Cheryl's Blog

Will They Hire Me?

As the semester comes to an end, internship and job advice seems to consume most conversations and even some classroom lectures. My junior year is almost over, and I have not had an internship yet. Although I’ve been very active on campus and held a steady job over the past three years, I worry employers might overlook me due to my lack of official public relations experience. Also, all the abundance of advice is overwhelming and it’s difficult to decide what works and what really is important when searching for internships and jobs in the communications industry.

Mike Lake from Burson-Marsteller and Jodi Venturoni from Weber-Shandwick offered wonderful and similar advice when speaking to my Advanced Communications Skills class. Both explained strong writing skills, a solid work ethic, and past experience all help in landing an internship.

Many of my peers explain dressing professionally, asking questions at the end of an interview and showing an outgoing personality works the best during the interview process.

However, if every applicant basically acts the same during interviews for internships, what are employers searching for on the resumes? How do employers distinguish between two applicants who performed well during the interview? How can I stand out against my competitors on my resume and in my interview? Are employers really just looking for strong writing skills?

Furthermore, not much of the advice deals with how to act while interning with an organization. How do interns prove themselves worthy of working there as an intern and as a future official employee? Am I going to make copies and coffee, or will I get the chance to work on real projects? What do employers consider when they are looking to hire an intern to become an official employee? Is there a line between an overachiever and a brownnoser?

All these questions make me anxious of the internship search, but I am confident I will figure everything all out before I step into my first interview. If anyone, anywhere has “best practices for landing an internship” advice, please send it my way! I can use all the help I can get.

posted by Cheryl @ 8:04 PM