This year, the French office of The Hoffman Agency took part in the Viens voir mon taf operation.
What’s Viens voir mon taf?
It’s a platform that puts caring companies in touch with 3rd year of high school students from priority education groups to help them find their dream job.
The 3rd year of high school’s internship is the student’s first professional experience at 14 years old, mandated by the French National Education. In 2015, two French journalists realised that schoolchildren from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, lacking a network, were doing their internships in small businesses where they sometimes became free labour. They wanted to use their own networks to offer these young people more interesting internships, and that’s how the Viens voir mon taf initiative came to life.
For a week, we welcomed 14-year-old Adama from Nanterre.
It’s Adama’s dream to become a journalist, and even though he has a penchant for sports journalism, he was interested in the several Viens voir mon taf offers that could give him an overview of the profession. So, he applied on the platform for several jobs in journalism, television and comedy (his second passion). As press relations jobs have a direct link with his chosen profession, Adama knocked on the door of Hoffman France. We introduced him to our world through several short exercises over his week.
After his placement, we held a review to find out how he felt about his internship, and we got some new insights on social networks! Let’s discover our conversation below:
What did you think of your first work experience?
This week, I’ve learned a lot! How to do media monitoring, the different types of publications and how to write articles of more than one page on the same subject. However, for now, I know I don’t want to work in an office all day because I have too much energy to sit behind a computer. If I’m going to become a journalist — and this internship has confirmed my desire to do that — I’d like to be a reporter so that I can get out and discover lots of things.
What is your vision of press relations?
I understand that your aim is to put companies in touch with journalists to get articles written about your customers. You write a lot, both emails and press releases.
What were your favourite tasks this week?
I liked writing press articles, to understand how an article is structured and what might interest readers. My second favourite task was media monitoring because I found it interesting to check the news every morning to find out what’s going on in the world and in the tech sector!
What social networks do you think young people your age use?
I mainly use TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, and my friends do the same. I like chatting with my friends and watching videos (football, basketball, comedy, cooking recipes). I discovered LinkedIn this week, and I realised that it would be useful for finding a job. For the moment, I’ve created an account, but I’m not sure I’ll use it.
Finally, how would you describe your internship at The Hoffman Agency France?
In one word, I would say: Incredible!
