Day One to Last Day: What I Learned This Summer

I will never forget my first day as an intern at Rebecca Adele PR & Events. It was my first day as an intern, period.  Having just finished my second year of college, I was jumping head first into a field with which I had little to no experience beyond intro college classes. I was nervous, inexperienced, and had no idea what was in store.

Now, as my summer draws to a close, and my internship with it, I cannot believe how much I have learned. I feel like a completely different person; more experienced, more grown up, and more confident – and I have Becki to thank!

From the moment I sat down at my desk on day one, I was given real work to do. From social media plans to press releases, Becki gave me countless opportunities to write and create; giving me guidance, but at the same time allowing me to learn things myself. 

My first social media plan seemed like it took forever, but now I can crank one out in no time! I learned from watching Becki in action that PR is fast-paced, exciting, and requires constant dedication and hard work. Not everything will be perfect, and you will make mistakes, but producing something that is received well by a client makes it all worth it.

I could not have asked for a better internship experience. I learned invaluable things about not only my aspiring career field, but life as well. Working with Becki every week was more like hanging out with a friend. From blasting Fiddler on the Roof while pounding out work at the office, to spending the day at the East Side Summer Avant-Garde show, every day was a fun learning experience.

Becki recognizes and invests in the strengths of each of her interns, and gives us work that will display the best of our skills. I have always loved writing, and now have a portfolio full of social media plans, press releases, and blog posts to show potential employers. This internship has only solidified my desire to become a copywriter, and Becki has done so much to encourage and strengthen this. Becki is truly an inspiration, and living proof that the only thing between you and your dream is hard work and dedication.

This internship has forced me out of my comfort zone, and taught me to be more confident, outgoing, and disciplined. I am extremely lucky to leave Rebecca Adele PR & Events with invaluable experience, a portfolio full of work, and a friend and mentor whom I will continue to email incessantly for career advice!

Written by Kate Glending from Rebecca Adele PR & Events

Life Lessons, Obstacles, and Life-Long Friendships as a Public Relations Intern

Starting off as a Public Relations intern for Rebecca Adele PR & Events, I expected to be stuck in an office for long hours and dress up every day. However, when I met with Becki for the first time in an interview, my summer took a turn for the better.

My first day on the job I realized that everyone I worked with was super laid-back. When you have a lot of things to get done in one day, one thing that helps is to be comfortable. Being able to come in to work in sweats in a relaxed environment makes for a productive day. I love to be able to listen to music and take a break with some girl-talk or play with the pets (Google is my favorite) when I get writer’s block.

Becki is not your ordinary boss. She not only taught me so much about my career and what it takes to be successful, but she turned out to be a role model, a mentor, and a friend. I can come to her with career or even life advice. I can truly say after a full summer internship with Becki that she is one of the most inspiring individuals I have ever met.

As an intern at Rebecca Adele PR & Events, I not only learned so much about but I learned so much about myself and what kind of career path I want to go into. With Public Relations being an extremely broad field, being exposed to all different types of related fields allowed me to find out what kind of niche I really wanted to get into. I learned that I love social media and writing plans for clients, but I am not a big fan on writing press releases. As embarrassing as it may be to see, I have also learned that I do not have much common sense, although it has gotten better after my internship.

The advice I would give to any Public Relations intern would be:

§       Ask LOTS of questions—The most valuable career advice I received was from conversations I have had with my supervisor in down time.

§       Take things one step at a time— When you have a lot of things on your plate, it is easy to get overwhelmed. Take a deep breath, make a list, and take things one at a time.

§       Practice Practice Practice— In Public Relations and any type of career path you choose, writing is a great skill to have. The only way to get good at writing is to practice! Creating a blog and posting regularly is a great place to start.

As I am finishing up with my internship and searching for a full-time job post-graduation, I am thankful that I have this wonderful experience under my belt and that I have acquired a lifelong friend. Thank you for everything, Becki!

Written by Rachel Ausperk from Rebecca Adele PR & Events

Today is My Last Day!

Today is my last day at Rebecca Adele PR & Events! I can’t believe how fast summer has flown by! I start my senior year at John Carroll University in a few weeks, so I obviously have a mix of emotions. I’m sad to leave my summer internships, I’m excited to start class and see my friends, and of course, I’m terrified to graduate and enter the real world.

Despite my anxiety, I’m feeling more confident about finding my first job after this experience. There’s so much I can talk about in an interview! I can now use HootSuite and SproutSocial. I love writing and Becki gave me ample opportunities to capitalize on this. My portfolio has doubled in size within these three months! It’s now full of press releases, social media plans, and blogs. Witnessing Becki work with clients was very enlightening, too. I learned little tips that I wouldn’t have picked up in a classroom.  And hey, playing with Google, Ollie, Jack, and Geraci was a pretty great perk!

As I reflect on my summer, I’ve realized that I’ve learned more in these past few months than I have in my past three years of school. You just can’t beat experience at a real company. I couldn’t be more grateful for this experience or to have Becki as a mentor. I look forward to picking her brain in the months and years to come. :)

Written By Maura Stewart from Rebecca Adele PR & Events

Clean Up Your Online Act: The First Step for the Burgeoning Young Professional

You’ve heard all the cringe-worthy horror stories. A sorority sister whose psychotic email was leaked online; an employee who posted a profanity-ridden Facebook status about her boss, forgetting she had added him as a friend. Our lives are increasingly public because of social media, and it is easy to overexpose yourself, making your career path much rockier than it needs to be.

Transitioning to a presentable and relevant online presence is often an ominous task for college students about to enter the workforce. It is especially important for students, like myself, who find themselves in PR internships, a field that makes social media prowess a top priority. It is important to present yourself as an intelligent, active social media user, free of self-indulgent, embarrassing, or potentially illegal posts.

