Countless emails, a handful of briefings, hours upon hours of meetings, and a couple of pieces of content later, I have reached the final stretch of my internship with the Hoffman Agency.
It’s hard to believe that within these couple of months, I have brought value and impact to not just the agency and my team but to my clients as well. I’ll never forget the feeling of getting my first responses from reporters (and the little internal squeal I let out after rapidly forwarding the journalist’s response to the team), glad that my natural stalking skills were helpful as it grabbed their interest, nor the pounding of my heart when I was first asked to speak on a client call, terrified I would fumble my words and act like — for lack of a better word — an idiot.
What this internship has given me, first and foremost, was the invaluable experience of learning and growing in a safe, encouraging environment.
Being my first internship in the tech industry, I knew that there would be a learning curve as I got adjusted. Though I was confident this was the field I wanted to be in, I didn’t know what to expect from working with clients. For the first time, I wasn’t picking who to create a campaign for. Tech is a broad industry that touches practically every aspect of life and that, in part, leads to working with companies specializing in all niches. Ask questions — no one expects you to know everything. Tech is a fast-paced field that’s always looking ahead. Telling their story when no one fully understands its importance is challenging, and it takes time to grasp the impact of their work. When the team tells you no question is a dumb question, they truly mean it.
In the blink of an eye, I have somehow transitioned from being a college student in the heart of Los Angeles to a working adult in San Jose — luckily still loving what I get to do in PR.
It feels as though so much, yet so little, has changed. My passion for PR has remained, if not grown, throughout these past three months, and I’m so thankful for the opportunities the agency has brought me. From things as big as working with amazing professionals who are so incredibly talented and passionate about their work and growing with the rest of my intern cohort as we navigated the beginning of our careers together to the little things like having a bagel at the office in the morning, I’m so glad I chose to start my journey in PR with Hoffman and in Silicon Valley.
