The Halfway Mark: Moving from Assistant to Collaborator

These past two weeks at my internship, I have seen a real turning point in my role with the lifestyle team at Sharp Communications. There has been a noticeable shift in my level of responsibility and freedom to carry out certain tasks, and my ability to provide my own input within the work that I submit to my supervisors. This has mostly been in the realm of research contributing to on-going projects, but I have also had a chance to do some creative work writing pitches. Initially, when I would create media audits, or lists of potential reporters who would be interested in covering certain clients based on their recent coverage, I would only include very basic data. Now, with the encouragement of my supervisors, I regularly submit my opinions regarding how successful a given pitch might be given my knowledge of the media environment at any given time. These contributions have been useful for my supervisors, as it provides them with the information they need to either change direction or press forward with their long-term plans for increasing the public presence of their clients. I have also written several pitches based on the results of my media audits that have been sent out to potential new contacts, meaning I can really see the results of my work on a project from beginning to end. Additionally, last week, the intern team and our program leads met to discuss the instructions for our group project and subsequent presentation. With the assistance of our respective supervisors and in addition to our regular day-to-day tasks, my fellow interns and I will create our own public relations campaign for Sharp’s brand new offices, which the company will move to in late September. This campaign includes planning for all aspects of a PR campaign that an account director would oversee, including social media engagement, targeted press releases, securing partnerships and coverage with established media contacts, and planning a launch event to showcase the new office space. All of this research will be presented to company leadership, along with our recommendations for sustaining momentum following the event to secure new clients. This project really comes at an ideal time in my internship experience, as I now feel that  I have the knowledge and experience to come up with my own ideas and positively contribute to my team.