Summer Internship Success

Emily Brill

Arts and Entertainment Editor

Public Relations and Tech: An Internship Experience

If you know me, you know that the world of technology sounds like gibberish to my brain. I have always viewed myself as someone who thinks with the right side of her brain. Being creative, musically inclined, a strong writer, it’s what makes the most sense to me. Until I had a Public Relations and Events internship at the tech company NETSCOUT.

When I had originally seen the internship description, I was hesitant. The tech company the internship was at is an enormous company, known worldwide. I was scared that I would not live up to the expectations the company would want from me. I mentioned the internship to my mom and she encouraged me to go for it.

When I interviewed with the PR and Events team, they were incredible. All my questions were answered with confidence about the company, what sort of tasks I would be doing, what team I would be working with, and how many interns there would be at the company. After the interview, I felt so confident in myself and within three hours, I received a call informing me I received the internship. I was ecstatic.

Although the company’s headquarters were an hour away from my house, I was so excited to get my foot in the door and make some new connections. The job description of the PR work I would be doing aligned with some of the things I had been doing in some of my classes, including some extensive writing work.

However, I was challenged significantly my first couple of weeks there. My boss tasked me with reading over 1,200 articles that mentioned the company. My job was to sort the articles in Excel according to how good or bad the publicity was for the company. Having no experience with using Excel extensively, and already thinking of myself as more of a right brain person, I was terrified.

I relied on my fellow interns to help me and a couple team members to help me through this process. I ended up finding a system through color coding and sorting with columns which made the process of using Excel much easier. I learned the ins and outs of Excel – something I never thought I could do and it became easy to manipulate my way through the platform. Now, I confidently use Excel in my day-to-day activities and help others learn how to use it.

To enhance my writing skills, I was tasked with altering the Crisis Communication Plan of the company to go over procedures in case of an emergency. Having a Crisis Plan with a foundational system of what to do and who to communicate with is crucial to a large tech company like NETSCOUT. This helped me use a different form of writing that I wasn’t used to, but ended up being successful.

This was such an enriching experience for me as far as getting some experience in the professional world. I was nervous at the beginning of the summer that I would not find an internship, but I was blessed to have had one of the best ones. I believe this internship shaped some of the qualities I have carried into my senior year and as a successful career woman after graduation.