Jumping in opportunities in the PR field
By Yerim Mo
Coming to BU, I’ve always wanted to be a breaking news Journalist, and I thought that I would always follow that path. Public Relations was rather a later found passion of mine. After my second year at BU, I wanted to take some time off and get some real-life experiences. I applied to many news agencies but, since I’ve always had a career interest in the marketing field, I applied to global PR agencies as well. One of them was Weber Shandwick.
Because my interest in PR was not really big at the time, I’ve never heard about Weber Shandwick before. But because it was the first company that I got an offer from, I decided to take on that opportunity (It was a paycheck too). However, since I’ve always wanted to be a Journalist, I was hoping for different options as well.
During my first week of my internship, I felt like the job was so overwhelming. My team was the consumer team and had various clients including P&G, Tinder, iHerb, Sanpellegrino, AB InBev, and so much more. Because there were so many clients, I would have to do different things every day. No one day would be the same as the other
People, including myself, usually think of marketing and PR as a fun and creative job where there’s always a lot of energy and excitement. However, what most don’t know is that there’s a lot of grunt work and research needed to get to that fun and exciting moment.
The job was very overwhelming and because I’ve never done PR nor have I taken any PR classes in school as well. I thought I wanted out because I couldn’t take the pressure and the workload. However, I also felt like that time was an adjustment period, thus I should push myself to at least try for a week.
The second week of my internship, I was just fascinated by the work of PR. It was so amazing to see how the PR Plan turned into real-life as our team entered the execution process. I was lucky enough to see the whole process of a PR work: From writing proposals, bidding process, a whole lot of research, writing the PR plan, zoom calls with the client, executing the PR plan, monitoring the campaign, to wrapping up the campaign.
I was only expected to be there for three months, but I loved my team and the work. And I ended up staying in Weber Shandwick for nine months. My internship made me understand how PR works in real-life. I admit that the research stage is long and tiring and there were still moments when I felt like the workload was too much that it was overwhelming. However, it was one of the most valuable experiences that I had in my life.
After leaving Weber Shandwick, I wanted to try something different. So, I took this opportunity to experience in-house marketing at LINE FRIENDS Korea. Working at LINE FRIENDS was a big change because the way marketing campaign works in in-house marketing settings and an agency setting was completely different. While working at LINE FRIENDS still required a lot of creativity, I usually had a daily routine. I got to learn the brand and the company in greater depth than I was at an agency and got the opportunity to work with a PR agency as well.
While I enjoyed this opportunity very much, I learned through my six-month internship at LINEFRIENDS, that I had much more fun at an agency where I got to get my hands-on the execution process and where I got PR experiences by having various types of clients.
Coming back to BU, I was sure that I wanted to minor in Public Relations along with my major in Journalism. This semester, I took PR Lab as one of my PR courses because I wanted to try an agency setting in the United States.
My client for this semester was the Ependymoma Research Foundation (ERF), a non-profit organization that had a goal of finding a cure to a rare type of tumor called Ependymoma. All their donations go to straight towards to funding research to finding cure for this rare type of tumor.
When I first got ERF as my client, I didn’t know where to start. I’ve been so used to doing PR with consumer goods brands that I didn’t know how to approach doing PR work for a non-profit organization. ERF had a great mission but had limited visibility and exposure. I had to think differently to what I have done before for previous clients. With covid-19 still being a severe issue, there were many difficulties to overcome throughout the whole semester. However, as the end of another semester is approaching, I gained so much experience and was able to learn so many things by being an Account Supervisor for ERF.
My next goal is to find a job in the PR field before graduation. As an international student, there are visa struggles to deal with and more decisions to make with smaller options. I admit the process of job searching is very overwhelming. But keep trying and knocking on the door.
I’d like to leave with one last note, when an opportunity comes, I suggest taking it. I would have never known my passion for PR if I had not stayed at Weber Shandwick nor will I have not known that I enjoy working in an agency setting. Try out different things and challenge yourself. You’ll get to learn various skills throughout the process and you’ll also get to meet so many people as well.