The first step to clean up your act online is to do a quick Google search of yourself. You want to make sure what people see when they search for you is appropriate and a good representation of who you are. You don’t want friends, family members, or potential employers to be able to find the American Idol blog you had in fifth grade…

Next, start posting content with actual value on your social media accounts. That means nixing those pointless “what I’m having for dinner” tweets, and deleting pictures of you bonging beers at a frat party. Engage in interesting conversations, share though-provoking articles, and share insights that people might find funny, relatable, or valuable. To borrow a phrase from Bill O’Reilly, “keep it pithy.”  

The best way to keep your online presence in line is to work under the mantra that less is more. I have decided that a few years before I graduate is a good time to build on this; to make sure my social media is purged of questionable content and full of valuable posts. That way, when I’m on the hunt for a job after graduation, I have had time to build a strong, reputable online presence!

Written by: Kate Glending from Rebecca Adele PR & Events 

The Internship That Never Sleeps

It is hard to believe that summer is almost over and I will be returning to Kent State to finish up my undergrad! My time at Rebecca Adele PR & Events has gone by so fast and I truly am going to miss working here every week! Becki has been such a positive role model and I am eager to apply everything I learned this summer to the real working world. Rebecca Adele PR & Events has opened a door of ideas for me and I have Becki to thank for that!

Coming into this internship I did not know what to expect at all! I’ve had previous internships before but I knew this internship would be much different than the rest! The excitement about working at Rebecca Adele is the fast pace work environment. When you came to work, you had no choice but to work! Becki is a one-woman show and everything we do goes directly to her. It’s amazing to see how well she multi-tasks throughout the day and then still manages to stay on top of the work she gives interns. In the office, we are all treated equal and we all help each other out when needed! Working in such an intimate environment with a few people helped all of us get the one-on-one attention we needed to grow.

It’s exciting to see how much more confident I am as a writer and how I have progressed over the past few months. In the office, we are the writers of blogs, press releases, social media plans and much more. I’ve learned more about my writing skills during this internship than I have the past few years of college. This internship has challenged me to go outside of my comfort zone and write about things I would never choose to write about. It’s also been an accomplishment to see public feedback on my own words.

At the beginning of the summer, I was still asking myself what I wanted to be when I grew up. Working with Rebecca Adele PR & Events I was able to get a little taste of everything. Working the Avant-Garde Art & Craft Shows, to sitting in on client meetings, to even writing social media plans! I can say I have a better outlook on what I want my future to look like now. I know that event planning is the direction I want my career to go after this summer. The excitement of putting together an event and being able to see the outcome is a great feeling! Having people satisfied with an event you put on is an accomplishment in itself. I was able to see how PR and social media play a huge part in the success of an event and how every aspect is important. I have a lot of hard work until I reach the end result, but I am excited for the ride!

Working with Becki has given a new meaning to the word “work ethic.” Becki is awesome at what she does and it’s because she works hard at it! It’s inspiring to see someone so young already accomplish so much. I am so thankful I was able to be a part of Rebecca Adele PR & Events this summer because it has been nothing less than a positive experience. Even though I have two more semesters of college, I will take what I learned this summer and apply it in years to come. Thanks for a great summer Becki and I can’t wait to see where your business takes you!

Written by Katie Woods from Rebecca Adele PR & Events

The great debate: Education vs. Experience

The end of summer is approaching and the most recent 2013 grads have found a job and have settled into their new lives. While others have taken the summer off and will begin the job hunt now. Like most graduates, reflecting on the last four years is a popular thing to do and coming to the realization that time goes by way too fast. With those thoughts also comes the anxious idea of starting a new journey and leaving behind the best four years of your life. A popular conversation amongst my friends has been our education the past four years versus work experience. My eclectic group of friends ranges from straight “A” students, to the internship queen, to others who have put school on hold for a few years. So when this topic is brought up, we all have a lot to say but a whole lot of nothing to say at the same time.

So the question remains... What is more important, education or work experience? We think about all the young entrepreneurs that dropped out of school to follow their dreams; Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg to name a few. Did these people have the niche? Were they in the right place at the right time? Who is to pass judgment...they are the billionaires right?

There is no doubt in my mind that a college degree is the new high school diploma, but at the same time are we wasting money on classes I will never use again toward my future career? I have always been a career oriented person and always prided myself on my past internships and travel experience. The question is, do I do this to excuse my not so scholarly grades, or the fact that my university didn't make Forbes list for top 100 colleges of 2013?

So what is the answer? Entrepreneurs, business professionals and students will continue to have their own opinion. Let’s face it, competition is tough out there! There might always be someone that is more qualified for the job, but gaining the most education and the most experience always puts you one step closer. The variables to landing “that dream job” are endless, because at the end of the day, everything seems to play a factor in the real world. The unsettling question on my mind is did I do enough these past four years?

You can never stop learning, and in the perfect world gaining that “A” grade would amount to retaining most of the information a teacher presents and then being able to recite that information in a practical way. The problem with the classroom setting is that students spend one night cramming copious amounts of information for an exam, retain little amounts of information, and then pass the test with a satisfactory grade. At a college level, that shouldn’t be the standard of learning. Receiving an education means something, and leaving college, students should have a wealth of knowledge in many different fields, but this isn’t always the case. The reason that so many students and employers focus more on real world experience versus college education is because students aren’t learning, and what they do retain they don’t use in a practical manner.

I am a believer that school and experience play an equal role and one can only help the other. Getting the experience of college helps you grow and adapt to different work environments. Everyone is going to have strengths and weaknesses. The biggest thing is what they can offer at the end of the day. It's my opinion, I truly think that all just depends on the type of person you are. What's your take on the issue?

Written by Katie Woods from Rebecca Adele PR & Events