Taualumna's Internship Search Thread
 

My PR program requires me to complete an 8-16+ week internship in order to graduate. Last week, I went in to speak with my program coordinator to discuss possibilities. She told me that she will be contacting three organizations (two related to education) to see if they're going to take any interns starting the middle of July. From what I understand, the process is kind of like formal recruitment...sort of...More details to follow :)

Update: Just to let everyone know that I have found out about three possible leads right now. One is with a girls' school in Toronto, another is with the Catholic school system and a third has to do with publicly funded television. More updates to come.

Good luck with your search!

Thanks :)

Are you at liberty to say which girls' school?

Best of luck!

Go with TV if you can, stay away from Kids.

Remember when You were one!:D

Option A or Option B?
 

Another update:

The instructor just uploaded a list of possible placements online. We can either choose three from the list or find contacts ourselves (such as the possible leades that I posted earlier), but we can't do both. The first option (choosing from the big list) works kind of like formal recruitment and can be really, really competitive, since you can only interview with three organizations. If none of the organizations offer you a position, then the coordinator will contact people until you get something. The second organization relies on your own research, and is more relaxed.

Should I go for the competition or research and contact organizations on my own? I can't do both at the same time (basically, if I go for the more competitive option, the earlier leads would no longer work.)

What are you more interested in?

Do your leads that you have already established sound more appealing or does the list your coordinator gave you have more appealing options?

I would go with what you think you would enjoy doing most.

So far, there is at least one (out of ten) organizations on the list that appeal to me. More places would be uploaded by the end of Monday.

I might go the competitive route, but we'll see...

In that case, I would wait till the list was finalized before making a decision.

Is there a certain where you have to let your coordinator know what your decision is?

She wants to know whether I'd like to go for "Option A" (COR-like) or "Option B" (FR-like) by Tuesday, and the three choices (if we go for "Option B") by Wednesday!

Well, then you still have a little bit of time. I would wait till Monday when she updates her list and then go from there.

The director updated her list today, but there aren't many new choices. My current choices are for the following:

- A PR agency that specializes in entertainment (mostly music)

and

- Two places that want interns to do communications for financial planning

I'm allowed to make changes this week if more places go up. I think my interviews will start next week or the week after.

Update: I have one interview booked so far. Another should be contacting me soon and the third has decided not to hire an intern this summer :(

Update:

Well, I had two interviews today (or yesterday, since it's already 12:33 am here). I'm not sure if they went well or not. The first place was all right, but the woman who spoke with me seemed a little cold (and criticized me for using American spelling for an assignment I have in my portfolio....I did that on purpose, because I was writing for a (fake) US publication). The second company was better. The woman who interviewed me was quite nice, and I was in her office for about half an hour (the first was 20 minutes or so...not sure if it really means anything). I'm not sure which one I like more, or if I like any of the places at all. Both internships are competitive, and I might be left placement-less midweek. That means I'l lhave to sit down with the program director and talk about what to do next and whom to contact.

sorry to hear that, hopefully they'll have gone better than you think! which entertainment agency were you looking at?

Sorry for not updating for a while. Things have been a little quiet. Anyway, I have an interview with an entertainment agency tomorrow and another for a boutique PR firm next week. I was supposed to see the latter today, but they've postponed it. In fact, they've postponed once before. Not sure if it is a good sign or not.

I found an internship! I start in a couple of weeks!

:)

Congratulations!

Can you tell us where you are going?

Thanks :)

It's a small PR agency near the downtown area.

Excellent! Good luck with everything!