Where do I even start? I have so many amazing things to say about Hoffman.
Starting with the people: From the moment I arrived in the Boston office, I was welcomed with open arms, coffees and happy hours. I truly felt wanted, like everyone was excited for my arrival.
I felt cared about and seen as a person, not just an intern.
I was immediately trusted by my coworkers to take on assignments, join client calls and share my feedback, and that trust never let up. Throughout my time here, I was given real opportunities to try things, experiment and put my own ideas on the table, not just observe from the sidelines.
That hands-on approach shaped how much I learned about the PR industry.
I came in with little PR experience, but I felt confident and armed with the right tools to thrive, thanks to learning sessions that taught me the ins and outs and tips and tricks of the industry — and thanks to actually being given the room to apply them.
I learned quickly that PR is a people-first industry and that Hoffman is the best place to do it. This starts with relationships inside your agency, all the way to how you deal with reporters and clients.
You can be the most knowledgeable person, the best writer and researcher, but in the end, if you can’t make clients comfortable enough to share thought leadership and interesting information, you won’t create anything worth sharing. And if you don’t take the time to go deep and show you care about what reporters write about, they won’t choose to write about you.
So, my biggest takeaway from this experience is to create strong relationships by being caring, personal and doing your research on everyone you work with while also not being afraid to experiment and speak up with your own ideas along the way.
The best advice I received is simple — and maybe a little silly — but someone on my team used to tell me, “It’s PR, not ER.”
I later learned she didn’t actually coin that phrase, but it still helped me understand that while hard work matters, it’s also important not to let yourself get overwhelmed, especially early in your career.
I felt a lot of pressure to hit certain metrics, article counts or reporter response rates, and I was hard on myself when I fell short.
So, I think it’s important to remember that at the end of the day, it’s OK not to be perfect, because this isn’t surgery. That’s not to say don’t work hard, but it’s important to ease the pressure early on so you don’t burn out. And how lucky are we that this isn’t the emergency room. We have space to make mistakes, get feedback and grow — which is a huge part of PR — and to try new ideas along the way.
