My experience working as an intern for a PR agency
By Cara Pover
From day 1 the team have been extremely friendly and welcoming towards me. This has allowed me to really get into a routine even though it’s been such a short period of time. The team is passionate about their work, it’s inspiring to watch and learn from them.
Near the start of my time here I was able to attend the Captivate Group “All Hands”, a monthly inter-agency meeting where sister companies and Stir get together to showcase a campaign they’ve worked on or share insights and trends across sectors. This intrigued me as a variety of creative skills I’d been taught at university were used by each company. Seeing these skills used in real briefs for clients was exciting and refreshing to see how what the things I’m being taught could be used in my future career.
How have my skills developed?
Stir curated a 2-week schedule full of a variety of tasks which enabled me to develop and gain invaluable skills through my internship. These tasks included writing a press release, pitch notes, forward features, researching and feeding into sell-in ‘exploitation plans’, drafting copy for Fridays Feels (the monthly newsletter), selling-in to media, asset filing and influencer searches utilising Stir’s database tool.
I believe my communications skills both written and verbal have improved at my time at Stir, through meetings and crafting written work for clients. The meetings allowed me to discover the value of teamwork and communication, as success in PR often relies on effective collaboration. Most importantly, I gained confidence in my abilities and developed a genuine passion for the field.
As my knowledge of the industry has grown so has my ability to write compelling narratives that convey clients’ desired messages, as I understand how important it is to craft a narrative to get journalists attention with conciseness.
How has my time at Stir compared to University?
At university I study Media and Communications and the teaching content for PR is largely based around theory and the history of PR as opposed to how to complete everyday PR tasks. Going from University assignments with months to complete them, to having deadlines throughout the day has been challenging to adapt to but, I feel I kept up with them all. University, though educational, isn’t always reflective of the real corporate world and working at Stir has been a great insight into the industry, providing me with relevant working experience.
At Uni we keep up to date with current affairs in the media, by tracking crisis management with cases such as the Russell Brand scandal. Keeping up with the current campaigns is key in this industry and one way Stir does this is through their Friday Feels – something I was able to help craft copy and gather images for.
It was great to see how Stir shows off their professional opinion of PR case studies, displaying how knowledgeable the team is. PR involves researching trends, analysing data and staying informed about industry developments. As a PR intern, I developed research skills and learnt how to analyse information to inform PR strategies.
So, as you can see, I’ve gained a whole host of skills working at Stir. The reality of working in PR has proved to be even more dynamic and thrilling than I had imagined, and I’m excited for my career ahead.