Young, Smart and Struggling in the Industry: a PR reality check from an intern and a managing direct

Part 1 by Jackie Casey (The Intern, Bango Media)

Here’s the thing: my parents were alarmed when I declared I was going to be a public relations executive. Study nursing, and you become a nurse. Study education, and you become a teacher. Study communications and you become…what? I still barely know. My parents definitely don’t know, and my friends all think I’m going to be a party planner. Miraculously, between constant interning and studying PR I still want to be a PR exec. Furthermore, I’m sort of good at it.

My current boss, managing director of Bango Media, says I’ve got ‘hustle,’ something they don’t teach at university. I’ve still got a long way to go, but my determination to learn has made me a good intern with an ever-expanding skill set. The PR industry is wildly competitive. I’m constantly meeting pretty, well-dressed girls studying PR who dream of New York Fashion Week, free Hermes bags and organising photo-shoots for Elle magazine. The thing is, being good at PR is hard. I know people outside of the industry doubt that fact, but the biggest problem lies with young people in the industry who underestimate the skills required to succeed.

I believe to be good at PR you need to have certain personality aspects such as confidence, tough skin, an innate ability to read people and a lot of energy (preferably natural but caffeine helps). On top of this, you need to be able to write in a number of different styles, think strategically and constantly be coming up with fresh and innovative ideas. You can be as smart as you want, but if you don’t understand the skills you need to succeed, the fact of the matter is: you probably won’t.

Australian universities spit out thousands of PR students a year, many who lament over the lack of jobs and opportunities. I for one will never doubt that this is not an industry flourishing in jobs, but just like any other industry jobs are given to those who are driven, and have the necessary personality and skills. As someone who has interned at a number of different companies, I feel the need to stress that it’s not just about showing up. It’s about asking for tasks that will actually increase your skills, enhance your natural abilities and teach you how to play the PR game (aka the ‘hustle’.) It’s not just about working hard; it’s about working harder than everyone else.

Part 2 by Michelle Bates (The Managing Director, Bango Media)

If I could tell myself ‘the intern’ anything, it would be this: As an agency that has young, hopeful interns waltz through our doors with stars in their eyes they more often than not leave us at the end of their internship with the greatest gift I can give them in return for their service to us; the cold hard truth and a brand new work ethic. This very quickly separates the interns with a great future ahead of them and the interns with unrealistic expectations of what a career in PR is really like.

PR is by no means glamorous. It is hard bloody work, long hours, most of the time rubbish pay considering the amount of work we do, and a constant emotional rollercoaster to say the least. The reason I personally love being a publicist is because no two work days ever look the same, so when I am having frustrating PR times, I just read 99problemsbutpitchaintone.tumblr for some comic relief and to remind myself that I am in an industry where I am never bored, which I am truly grateful for.

If I could go back and tell myself as an intern how to accept reality and succeed in PR I would say this: Do not ever arrive on time; always arrive early, even if it is 15 minutes early. The same goes for home time. This will show your potential employer and someone that is going to be referring you for jobs in the future that you have a good work ethic. Side note: When you gain full time employment, gone are the days of 9-5pm. Long work hours are just part of it, so learn to love your job! Trust me, whether your employer says anything about it or not, they will definitely notice that you are early to start and finish after you technically have to.

Another tip on work hours: If you have a task that is due or you are working on, one of the best things you can do in my opinion for your career is to not just pack up and leave at 5pm, finish the task or when you get home, finish it there and send it to your manager. Words cannot explain how this will position you in the eyes of your employer for paid work. This is a great work ethic and will not go unnoticed.

Exercise your common sense. Common sense is vital in PR land. If I had someone interrupt me to ask a question that could have been Googled quicker than asking me, I instantly note that. Time is money and not using common sense in that way appears lazy.

Try in every way possible to be a person that comes up with solutions, even if they don’t end up working. The fact that you think that way rather than just coming to your manager with a problem shows a lot about yourself and the value you could provide to the agency if they were to offer you full time employment.

Leave the attitude at home. That is self-explanatory but it is amazing to witness how many uni students have a bad attitude.

Be grateful. There are two types of interns I see: those that are grateful to be working for you (albeit for free) and those that treat those work hours without a good work ethic because it is obvious that it isn’t as important to them because they are not getting paid for the work. This will be very quickly noted and not forgotten. Guess what? The way in which you conduct yourself as an intern stays with you long into your PR career, and PR land is small, even from city to city. You need to be PR’ing yourself from the very start. Everyone seems to know everyone. So don’t be surprised when that comes back to bite you. The thing is, you might be working for free, but your work place has taken you on with the limited skill set and experience that you have. In a very busy industry, that is an investment of our time that we take out of our billable hours to spend on helping develop YOUR skill set and helping you to grow. That is very real dollars. That is the trade off. So being grateful will get you a long way.

Try and avoid internships where you will just be sitting at reception and answering phones all day. I have personally witnessed this and I do not feel that it is worthy of your time doing so. It is free labour for an agency and you are not really getting anything from that other than having them listed on your CV. If it were me looking to use interning to gain experience I would be finding somewhere that will give you the time of day and give you tasks that you will actually learn from. If you are not given these kinds of tasks, ask. If you show an interest and are keen, your work place should see that in a positive light and give you better tasks to do.

My last tip is to understand return on investment if you are trying to gain full time, paid employment. No matter where you are applying to, your work needs to provide a return on investment. The quicker you can get tasks completed in whilst still being of a great quality, the more an agency will make off you. This obviously equates to you looking like a good idea to employ. If you take too long to get tasks done that should be done in a certain amount of time, then you will cost the agency money, which equals = bad investment.

Why would an agency want to hire you if you just cost them money? So you need to show an understanding of time equals money. Agencies can only charge their clients a certain amount for their billable hours. Timesheets are provided to the client at the end of each month, if you take too long to get things done, it cannot be charged, you need to be of reasonable value. Understanding that you can’t just sit around all day and take your time to finish tasks will not cut it if you want to transition from intern to paid work.

There are very different expectations on you if you are being paid for your work, best to get used to this kind of way of working while you are interning. It is also a great idea to be asking your employer about it if you are not quite clear, that will show that you are keen and that you want to be of value to them. In other words, you have to have the ‘PR hustle’.

#pr #communications #intern #internship #media