Broadreach Public Relations intern Julia is wrapping up her time in the office, which means summer is more than halfway over (sigh). Before she departed, she took the time to share her reflections on the 10 weeks that she spent with us, and how her time here has been valuable, both in the moment and for her future.
When I started at Broadreach this summer, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I had never even worked in an office. My previous job experience consisted of being a camp counselor and a retail worker, as well as being a writing assistant in the very informal world of my college writing center, so this was my first foray into the business world.
I also wasn’t sure what to anticipate in the world of public relations, specifically. Aside from not being very familiar with office life, I didn’t know a lot about PR. My only knowledge was that it was adjacent to my studies as an English/Journalism major. I wanted to explore that connection and see what I could learn from it.
And I have been learning a great deal here. With this influx of new experiences and challenges, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about transferable skills. The concept of them is more or less what drives internships in the first place, and I thought a lot about both the skills I had brought with me and the ones I was gaining.
During my time here, I’ve experienced a lot of new things. The work I was given to help out the Broadreach team has afforded me invaluable experience. I wrote media reports; I proofread and edited everything from contracts to newsletters and blog posts; I built media lists; I conducted research and stat-gathering for pitches; I helped write and rewrite press releases and pitches; I wrote blog posts (Like this one!).
All of these have taught me skills that I can take with me when I leave, both back to school at the University of New Hampshire and on in my professional life. But even with that, a lot of them were made possible by the abilities I was already carrying with me, most notably my writing skills. (Least notably would be my ability to Google things with extremely successful results, although that did help me more than I’d care to admit.) It was a good feeling, to know that I already have internal resources that can help me, even in brand new situations.My major is pretty malleable when it comes to future career choices, and I’ve spent a lot of time considering what I’m going to do. The obvious answer in relation to my major is to be a reporter, but I’d like to keep my options open. I’ve always thought that I would be content in any setting where I could put my writing abilities to work, and this summer at Broadreach proved that. I learned a lot over the last nine weeks, enjoyed what I learned, and gained a lot of confidence in my transferable skills.
My time with the Broadreach team has been truly wonderful. I want to thank everybody here who mentored me and gave me the work that helped me grow this summer. This internship has been an excellent experience for me, and I look forward to putting my newfound skills to use in my future!
-by Julia Stinneford, Broadreach Intern
