My time as an intern at The Hoffman Agency has quickly come and gone! It’s been the fastest winter to date. I would compare the experience to one of those baby swimming lessons, where I’m the baby being thrown in, flailing a bit but eventually navigating the water and learning to swim.
Of course, with my manager there, acting as the swim coach and lifeguard watching over me, ensuring I have all the encouragement, floaties and strategy to become a successful little swimmer.
Setting my swimming analogy aside, this internship has been one of my greatest learning experiences. I will say that the PR industry looks much different for me now than it did before December 4. I don’t know if it was just my naiveté, but the glamorous veil previously shrouding PR work has been lifted. Especially going into tech PR, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Not to scare anyone away, because all our behind-the-scenes work makes the public-facing fun possible, but it’s a lot of emailing; understanding your client’s work, wants and needs; and making yourself a flexible and attentive liaison between the client and the media. So, for now, the glamour lies in getting my Teams call lighting right.
A large part of my decision to move to Boston and start this internship was knowing I’d be in the office, working with people face-to-face, and though a lot of the people I work with are all over the U.S. (and even in the UK), I can’t express enough how important relationship building has been for me during my internship.
You may be new and scared to ask questions and join conversations, but the impressions and personal relationships you make during your internship can benefit you in more ways than just having friendly coworkers.
When you chat with people on your teams or in the office, you get one-off pieces of advice, hear stories from past successes and even failures, and gain insight into the work we do in a much more personable and impactful way. With this, I’ll add the importance I found in the relationship between my manager and me. Having someone I could trust to answer any question, no matter how small, advocate for me and teach me how to navigate my teams and general agency life was something I leaned on many times during my internship.
Take in all the advice you can, and especially listen when they tell you to have a system for your emails! I wish I’d listened sooner; this email advice came at the beginning of the internship when it didn’t seem all that pressing. When I was initially forewarned about the deluge of emails, I had all of eight emails rolling in a day, but that eight suddenly turned into 80. So, definitely take the time to figure out a system that works for you. This will help you stay on top of what’s happening in your teams and when drafting agendas.
A highlight from my internship at Hoffman was all I learned about different tech industries.
Some clients are in industries I otherwise would have never taken a deep dive into, but learning and being part of brand-new accounts is quite the learning experience and something I am grateful to be part of. And I can’t wait to continue as an associate account executive! I have so much more to learn and grow, and I’m extremely glad it’ll be at The Hoffman Agency (in our soon-to-be-new Boston office, too!).
