By: Ran Xu
Often times, we hear people say “oh my god, I love fashion PR, I must do that” or “I hate doing sports PR, no-no.” The simple truth is that you will never know what you really like unless you experience it yourself. That’s why we need internships to help us figure out the discrepancy between our imagination and actual real-world scenarios. Even more importantly, we need them to decide whether we are comfortable with the workplace culture, environment, responsibilities and many other elements that are all far beyond the fancy charade of working in public relations.
I am very grateful that my four-month-internship at Wonacott Communications, a tech PR agency, has helped me discover all that. I wasn’t sure if I would be good at PR, but this internship was a significant confidence booster for me.
As video games are a huge part of what tech PR agencies do, I was originally very turned-off because never in my life have I have been a gamer. But I was so wrong, tech PR is so fascinating since it intersects with all other categories in PR— from consumer, fashion, lifestyle to business and sports. At Wonacott, we have clients ranging from hard-core RPG games, casual play mobile games to virtual reality technology, digital comics, artisan audio displays and story-telling apps. Therefore, for a single client, you can have so many story angles, be it start-up business stories or BuzzFeed-style listicles.
Regardless of what discipline of PR you want to work in, the basics are the same. The following is a checklist of all the things I have found so far that everyone should know before getting into this career:
1. If you want a strict 9-5 schedule, quit
- PR is constantly on the go. You client may have an interview coming up during a weekend; not to mention when a crisis happens…
2. If you hate getting your brain racked, get out now
- PR work takes A LOT of thinking. From press releases to pitches, you need to be able to present a perspective and you need to havE impeccable writing
3. If you can’t deal with nerve-wrecking stuff, bye
- PR is stressful. A tiny mistake in your word choices, AP style or even a mistake in timing can be disastrous
4. If you are not up to date with news, update yourself
- Just like a journalist, you need to be super alert to what’s happening. Being up-to-date helps you develop your story angles and your writing skills
5. If you don’t have a Twitter now, create an account
- So many reporters are on Twitter now, and yes— pitching them on Twitter is now a NORM
If you think I’m bluffing, get an internship and try it before you buy it!