Guerrilla PR 2.0 by Michael Levine

Author:Michael Levine [Levine, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 2135550000
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Read twenty Op-Ed pieces, and you’ll see what I mean. The following is an example of an actual Op-Ed piece I wrote that ran in several publications. Notice how I build on my theme from paragraph to paragraph. Though this piece wasn’t directly about me or my business, it served to augment my standing within the P.R. and business communities.

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THE CASE FOR INTERNSHIPS

by Michael Levine

America may be the Land of Opportunity, but this is also the Land of the Big Trade-Off. Sure, you can have that nice house, but you’re going to have to become a mortgage slave to keep it. You can drive that fancy sports car, but you’ll have to fork over an insurance premium as hefty as the GNP of some Third World nations. The Bible says that in life, if you want honey, you get bees with stingers. For anything worth having, there’s a price to pay. It’s the same with a career. Most professional positions require experience, but in this classic Catch–22, how does a young college student or graduate gain that experience? Well, it’s just as Mark Twain said: “Never let school interfere with your education.”

I believe the intern programs in place at companies like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, CBS, and my own provide the best chance for young people to enter and grow in many professions. Although the work is demanding, with little or no immediate financial return, interning is a textbook example of a win-win situation.

When a young student comes to my public relations company and tells me he’s willing to intern, a distinctly modern social contract is entered into. Though he is not a servant, and I am not a teacher, if he does some unpaid work, we’ll do some teaching. The company gets the opportunity to observe eager and smart young people who energize the company. Like a farm team, interns are prospective employees, and we get to watch them in action.

For the intern, the rewards are far greater.

First, most interns are college students, and nearly all receive valuable college credit for their services. Beyond that, interning teaches the neophyte how to function in a complex, real-life, adult business environment. Derek Jeter could have studied the physics of baseball for years in a classroom, but he never would have won World Series or MVP awards if he’d never stepped up to the plate, literally. No classroom can substitute for visceral, palpable learning in an authentic setting.

Problem solving, initiative, creativity, and cooperation are all fostered as the intern struggles to carve a niche for herself. To make it as an intern, one must embody the qualities of any effective worker, and the rewards go far beyond the merely educational. Many interns go on to highly successful careers.

Interning is practical. In an ever-tightening job market, it provides career preparation, and enables a young professional to develop marketable skills and demonstrate potential to a prospective employer.

But beyond the practicalities, there’s a bigger picture that needs to be addressed.

For too many, America has become the Land of the Freeloader and the Home of the Lazy.

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