Our Summer interns are wrapping up their last two weeks with us.  We’re very sad to see them go — they’ve been rock stars since day one, and we’ll miss them terribly.

Here’s a blog post from Arielle, who will be heading into her Junior year at the University of Indiana this Fall.

1) How I learned to pitch
My palms were sweating and my heart was racing as if I just swam a mile in a race. I was so nervous to pitch for the first time, my voice barely wanted to let a word come out of my mouth. I picked up the phone and prayed that no one would answer, but I guess I didn’t pray hard enough because the guy picked up the phone on the second ring. At the end of the conversation he asked me to e-mail him more information on our client because he was interested in what they had to offer. My first pitch was closer to a success than I ever thought it would be. Now that I have been working at Ericho for almost 3 months, my pitching has made a tremendous improvement. I am much more confident talking to different people on the phone. Pitching has inspired me to never give up because you can get voicemails one day and the next day you can get many people on the phone/getting emails from the media.

2) What it felt like to get a first placement
Getting my first placement was indescribable. I was so excited when the business brief ran in the newspaper I couldn’t help but smile. It reminded me that all my hard work was definitely worth the sweat.  So far, I’ve secured three placements!

3) You will go nowhere, if you are not organized
The first few days I started working at Ericho I focused mainly on setting up my calendar, which organized my schedule for the entire rest of the summer. Being organized is so important, especially working in the field of Public Relations. Whether it’s finding an old e-mail in my sent documents, a to-do-list or remembering which business editor or producer is in what time zone, organization is the key to all my accomplishments and success.

4) Networking is Key
I learned that people will remember you if you give them a reason to. As I started getting more comfortable talking to media, I realized I was building connections. After the second, third and tenth time talking/exchanging emails with the same people, we formed a “work relationship,” and it was so much better than having to “reintroduce myself” each time.

5) How writing in PR is different from writing in my English class
During my internship, I received a glimpse into a different style of writing – press releases and media alerts. Public Relations writing is definitely more structured than I would have thought, and is written in a tone that differs from any English paper I ever had to write – it is short, concise, to the point and offers information that is of interest to media and their audiences (or at least it should be!).

What is your most memorable experience working in PR?