A Gold Mine of Experience

How an Internship Can Be a Gold Mine of Valuable Experiences for a Graduating Senior

Written by: Michael Liu

As a new intern that just started out in the public relations industry, there were important things that I wanted to learn. As my internship comes to an end at Focuscom and as graduation approaches, I can proudly place a check mark next to each one of those items on my list. Internships offer so many opportunities for a person to grow and I can truly say that I struck gold with the amount of experience I gained.

1.     Broadening my network

While working at Focuscom, I had the opportunity to meet so many people that offered me valuable advice on what to do next in my career. Going through this internship, it has opened so many doors for me by really expanding my network.

2.     Improving my writing skills

Through constant communication with my internship adviser, my writing has improved drastically. I'm now able to to understand conveying emotion through quotes when writing press releases and using a conversational tone when writing blog posts.

3.     Learning to receive constructive criticism

Learning to handle constructive criticism is a critical skill to have as a young professional. There was never a writing assignment that I turned in that was completely perfect, and I learned that it's normal to receive edits on most tasks. Don’t ever think you are bothering someone when you are asking for help on an assignment, either.

4.     Making deadlines

When something needs to be written and posted by a certain date, it needs to be completed with time for edits beforehand. Focuscom taught me the skills to write quickly and efficiently in a timely manner to ensure that I made those deadlines.

5.     Experiencing practitioner-client relationships

Learning how to effectively communicate with your clients is an important skill to have, especially in the public relations sector. While I was working at Focuscom, I was fortunate enough to sit in on client meetings and understand how those relationships are fostered.