In March 2021, I was fortunately presented with the opportunity to get a taste of the PR industry to kickstart what I hope turns out to be a successful career!
Alongside studying fashion marketing and branding at Nottingham Trent University, I have just completed a nine-week internship at Jennie Holland PR, a boutique digital PR agency in the heart of Nottingham city. The experience has been truly invaluable, teaching me many skills I will continue to use to develop throughout my professional career.
I have always been interested in delving into the world of PR, as writing is a huge passion of mine and has been since I was young. I love how it gives me the ability to express my creative flair, and during my internship, I was able to try lots of different writing styles to develop my current skillset.
I worked on a range of clients across a multitude of sectors, which enabled me to switch between different tones and content when writing. From drafting social posts for architecture firms, to creating press releases for home improvement companies; I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring a wide range of styles.
At Jennie Holland PR no day would ever be the same – from drafting social posts, to blogs, listicle stories to carrying out research tasks – I was given a variety of tasks to be creative with which helped me grow in confidence and gave me a good insight into daily agency life.
I believe that working within a smaller company gave me a good chance to be immersed within the industry and I had many opportunities to try things out and was given independence when completing tasks set. This creative freedom has been so beneficial, as I have been able to demonstrate the skills I have to offer, whilst receiving valuable feedback in order to improve and develop in the future.
My time here has allowed me to enhance many of my interpersonal skills also – including my organisational & communication skills, level of professionalism, and capability to prioritise work.
I began my internship working in the office for three days, and remotely for two – although for the last few weeks, I was in the office full time socially distanced. Working within an office environment has allowed me to receive a well-rounded experience, and has given me access to really see behind the scenes of this fast-paced industry.
I also feel that the initial working from home/office split allowed me to adapt to a hybrid working model, which I believe is important to get a taste of moving forward from the pandemic.
Whilst I was incredibly nervous stepping into the office on my first day as I had never worked in a PR agency beforehand, I was instantly greeted with a warm welcome, and felt a part of the team in no time.
Alongside receiving a great amount of support and guidance from the team, I have also built great relationships with them – through after work outings and the barrels of laughs we had in the office, I sincerely hope these friendships will continue to grow once my time at JHPR has come to an end.
My advice to anyone who is looking to gain experience within the PR industry would be to completely immerse yourself within the job, show passion, and be willing to learn – this way you will also receive more responsibility and independence when doing tasks.