Exeter Graduate Swaps Education for PR Experience – Life as a PR Intern
8th April 2013 / All, Nellie News
Hello, my name is Harriet Bowyer and I have just started interning at Nellie PR. After getting through the standard post university blues I decided that it was time to get myself onto that all important career ladder once and for all, which has started with an internship at Nellie PR.
As an Exeter graduate, it’s great to be back on campus, albeit on the working side of things which will take some getting used to! That aside, this is my second internship to date and so far, being the ‘new girl’ is going (I think?!) well and is definitely a step in the right direction concerning the ‘grand career plan’.
Internships act as a great stepping stone between university and getting ‘that’ job. For the intern (me), it solves the much talked about catch-22; you need experience to get a job, and you need a job to get experience. It provides the EXPERIENCE you need to fill that space on your CV and a potential job offer at the end. If not, considering 2/3’s of employers offer graduates with internships 9% higher salaries than the average graduate, YAY!!!! it’s still worth the effort.
For the employer, an intern only has limited time to make a good impression, and is counting on your reference to boost their career prospects. Therefore it is safe to say they will be working their arse off hard 24/7. At the same time, as the intern develops and helps move projects forward, they can help define a new position and save you the trouble of recruiting to fill their shoes. Considering that is their dream job, this is, as I said a WIN-WIN situation.
The secret to a successful internship is to BALANCE the work of an intern between the routine and the creative, so that the work is enjoyable for the intern and productive for the employer. It is true that not all internships work out, there is intense competition and they are by no means easy, but successful working internships are out there and thankfully I have found one at Nellie PR.
As a business graduate, I was keen on entering the world of PR and therefore progressed through my degree with this in mind. I was fully involved in University life; I joined sports teams, went on club trips, partied, volunteered for charity, took on a committee position and was a brand ambassador for Musto. I also completed my first internship as a Marketing and Editorial Assistant in London during my penultimate summer and financed my uni lifestyle with a part time job…all of this will have gone some way to securing my position at Nellie PR.
So, the question is why did I chose Nellie PR and what do I hope to achieve? I chose Nellie PR because I learnt from my previous internship that working for a smaller company gives you the opportunity to do more than filing and the notorious coffee run. I want to LEARN all things PR related in the B2B sector and build up some EXPERIENCE. I am looking forward to attending network events, working on projects and the possibility of seeing my work published – a great feat for one who has three years one years worth of blood sweat and tears stashed in the loft.
At the same time, I hope to see myself blooming into a B2B PR expert under the professional guidance of Ellen Carroll, founder of Nellie PR. Considering that I have already written my first press release, Ellen has dropped me in the deep end and is keeping me nice and busy….I have a good feeling about things to come.
However it’s not all work and no play in the working world either – outside of work I am just as busy, whether I am at the gym, climbing, at the cinema or whipping up something new in the kitchen (this morning I made my first “detox juice” for breakfast – which was very successful I might add). I am always keen to try something new and am very much enjoying my time at Nellie PR so far – keep an eye on the blog to keep up to date with life as an intern.
Posted by Harriet Bowyer, Marketing and PR Intern, Nellie PR.
Nellie PR is an engaging and attentive PR Agency based in Exeter in the lovely South West.
