This Career Planning & Resources blogger is proud to admit that she actually just got an internship! I am working with the Scripps College Public Relations office four hours a week this semester, with a concentration on the web.

It was something of a surprise internship, actually, that sort of just fell into my lap. (Which is, of course, a wonderful kind of surprise.) The student-run magazine I’m editor-in-chief of this year, [In]Visible Magazine, has worked with a couple people from Public Relations before, so I was emailed as a potential candidate for the internship. (I was also told to spread the word to any competent friends and other [In]Visible workers; I think they were really looking for people.)

I had never really thought about Public Relations before as a possible career path. It’s such a vague title… something to do with people and the public and the media, as far as I knew. When my potential responsibilities were being described to me, however, I realized that it sounded like something I would actually really enjoy. There is a lot of writing involved, even when concentrating on the web and social media. And, of course, I like working with people and promoting activities, lectures, and overall image of organizations I fully support, such as Scripps College, in this case.

Public Relations is so versatile too. I could easily (well, hopefully easily, we all know what I already think about the job market) find a public relations-type job with some literary organization, such as publishing or a literary magazine, and that way I could still stay with my literary passion.

As much as I love just writing articles and blog posts, I am also quite ready to expand and learn other skills—one of the reasons I love being so involved [In]Visible this year. I am especially excited about being paired with the webmaster, because I feel that, with any future career, knowing how to navigate the web and the various forms of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) will be so necessary to move anything forward whether that be myself, a magazine I’m working for, or a book I’m publicizing.

And so, last week I filled out the application, sweated through an interview, and landed the internship! Overall, I am very excited for this opportunity. I had my first day today; everyone seems very nice and I think the work will be interesting. Today, I mainly dealt with logistics like timecards, and then learned more about Twitter, which I had never really understood before… I feel accomplished, having already learned some new skills!