Internship at Fuel PR
My internship experience at Fuel PR has been one of the most informative and enriching experiences so far in my academic career. It was my first internship and I was worried that I would suffer a stereotypical internship where I did primarily what would be described as “grunt” work, but I was assured by Leandra during my interview that this would not be the case. It was comforting to hear these words and to see the friendly atmosphere of the office during my interview that pushed me to look forward to my first day working with Fuel PR.
On my first day, I was introduced to everyone through my mentor and the person I would be reporting to for my five weeks working here, Alex. Everyone was very friendly and helpful from day one, and the entire atmosphere of the company was extremely welcoming. They were all understanding of my lack of office experience and were very accommodating when it came to adjusting to British culture and customs. Within the first week, I felt completely integrated with the rest of the team and the way the company functioned. It was an incredibly welcoming environment with a very appealing atmosphere that helped me on all aspects of the learning process. There was always someone to turn to if I needed help with anything, or if I wanted to try my hand at other work.
Alex guided through much of the basics of working in the public relations field, and he tailored my work towards my interests. The first couple of weeks were spent dealing with a wide variety of tasks, to the point where no day was the same. It was a bit overwhelming for the first week but I got used to it and was extremely grateful for this opportunity to try my hand at different things. It allowed me to get a feel for what I enjoyed and what tasks I was good at. The last two weeks were spent refining those skills and allowed me to focus on work that I enjoyed. I was also asked at my midway point, what work I enjoyed and what kinds of companies I liked working with. They also asked for any ideas about what I wanted to do in order to improve my experience here and everyone at the company took note of it to help me get a better internship experience.
In my last week here in London, I can’t help but feel a little bittersweet about the entire situation. My five weeks with Fuel PR were extremely informative and engaging, and while I was quite homesick towards the end, I will miss the people I met at Fuel PR. Alex did an amazing job of helping me fit right into the company and become self-sufficient, as well as giving me meaningful work that had an impact on the company. I sat right across from Gillian and saw first hand just how much of an impact she had on day to day operations of the company. Being near all the different people that worked on different projects really let me see the kind of work that was done in the public relations industry and gave me some much needed insight into the industry. For someone with no prior knowledge of the public relations industry, I felt very well educated about the field and that I had a good grasp of what would be expected of me if I were to enter the industry again.