Being a Public Relations major I wasn’t sure if doing an internship at a digital marketing agency would really have any benefits for me. I came in not knowing anything about marketing or advertising, but I saw this as an opportunity to add more to my resume. Now that the semester is over I have learned so much more than I thought I would, and I am so happy I chose an internship that was out of my comfort zone.

I came in with a decent amount of writing experience. I had done a lot of PR writing in classes and in past internships, but I didn’t have much experience in writing blogs. I got to write blogs and social media posts for real clients, which is a great real-world experience, but I also diversified my writing. Red Shark has a list of clients that are all so different, so writing for each of them was a challenge. It challenged me to learn and write about things I had no prior knowledge of, which is something I may have to do in my future career.

Besides the writing, I got to learn the basics of advertising. In my first week I was seeing and hearing terms like SEO (search engine optimization) and CTR (click through rate) and I had no idea what anyone was talking about. This internship opened my eyes to the side of advertising I never knew existed. I was always aware of ads, but I thought companies created and posted them. I had no idea the amount of work and research that went into them. This internship taught me all of these things, and I feel like this information will benefit me as I go on to work in the PR world.

Not only has this internship taught me new skills and allowed me to work on my existing ones, but it taught me some life advice. When it comes time to graduate and go on to apply for jobs, I know I won’t limit myself. If I don’t reach all the jobs requirements on a job listing, that won’t stop me from applying. I will see it as a challenge to better myself. If I hadn’t taken the leap and applied for an internship that was out of my comfort zone, I would have been doing myself an inconvenience. This internship helped me grow as a student, a writer and an employee. I have so much to add to my resume and I feel like my knowledge has doubled.

Internships are a great part of undergrad. This is my third internship, and the one thing I’ve found that is most important is the work environment. An internship can teach you the world, but if the work environment sucks, so does the internship. I am so appreciative of Red Shark for all the things they’ve taught me, but also having such a great work environment. Coming in every week I knew I’d enjoy what I was working on, but also loved being in the office. I am so excited to come back in the spring semester and continue working with Red Shark Digital, and see how much more I can learn.