Thursday, June 19, 2014

Benefits of interning at an agency: Putting a finger in every pie



Go Communications is an agency with clients ranging from restaurants and hotels, to oil and gas producers to fashion labels.  Interning at the agency I was exposed to public relations work within a variety of different industries.   One day I was brainstorming ideas for the corporate newsletter of a property developer and the next dropping a Nikon camera to a magazine office to be reviewed.
It also enabled me to get a handle on the culture in Malaysia.  Just living in Malaysia as a foreigner posed its own challenges, let alone working.  But having a grasp of the issues going on in various industries and a good understanding of the local media (as a result of each mornings media monitoring) helped me in my everyday life: in fitting into a culturally different lifestyle and in my interactions with the locals.
I am aware of inevitable disadvantages for an intern within the agency context.  With so many clients and only a limited amount of time at the agency, it is difficult to gather a full understanding of each client, their needs and to develop an all over view of the public relations services delivered to each client.  With more time to focus on a single client at a time a better understanding may have been achievable.
However, as an intern what I am looking for in my experience is a taste of what the public relations occupation is like.  Through an agency, I feel I have been able to achieve this in a variety of different industries within a short amount of time.  Through these various ‘tasters’ I have been able to decipher which industries I have an interest in and which one I may like to work for in the future and which industries I wouldn’t be so keen to work in.  It has also given me insight into consultancy as an industry in itself.  Through my own experience I have found agencies and consultancies beneficial place to intern if you are unsure of which direction you would like to take in the public relations field.

Georgia
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