| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Beginner Issues > Topic: help with internship |
Topic: help with internship
| Author | Message |
| adore | Posted – 12/16/2007 12:01:27 PM | show profile I'm only a junior in high school but have had my mind set on a career in pr for a very long time. I want to get an internship this summer but they are all for college students. How do I convince companies to let me work for them? I was planning on emailing them back and forth and then asking if there are any opportunities they have for me. |
| Brena | Posted – 12/16/2007 4:34:03 PM | show profile Have you taken any PR-related classes? Perhaps that will increase your chances. A lot of these internships are not only for college students, but juniors and seniors, who have taken some of these classes already. |
| adore | Posted – 12/16/2007 5:45:21 PM | show profile I have taken a journalism class and am taking a marketing class that covers promotion. I take honors english and am part of the school newspaper. |
| missprint | Posted – 12/17/2007 9:40:32 PM | show profile | email poster kudos to you for wanting to get a jumpstart before you're even in college. I did this in high school. I knew I wanted to be a journalist, so I simply went to the weekly paper in town and asked if I could work there. I interned there for nearly a year and it gave me great experience heading into college! I'd suggest trying to email some local places or see if anyone in your family knows anyone who works for a co. Tell them you'll volunteer to even do it unpaid if you can legally -- surely they won't turn down free help! Even if you can just go in a couple days a week, it would help you tremendously. Good luck |
| ManhattanMatt | Posted – 12/18/2007 1:38:56 AM | show profile Why ... ... are they teaching PR in high school? Shouldn't we be focusing on the BASICS? |
| adore | Posted – 12/18/2007 10:06:48 PM | show profile I would just ask them if I could work there but the local companies here are pretty big. I don't know if that will work. If I ask and they reject me, should I keep on trying? And my marketing class is not a hardcore pr class. It's just an intro to it to let us see if it is what we want to study in college. |
| missprint | Posted – 12/19/2007 2:55:17 AM | show profile Where are you city-wise? Might help give a better idea. Surely even if it is a big place if you tell them you really just want to learn they would be open to letting you do something, even if it is just helping with the mailroom or something to that effect. If not, try another company. Do you have someone at your school (like a counselor or a close teacher) who could maybe help you set something up? (We had an internship coordinator at my high school and some students got to go intern for a class period.) |
| adore | Posted – 12/19/2007 6:50:50 PM | show profile I'm in Boston. I think I'll just send them an email asking to work for them and if they reject me, I'll write them a long letter as to why I want to work for them, what I want to do....etc. |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 12/19/2007 7:04:49 PM | show profile Good for you! You've got moxie! Oh you should have plenty of options. Keep trying! |
| adore | Posted – 12/28/2007 10:11:19 PM | show profile I need some more advice. If I'm writing an email to ask for someone to speak to about their pr department, should I write a lengthy explanation as to why I want to pursue pr and speak to this person, or just straight up ask for someone to speak to? |
| miss pr | Posted – 12/29/2007 12:32:14 AM | show profile I would ask for the key contact of the PR department so you can address the person directly. Or try someone in HR. Good luck! |
| writerandeditor | Posted – 12/29/2007 10:48:19 AM | show profile I could be wrong, but when I lived in Boston, I was told that labor laws prevented companies from hiring people for "free." This is why interns must be enrolled in a college -- since they are not getting a paycheck, they are being "paid" in college credits. |
| WritingEd | Posted – 12/30/2007 9:44:06 PM | show profile I would actually suggest simply trying to set up an informational interview with someone in the field (ideally if it's someone who have some sort of connection with, ie. friend of a friend of your parents or a teacher). And then in person you could express an interest in the possibility of arranging some sort of internship or even just a semi-regular job shadow arrangement. Also, while initial contact by email would be fine, calling by phone to follow up would show you have confidence (completely necessary in PR, as you no doubt know). It's easy for more seasoned workers to assume that the younger generation only knows how to communicate via email, instant message, etc. Good luck! |
| Bruingrl14 | Posted – 1/1/2008 8:50:39 PM | show profile I went to high school in central Mass and currently live in Boston. At my high school we had an internship program that seniors could participate in after completing all necessary courses to graduate. Have you checked to see if your high school would grant you credit for an internship? I'm not quite sure what the labor laws are, but as someone who has interned a lot over the years it's been my understanding that if you aren't being paid with money you need to verify that you will be paid with academic credit. I'm confident that this isn't exactly what you are looking for, but I know that WGBH has some volunteer opportunities. Even if it's not exactly what you are looking for it may lead to contacts for future reference. |
