Every Day is an Opportunity
Since beginning this internship, I have become more and more excited about my career path and agency work specifically. This confidence has come as a pleasant release as I have not always been so certain.
A common question for PR students is whether they are interested in pursuing corporate, non-profit, or agency work after graduation. When I was first asked this question Freshman year I was caught off guard because I’d never really given much thought to these distinctions before, still preoccupied with ethics guidelines and historical PR case studies. After that encounter however I began to try to imagine myself as a professional, researching different branches of public relations roles and what those career paths could look like. I knew I wanted to use internships and school experiences as a means to test out what these different environments were like, but that was the extent to which I contemplated these options until I landed my first summer internship following my Sophomore year at Point Park University. It was for a small business, and from it I learned a lot about the ups and downs of working for a single for-profit organization with only a few owners/ upper management individuals. I enjoyed focusing on one client and being given a lot of responsibility, however it was also stressful not to be able to work with a team or have a support system of managers that could mediate between my client and myself. I liked being treated like a professional but I didn’t like the insecurity of conceptualizing, designing, executing, editing, and promoting all of my own work with very little guidance or oversight.
With agency work, I feel much more supported and secure in my work because I am surrounded by a community of fellow communications professionals that can help with every aspect of my work from brainstorming to editing and critiquing my work. I am also greatly enjoying working under individuals who can educate and mold me to become a better professional for all of my clients as opposed to attempting to satisfy one boss who isn’t necessarily even sure of the extent of what PR and marketing is or how to use it.
Currently I am feeling like agencies are the place for me, and I am so happy that I was given this opportunity to test out my options before I graduated.
