My very first PR Job: To Sink or Swim

by Taylar Robinson

As if being a Senior in college without a smidge of experience in the major you’re planning to receive your degree isn’t nerve-wrecking enough, imagine being put in an atmosphere of nonstop work without having a clue of what you’re doing. When I first heard that MEPR was looking for an intern, I immediately thought “I’m sure I can handle getting coffee, sending a couple of emails and attending meetings without letting my eyelids touch.” I would soon come to a screeching halt as reality would let me in on a little secret that I had heard from my father before. – With great power, comes great responsibility.

Concluding my second week at MEPR, I wondered if I could actually handle everything that was being given to me. I had never made a media list a day in my life, better yet created any type of PR Proposal or content. Watching the owner of MEPR Agency, Kia Jarmon execute a million tasks for multiple clients in one day, including meetings with ease, left me with feelings of inadequacy and doubt. I’ve had difficult times accepting change around me but this time I had no choice but to embrace and flourish in the new professional space that I was in. I mean, I did ask for this, right?

After consecutive days of leaving my internship weary and defeated, I had to decide; To sink or swim? Although I had no room for failure my senior year, this was more than a simple decision for me. This was a decision to not half step my way through the semester, to take the information I was learning and apply to every single aspect of my life and to prepare myself for the intense professional life after graduation.

I often repeat a quote from Albert Einstein to get me through the day- “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” In the power of positivity, I had to realize that overthinking every single detail of an assignment would be the death of me. I now use a method that Kia taught me that is known as ‘PBS’- Pause, Breathe, Smile. This is literally a life saver because it makes you stop and think things through. Now that I have altered my mindset, I know that anything is possible and the only person that can hinder me from achieving any goals that I have is myself. I’ve already learned so much from Kia Jarmon and our Account Coordinator, Claire Bough this past month. I’m anxious to see what the future has in store for all of us.