With being a public relations major internships are key. Without an internship, or two, under your belt you may find yourself struggling to find a job after graduation. You also don't want to wait until your junior year to begin the process either, I did and it was extremely stressful. I wouldn't recommend it.
So like I mentioned, I waited until my junior year of college to start indulging myself in internships. Probably my biggest regret from college so far to be honest. It really hit me when the Intern Queen, Laura Berger, came to our campus to speak about her experience with internships. She had 15 internships throughout her time in college.. WOW! Along with this she was a full time student and also had a full time job during her senior year. Basically, she is a super star! Hearing her speak really opened my eyes and made me think about how important they really are. The next day I started my journey to finding an internship.
I must have applied to 100 internships, or so it felt like, before hearing back from anyone. I was getting super discouraged and felt like I was never going to get an internship and was never going get a job after graduation (I was a little dramatic, but it was a stressful time!). However, after applying to so many jobs I finally heard back from the social media intern position on campus that I had applies to weeks ago. I was almost sure I didn't get the position due to the amount of time that had passed. But I got a phone call asking for an interview. I prepared and NAILED the interview and was then in charge of running all the social media accounts for the University of Indianapolis! I am so grateful for this internship because it was the ground work for my next two internships.
After my internship at school had ended I decided to apply for another internship. It was a summer position as the communication/ PR/ social media intern with Raelynn's Boutique, a clothing and prom boutique on the south side of Indianapolis. I'm into fashion and an avid social media user so I thought why not give it a try? The next day they were having open interviews. There must have been 40 other girls in the store waiting to also interview. I was nervous but felt comfortable with the interview. They seemed impressed with my experience and I had left them with another copy of my resume and online portfolio, which they noted no one else did. Within the following days I had received an email from the manager, Stephanie, who offered me the internship! This was such a great experience because it was my first fashion related experience. I was able to create a lot of great graphics and share a lot of content and ideas with them. And apparently I did a good job because at the end of my internship they offered for me to stay on as a paid position! Unfortunately, I could not accept as it was time to move on to my third internship!
So that brings us to where I am now. I am currently the communication intern at the Alzheimer's Association of Greater Indiana Chapter. I am in charge of creating social media content for all of their social media handles, create a distribute media and press releases, make media calls, and so much more! I feel like this internship has really helped me prepare for a career in PR after graduation. We just finished walk season (I have provided some photos from the Indianapolis Walk to End Alzheimer's), it was such a busy past few months in the communication department and now we finally get a little breather. My internship with the Alzheimer's Association will be ending here in early December and I am starting to look for my next internship adventure.
As you can tell internships are extremely important. They give students the opportunity to gain real world experience before actually being in the real world. Also, companies are more likely to hire someone with internship experience over someone who doesn't (and lets be real, everyone wants to land their dream job).
