The Attempt

I had been searching for openings for my first PR internship during my last year in college, and I received a call back to interview at a local agency. I was so excited that I had my first interview opportunity for an internship.

What Went Wrong

When I went on the interview, there were several red flags from the president that made me uneasy. When I received a call a few days later from the president's right-hand-man telling me they wanted me to be one of their summer interns, I ignored the red flags and uneasiness I had experienced during the interview because I was so excited about my first internship opportunity. To put it in a nutshell, the internship was a disaster, and it was three months of hell. The president treated me, the other interns and her employee like garbage. I was barely allowed to do any "real" PR work and practically had to beg to get any writing work that I could use for portfolio pieces. I worked mostly with her one full-time employee because she was so awful to deal with. He worked with me to get a few writing samples for my portfolio because I had to turn it in for a grade at the end of the semester and needed some examples of work I did at my internship. When the president learned that I was using client news releases in my portfolio that I had written, she accused me of stealing from her company and threatened to have her lawyer take legal action (even though I got approval from her employee). She also said she was going to give me a failing grade for my internship.

Lessons Learned

Everything turned out OK in the end because my professor completely sided with me once I explained the situation, and I didn't fail my internship. This experience taught me to never, ever again ignore my gut feelings and red flags. I knew something wasn't right about the president and her company during my interview, yet I ignored it because I really wanted a summer internship at an agency. I learned about several unethical things the president did during my time there and years after, and it further underscored how I never want to be that type of person or professional.

Story By

Nikki Little

Nikki Little serves as Identity’s social media manager and is responsible for managing the internal operations and growth of the social media team. She also serves as an account manager for several of Identity’s clients, focusing on integrating social media strategy with traditional communications efforts to help companies build brand awareness, create new customer relationships and grow their business. Additionally, Nikki manages the content on Identity’s blog, ID Tags.