Lessons Learned from an Internship Abroad
On May 25th, 2016, I left for the experience of a lifetime. I traveled completely alone to Dublin, Ireland to work at Rachel Dalton Communications, a Public Relations firm. I was scared out of my mind to travel alone to this country where I did not know a soul and work at a prestigious PR firm in Dublin. The first night after arriving, I started questioning why I was even here and wanted to throw in the towel and just go home.
I remember my first day of my internship perfectly clear. I was so nervous that I would be late so I took the bus too early and was about 15 minutes early to the office. I was buzzed up and could not believe how beautiful the building I was about to work in for 3 months was. There was a gorgeous chandelier in the entrance way and extravagant designs in the ceiling. I walked upstairs to the office and realized I was too early because they were not yet prepared for me.
Once my advisor was finally ready for me, she began to explain what my duties would be. She started talking about our 10 clients and all of the information completely went over my head. I nodded along pretending I was grasping the information, but was completely lost. I then went out with Anna, the other intern, to do some errands for a photo shoot coming up. I got the down low on the office environment from Anna. I was so elated to have an American intern to work with me through the summer.
After the first day, I was privileged to work on many big projects with RDC. Within the first week, I was assigned a social media strategy plan for a new client. I wasn’t completely sure at all how to do this, but asked questions and looked at past plans to hopefully do my best. After my first draft, Rachel took me in another room and went step by step through everything that needed fixing, and it was a lot. I was at first upset and felt as if I completely failed her, but then realized that this was great constructive criticism and I needed to learn from it and just do better next time. Rachel, the owner of the firm, was not afraid to tell it how she saw it. It helped me learn that everything I do will not be perfect and that there are always improvements to be made. She scared me so much at first, but once I transitioned my fear into how I can learn, I was able to take so much away from my time at RDC.
Within my time at RDC, I was able to plan a bloggers’ retreat, where a group of popular bloggers went to a resort that was owned by our client. They were treated first class and all they had to do was Instagram and blog about their experience. We were able to tag along on all of the events, including: off road driving, boat rides, archery and pigeon shooting. I was also able to help plan an event for client that sold a certain probiotic. The event was focused on an Irish celebrity that used the supplement. I had no idea who this “celebrity” was but everyone was oohing and awing over her so I made sure to snap a picture with her before the end of the night. Lastly, I was able to assist in a media day for the supplement. I was able to go on set and get photos of the celebrity promoting the product as well as sit in on interviews with different publications. I felt so official being a big part of this day and really had to pinch myself that I was here and had this incredible opportunity.
All of my experiences at RDC helped me to learn how to act very professionally and showed me all of the components that go into working at a public relations firm. I feel that I developed a thicker skin and learned to not take everything so seriously. I learned that clients can be a bit much, but if you sit down and work through the issues they can really be understanding. I learned that moving to a foreign country where you do not know a soul can turn into the most life changing and growing experience of one’s life.
Morgan Greenberg | Account Executive
Morgan Greenberg is a senior at GVSU majoring in advertising, public relations and communication studies. This is her first year in GrandPR. Through this experience, she hopes to further her skills in the public relations field. Morgan spent her summer interning at Rachel Dalton Communications, a PR firm in Dublin, Ireland. She serves as Vice President of Membership Development for Grand Valley’s Panhellenic Association and is a Team Leader at Grand Valley’s Telephone Outreach Program. Upon graduation, she hopes to travel more and eventually work at a public relations firm