10 Lessons Learned During My JWC Internship
Written by PR Assistant Elpin Keshishzadeh
An internship can offer great learning experiences, skill-building tasks and opportunities to learn from mistakes. But above all, it’s the perfect place to accumulate a sufficient amount of professional knowledge for your future career.
My time at J. Walcher Communications has been nothing short of amazing (no – they did not make me write this). I’ve had the chance to work with brilliant public relations professionals, fun clients and now I’m walking away with several valuable takeaways:
1. Learn to be creative and strategic for all types of clients. Not every client will be from a field you’re familiar with – adapt to wearing multiple hats.
2. No matter how organized you may be, you can be better. Figure out an email filing system as soon as possible. It’s surprising how quickly emails pile up, making finding one from a week ago the search for a needle in a haystack.
3. When proof reading, grammar, spelling, punctuation and AP style edits become a minimum – concentrate more on proofing for clarity, flow and concise content.
4. Don’t let the word “Cision” scare you. Watching all the tutorials for this robust media database toward the beginning of your internship will make the tool a breeze to work with.
5. Always ask for deadlines on tasks if they are not provided. This is the best way to prioritize efficiently without leaving anything behind.
6. Don’t be afraid to share ideas. This is the chance to get feedback from individuals who have been in your shoes and are at a place you’re striving to reach. Your ideas may even be put to use!
7. Save any and all files in appropriate folders on the server. Just because it’s on your desktop doesn’t mean it’s on everyone else’s. Sharing is caring.
8. Read over and take notes of the edits made on writing tasks. This is an easy way to catch on to preferred word choices and writing styles – which vary from client to client.
9. Write down the name of the person calling and where they are calling from. You’ll be surprised at how quickly one can forget names as soon as the “hold” button is pressed. Post-its are your new best friend.
10. Cafe Madeline has the best chocolate croissants – ever – so use your three months wisely.