Week Four - Virtual Internship!

Week Four!? Wow time flies...

I participated in the weekly #internpro chat this past Monday discussing the topic of, "Balance Your Internship and Your Summer Vacation!” I am so fortunate to tune in this week on this topic, because like many of the other chat participants juggling school/work/internships, I'm burnt out!

Attempting to balance out working 8-5, scheduling events for christian youth group, The TURNAROUND, putting together a writing staff for HerCampus SFA Branch, and the internship, I'm just as busy or busier than I was during school!

The very first question of this chat was how do you prevent from getting burned out. The responses were good, but two that stuck out to me most were to designate a day to calm down and recollect. Since Sunday is "the day of rest" anyway, I requested that our Sunday evenings meetings with CasMacPR be moved to Monday and the rest of the "duties" I tend to can be picked up Monday as well. This gives me a day to do Nothing. Of course, I'm never known to do anything, but the idea is that I don't have a specific deadline to get something done that day. The other thing that stood out was to dedicate an hour of your day to concentrate on you. After I get off at 5, I go home to send out more emails and research more topics from the time I get in til the time I pass out. Reserving an hour out of my day will help me to recollect my thoughts as well as help get rid of this "Freshman (Junior) 15" I picked up on my first year of school away from home!! ;)

The chat continued with tips of how to manage time properly and how to reach out to others. Most importantly, a quote from Tom Bolt, HR professional, @TomBolt stuck out to me most:

"Make time for fun during summer, but you should be making life priorities. What is important right now?"

What is important right now? Many of my classmates come back home from the summer and want to "make memories" consistently saying it's our last year of school we should do something. I don't agree with the statement, college years are the best years of your life. True, I can get away with "spur of the moment" actions while in school and do things "professionals" aren't suppose to do, but at the same time I don't think these years are going to be the "peak" of my life. I honestly think my sister is living The Life. She graduated from East Texas Baptist University last spring, found a teaching job, moved out, and is on her own. I don't think you can get any better than living your life without having the NEED to depend on someone. This takes me back to the original thought, what is important right now? In order to get to The Life I need to work hard, just as she did, to get to where I want to go. Of course, we're in two different fields and it's a totally different process when branching out in the Communications/PR field, but the concept is the same. Do what you have to do, to do what you want to do. Of course, I'm not going to spend my summer working working working, but my priorities are with school, internship and networking and everything else comes after.

This past week, press kits were discussed with CasMacPR. I am familiar with the press kit process thanks to Raven Robinson and PR2Politics. My only problem with this task was that I really didn't know anything about my client. I knew what the public knew about her as far as what's on the website and social sites, but I've yet to set up a meeting with the client. That's one of the downsides to virtual internships. Because this is not a 9-5 office internship, it is harder to schedule Skype calls and appointments to meet up with people. The process is very flexible, and very ideal for those who are just doing this one virtual internship, but for others who have multiple commitments it may get a little frustrating and tiring to adjust to at times.

All and all, this is a learning experience, not only about the field of PR, but my future and my priority list in life. :)


-Creatively Dream

Week Two Virtual Internship!

Crisis Management! 


So, I was put to the test this week by going over scenarios in which crisis management was to be put into play with my virtual internship through skype (remember the firm CasMacPR is in Tennessee and I'm in Texas)! 


I thought I handled the situation pretty well, but I'm so grateful Cassie brought this very important situation up first! With PR2Politics we pretty much talked about how to deal with clients, attracting them and catering to their needs. Although Raven (founder of PR2Politics) believes in Crisis Management, we didn't spend as much time as Cassie is spending with CasMacPR. 


Within that three hour Skype call, I learned so much and realized I have so much to learn about the crisis management part of PR. 


My assignment this week was to come up with a crisis management plan for the clients I am dealing with for the first half of the internship. I't's quite difficult especially since I can't sit down and talk with the clients, and I halfway don't know how to fully complete the plan, but it's a huge learning experience and I'm going to embrace every moment of it. 


Unfortunately, I didn't get as much as I wanted to accomplish this three day Memorial Weekend, meaning I have to hit it extremely hard tomorrow, but I'm up for the task. 


I so determined to put a dent in the Public Relations field after I'm done with it and with the help of PR2Politics and CasMacPR I'm on my way there! 


-CreativelyDream 

Week One! Virtual Internship

I accepted and started a virtual internship with CasMacPR in Tennessee on my birthday <3 May 15! 


Although this is not my first experience with virtual work, it is my first actual internship with a PR firm. I've worked with Raven Robinson, founder of PR2Politics, a PR firm in New York, earlier this year, but the experience was more of Raven being a mentor and guiding me through each process step by step. Although Cassie McDougal, founder of CasMacPR does the same as far as answering questions and giving clarification, the internship position is in a more formal setting than that of working with PR2Politics. 


I work during the day at my summer job from 8am to 4:30pm so most of the work for CasMacPR is done after 6. So far we've had a few teleconferences with the other interns working for the firm just as an introduction to everyone working, an overview of the company and clients the company represents. 


There are currently three interns working for this company, one in Tennessee and two virtual, and we are given two clients to work hands on for, then mid summer we are to switch to get the overall experience of working in a different part of the industry. 


I was given an upcoming Gospel artist and make up artist… two fields I've had no experience in. I'm so excited to find out the different techniques and procedures for this field.


The only disadvantage so far is setting a skype call or telephone call and it actually start on time. There's so much that could happen since we are so spread out, and it's a lot more difficult to schedule things when I'm not physically in the office. 


I hope to gain so much knowledge about a little bit of everything. CasMacPR will be expanding to Dallas, TX soon… I don't want to get my hopes up, but believe me when I tell you I'm working my behind off to stand out in this position!


-Creativelydream!