Over the past three months, I have had the fantastic experience of interning at Forster Communications. As a recent graduate, I had never worked in a PR agency before and thought an internship would be the ideal first step of my career. Keen to learn about sustainability and charity communications, Forster seemed the perfect place and I’m happy to say my instinct served me well. For me, an internship was the ideal opportunity to learn about the industry while gaining practical experience. The exciting range of clients and the amazing supportive team at Forster has been an added bonus.
I was immediately treated like a permanent member of the team. In my first week I sat in on a pitch for new business, joined a meeting with an international partner agency and attended an event hosted by the UN Global Contact Network that reviewed the UK’s performance against the Sustainable Development Goals. Although the UK’s progress had stalled in some areas and not gone as far as it would have liked in others, it highlighted the need for transparency and celebrating positives where they have been achieved. A similar positive mental attitude really underpins all the work at Forster, and I was fortunate enough to see it all in action at a workshop last week with a luxury car client of ours. Being able to witness the evolution of this brand’s narrative and see its eagerness to take responsibility for the climate emergency was really special.
As an intern I supported a variety of accounts to ensure exposure to a range of clients and ways of working. However, I was actively involved in a photography project for TRANSFORM from the get-go. TRANSFORM is a unique joint initiative between Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and EY. My role was to organise photoshoots with six entrepreneurs based in India, Bangladesh and Kenya. We partnered with a creative agency and worked together to showcase and share the great work the entrepreneurs do. Helping manage this project from start to finish and seeing the final photographs was a very cool experience – the variety of time zones really honed my organisational skills!
Despite international Zoom calls and attending a range of events across the UK, the majority of my learning took place in the office. I received internal and external training on media software, helped write press releases, pitched to journalists, had a presentation training session with my colleagues and been part of a great team who have taught me so much and put up with a lot of questions. Being part of a small business has also meant I’ve been able to work closely with clients and alongside the senior leadership team – it’s been a great environment to start my PR career in.
I’m happy to say that I have now secured a role at Forster as an Account Executive.