Today, I listed an opening for my fall 2009 Communications Internship. We sent the typical announcements—PRSA Job Line, email to Brooks Garner’s listserve, listing on the Library’s job site—but, I’m kind of excited to see what kind of increased interest we can get by utilizing some social media promotions as well.
This year, I’m also using Twitter (my account, the Library’s account, creative use of hashtags, and hopefully some retweets from PRSSA_OSU and some past interns), Facebook (status updates, notes, shared links, and again hopefully a little love from PRSSA and some Bonnie-pire members), and here on my very own zero-traffic blog.
If you are looking for an internship in PR, this is why you want to work for me.
1. I get that you are a student first.
The great thing about all the student positions at the Library is that we understand that job 1 is being a student, everything else is secondary. You are at OSU to get a degree and we are here to help, not hinder.
2. My internship is built for learning.
The point of an internship is to learn, that’s why it’s eligible for course credit. The library’s communications internship is designed to teach you the fundamentals of PR and allow you to experience first-hand how a PR office operates. I’ve had more than one intern tell me they learn the most by just being in the office, seeing the kind of issues that arise on a daily basis and how we handle them. You’ll also be able to take advantage of the professional development we participate in as an office. I offer to host my interns at one PRSA-OKC meeting a semester, we have monthly meetings where we share new research, and we regularly subscribe to webinars and teleseminars.
3. The internship is customizable.
In the communications internship you will spend the majority of your time (50-80%) writing for a variety of media: press release, web, newsletters, ad copy, blurbs, Twitter, and more. The remaining time is spent developing skills you are most interested in learning. My interns have given media interviews, talked to donors, developed web pages, pitched stories, written promotion plans, laid out publications. The point is, you, in part, will decide what you’ll be learning.
4. I place students I want to mentor.
I take a personal interest in my interns, and I want to see them succeed. I do this in a variety of ways. In the first week of your internship, we’ll debrief your interview. I’ll tell you candidly what you did well and what you could do better. I want you to know what interview skills to keep and what you’ll need to brush up on before the next. Throughout the semester we’ll discuss career goals and steps you can take to put you on that career path. At the conclusion of your contract, I’ll help you build a resume that will accurately highlight the skills you’ve learned and build a portfolio of the pieces you created. You’ll leave the internship with a CD or zip drive of all your work and copies of all your clippings from the internship.
If you're ready to apply, follow the "internship" link at http://www.library.okstate.edu/personnel/index.htm and follow the instructions.
2 comments:
Had I known about the intership when I was able to still be an intern, I would have loved working for you! Friends of mine who have worked with you speak your praises and have learned so much from you both professionally and with life lessons as a whole! Students who intern for Bonnie/the library are a pretty luck catch. As for me-it's off to the real world in May...
From my experience as an intern for Bonnie, I can attest that you learn so much from working for such a bubbly person. What is great about working for her is that it is more important that you are learning from the experience than just getting part-time assignments completed. She has been very helpful in all aspects of my design internship, from being a person to bounce ideas off of to a mentor as I search for my "big girl job".
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