furry hats – hardly ever a good idea

Over the years, I’ve hired my fair share of interns. I like to do it. It feels good to give someone a break. They seem to enjoy it, and watching my protégés go on to bigger and better things gives me so much pleasure. Now, I work with the Taylor Bennett Foundation, coaching its interns and USC Annenberg, where I head up the post-grad London internship programme.

This batch of placements began about a month ago, and I’m happy to report that – without exception – the students are delighted with their learning experience. They’re also thriving under the guardianship and care of their sponsoring companies.

In this post, I’m steering clear of the politics and just passing on my advice for getting on that first rung of the PR ladder; I hope it’s helpful.

1) CV building

There seems to be a strong culture for CV building in the US, which I’m not sure we’ve entirely caught up with here. Most of my US group’s CVs already boasted not one but several unpaid relevant internships as well as 100s of hours of community service. This demonstrated a basic understanding of what PR is in practice and a strong work ethic. Doing something looks much better than doing nothing. Doing something for somebody else for free is even better.

2) CV cleaning

This applies to any CV, not just when you are starting out. Avoid the marketing schpeak. There is no need to ‘big up’ achievements. Explain what your actual role was, rather than align your glory to the company as a whole. We don’t expect juniors to have created global brands, but it’s a real bonus if we know you know how to put a tracker report together. Be bold, brave and honest in your CV. Us PRs do not believe the hype.

3) CV polishing

We want our interns to be able to read, write, spell, have great attention to detail and a good eye for presentation. Use your two-page CV to show you are a master of all those trades. Make it work hard for you, put in hyperlinks to your work, your references, your social media profiles.

4) Sort out your social media presence

To me, this is more important than the CV. The CV you crafted in isolation, the social media profile is a living breathing organism. Get yourself on LinkedIn, build your connections, join groups, and get some recommendations up there. As for Twitter, follow your favourite bloggers, journalists, brands and companies you want to work for. Use Twitter to pass on latest trends and tips from the professionals retweet and reply. Same goes for Facebook, but make sure your privacy settings are where you want them.

5) Sector-specific

Most of my US group not only knew that they wanted to make a career out of PR but also what sector they wanted and already had some industry grounding to underscore that. On the whole this seemed to work very well. If you are starting out, look to build your experience in pieces, want to work in fashion PR? Get a Saturday job in a high street store, organize a charity cat walk show in your college, represent a local independent store for free, don’t be despondent that you can’t get an internship at Gucci from day one, lead up to it. Therefore the flip side is if you have little or no relevant experience just yet, then you should keep your remit wide open, see each opportunity as one to learn.

6) Agency v in-house

Most of my group wanted to work agency side as they believed the faster pace would give them a more intense exposure. Again I would agree with this, although I would say the mid size and smaller agencies are often much more receptive to giving an intern a good home. Going in house seems to take longer to clear, and also you need to be sure that there is enough actual PR work for you to do, so be clear on the job description if it’s a start up or a few man crew. Be objective, a great brand name might have global recognition, but a smaller agency might give you more responsibility. Do your research, find your specialists, PRWeek can be a good place to start.

7) Timescales

Even with high calibre students and a decent address book it took some time to secure good opportunities. About half the opportunities were secured through some, albeit tenuous, link with the company. I found one internship through a friend’s wife’s bridesmaid’s then boyfriend, who didn’t even work there anymore! But actually it isn’t a case of jobs for the boys here, use social media as your slave to form connections. LinkedIn became my new best friend. While Twitter and Facebook both elicited responses in minutes when email and phone did not. Be prepared to approach at least 10 maybe 20 agencies depending on sector (and certainly not the ten biggest) before you can get to interview stage. I would also look to secure your internship a good six to eight weeks before you actually want to start. An ideal internship should be between one to three months. Anything less and I’m not sure you can learn that much, anything more should at least be paid.

8) Who to send the CV to?

Whoever it is you ’know’ is the best answer, they at least will tell you who it should really go to or better still forward it for you, make sure your accompanying mail is intelligent relevant and polite. Don’t be afraid to phone up to find out who to send it to and if it’s a smaller agency do be prepared to really pitch yourself on the phone, you never know who is on the other end.

9) Payment

I’m not getting into this one but it seems the norm is to reimburse travel and lunch expenses. Some agencies do pay a minimum wage but they seem to be in a minority.

10) Interviews

Do take ‘em seriously, if you don’t want this job there are plenty of others that do. Now, I know I sound like your mum here but bear with me, dress the part, clean your shoes, wash your hair and arrive on time. It’s absolutely fine to be nervous but try and be positive too. Bring proof of your skills, written work, clips, references. Demonstrate company, sector and issue knowledge, show you are passionate about our world, prepared to do the admin but hungry for more responsibility. Answer questions honestly and ask strong questions. Enthuse and smile, the person interviewing you may well be the one who will be mentoring you so let them know up front it’s going to be a rewarding experience.