Theory and practice – oh the difference!

Hello,

It is the end of my internship and time to start thinking about preparing for exams, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on how I feel I went overall during my internship and the key things I have learned. 

Challenges and Lessons:

•       Multitasking as definitely been a skill that I have refined over the past few months doing my final year of university and completing my internship. Trying to juggle all of these things at once has been a steep learning curve. A number of my usual activities were seriously moved down (or dropped off completely) from my to do list to make way for my increased workload.

•       Keeping the business in mind and having a ‘commercial view’ to my public relations was something that was new to me. I found that there is a big difference between theory and practise. In my university assignments where I had prepared PR plans I did not necessarily take the most business savvy approach. I have learnt that being business minded and considering the organisation as a whole is essential to an effective PR Plan or campaign.

•       Social media is not at easy as I thought it was. During university my PR assignments have always included a social media aspect. I assumed this was a fairly straightforward part of the plan and one that would be easily executed. What I learnt during my internship is just how much time social media management can take up and how it can really throw curve balls at you. Lesson: do not assume anything!

•       Working with other departments. Although the business that I interned at was small there were still different ‘departments’. My role required interaction with almost each one. For example, when it was time for a social media update about a specific house for sale I had to speak to the sales staff and find out the key information they wanted to use for the property. Managing these cross department relationships can be tricky but it was an important lesson. I couldn’t prioritise one over the other, I had to ensure that each was being considered and receiving my attention.

Rewards:

Experience!!! As I mentioned having a to apply my ideas in real life and keep the overall business in mind was a challenge, but it was also a reward because I have learnt so much. Practical experience is something that I am so glad to have on my CV for when I graduate and seek employment.

That’s all from me! I hope you have all enjoyed your internship experience as much as me.

Good luck for the future!

- Sarah