Picture yourself walking into your dream job for an interview. Who wouldn’t want to hire a stud like yourself? You made the grades, led your school club as president and volunteered the last three summers in Kenya.
The interview goes smoothly. Before you leave the parking lot you update your status, “I should start my dream job right after graduation!!!”
A week or two passes and there is no call-back. Finally, after nearly four weeks you decide to call them. Their reply? “You were a great candidate, but we were really looking for someone with experience in the field.”
Ah, the dilemma. You can’t obtain a job without experience yet you can’t gain experience without a job. Many students graduate without any real experience but public relations is different. There are hundreds of public relations and communication internships in Oklahoma.
What is an internship? Internships are like a temporary part-time job with a business or organization related to your field of study. In public relations most internships are unpaid but it is possible to find a paid one, I’ve had both.
The key is to go out there and apply; besides most will let you earn college credit while interning.
(Check with your school internship advisor for more details. If you attend UCO or OCCC and would like more info, like whom to contact about public relations internships, give me a shout-out.)
I like to intern because it gives me the opportunity to obtain real world experience while letting me get my feet wet in different aspects of public relations. I’m learning that I prefer the event planning and community relations aspects of public relations.
Two great resources to follow are Greater Grads and PRSA-OKC. The first is a giant internship listing hosted by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. I’ll write, in future posts, more about all the awesome things they do. The second is a job listing which includes internships.
Inspiration: My first day at my internship, a la mode.
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