow me to experience as many aspects of public relations as possible - which I told Ellen up front. A lot of people say that you need to have clear career goals in mind from day one, and that you should never apply to a role you aren’t confident you can perform. But in my experience, that advice doesn’t apply to internships. They can be as adaptable or as rigid as you want, and as long as you find the right employer to match with, there’s no reason you can’t try your hand at a number of different things.
I started my internship writing blog posts for the Nellie PR website, figuring out basic image design software and creating visual content, updating key-dates lists for clients, and other general tasks. As my confidence has grown, however, and my skill set has developed, I have taken on heaps of other tasks. Some of these now include:
- Social media management for Nellie PR
- SEO development
- Designing visual/written content for PR and client purposes
- Compiling media lists
- Conducting interviews
- Coverage research
- Writing press releases
- Writing blog posts
- Attending online webinars
If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be doing half of these things, I wouldn’t have believed you (and I definitely would’ve had to look up what SEO stood for). But with training and guidance, I’ve managed to discover skills I never knew I wanted, which has in turn opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for my future career.
Tips for landing your perfect internship
As mentioned, my own experience gaining an internship was fairly off-book and involved a lot of luck, but I do think there are things to be learned from this unconventional approach.
- Very few companies will advertise their internships on job sites. To find most opportunities, you’ll have to visit company websites. Research heavily before you start sending out feelers, because while the ‘big’ opportunities at the well-known companies may seem ideal, they will be competitive, and you may get a much more personalised experience somewhere else.
- Make sure you know what you’re looking for. Be honest with yourself and with your employer - tell them up-front what skills you’re looking to develop and ask as many questions as you can so that you’re both on the same page.
- Make sure you know what the company is looking for. I was very lucky to find a good employer on my first try. Our working styles match one another, and the tasks assigned to interns were perfect for what I was looking for. But internships work both ways - your employer has an empty role they need someone to fill, and while it’s tempting to say ‘yes’ to everything as an intern, if you’re not interested in the role they’ve got on offer, you’re not going to be getting the experience you’re looking for. It might be best to keep looking for that perfect match.
- Be open to new things. You may or may not have a clear idea of what you want to learn during your internship, but it’s always good to keep an open mind. By doing that, you’ll stand to gain so much more from your experience - even if that’s just learning what you don’t like doing.
- Don’t be afraid to reach out for an informal chat. It’s natural to have questions - you’re entering a new career after all - and showing your genuine interest can look really good to potential employers. Not all meetings will end in a job offer, and that’s okay. Building connections and making valuable contacts will do so much more for you than sending out a hundred and one CVs.
- Some invaluable key skills. Each job role will require different skills of course, but in my experience, there are a few that can never be overlooked, particularly if your internship is remote. These include: organisation (that’s a big one!), communication, excellent written skills, and time management. If you have a weakness in any of these areas, I’d suggest finding some tricks to manage them, because they will all come in great use - trust me!
Written by Tillie Holmes, PR and Communications Intern at Nellie PR - LinkedIn.
Nellie PR is a virtual PR, communication and marketing consultancy that helps people and businesses step out of the shadows with #PRthatPAYS. To find out more, visit the PRCA’s page: PR and Comms Employers that Pay their Interns, where you’ll find a helpful list of businesses offering paid opportunities.