We’ve all heard those classic internship horror stories, where all you do is get coffee and never do any meaningful work. These stories replayed in my head while accepting this very internship with Hoffman, especially as a recent college graduate eager to start my career. Now having been here for three months, I can say with absolute certainty this is NOT one of those internships.
It’s hard to pick a favorite thing about Hoffman, but if I had to, it would be the immense support and dedication from each person I work with.
The support I have felt during my internship is genuinely something I have never experienced before, with every member of my team regularly checking in to see if I have any questions or sending examples to help guide me through completing a new task.
This summer brought me something I never imagined would be a part of my life
… a genuine interest and (somewhat) understanding of technology.
I have never been very tech-savvy or interested in how technology works, I just know it works (most of the time), and that has pretty much been the extent of my tech knowledge. Working at Hoffman has opened my eyes to an entire world I never knew existed and brought me into a conversation I never thought I would be a part of. The most significant learning curve I had was not the tech language or keeping track of work, it was learning how to overcommunicate.
Though it may sound strange coming from a professional communicator, I’m just not used to communicating about myself to others.
I’m an introvert who operates best when alone. Working on a team where each person is dependent on others was a shock to my system. I just finished four years of college, where I could work on assignments in my own time and get everything done without explaining my thought process to anyone else. I quickly learned that this method does not work here. To work collaboratively as a team, you must communicate; there’s simply no way around it.
This was something I struggled with for much of this internship until everything clicked.
I realized how much I appreciated it when my team members were communicating when they would review something or share their thought process behind the edits they made. While communication is still something I work on every day, I try to remind myself how much I appreciate it and how I want to provide the same for others.
This internship has brought me so much more than I ever expected. I have gained so much knowledge about the PR industry, agency life, and the fast-paced world of tech, but best of all, I have gained new friends and mentors who will always be there to cheer me on.
