Rogers and Cowan
Jamie Park, 2011
During my time at Rogers and Cowan, I essentially worked for the 5 publicists in my music-sports department, who all gave me different projects consisting of: clipping newspaper articles about our clients, calling up and booking shows for clients, asking for invitations to Grammy parties for our clients, creating a celebrity hit list for our department’s Miles Davis exhibition opening night, creating a media hit list for that exhibition, calling everyone on the hit list to attend the party, putting together press kits for clients, writing press releases, scanning and cropping magazine/newspaper articles about our clients, mailing out client demos, researching celebrity contacts, and even escorting celebrities at the Grammys. Of course, I did do some of the tasks that are expected of interns too, such as ordering the publicists’ lunches, making copies, preparing the meeting rooms, and even getting them coffee from time to time.
On my last day, I really felt that I was walking away with one of the most valuable experiences of my life. I can honestly say that this was one of the most active internships I’ve ever had out of my pretty long list of past internships. I really got into it and did what publicists actually did. My supervisor(s) really wanted to expose me to their world, and so basically, they gave me portions of the jobs they actually had to do. I feel I did really well because I was really passionate about my job. I was really efficient with, fast in performing, and willing/wanting to do many of the tasks given out to me
From this internship, one of the most interesting things I learned was that we have to take advantage of all the resources we have. In the middle of my internship, a new spring intern started working in our department on Tuesdays and Thursdays, who would take my place after I left in February. He became very valuable because of one thing: his British accent. The week before our exhibition event, I had to call all the celebs and media on the hit list I compiled. However, I saw that I really wasn’t getting anywhere and really detested calling the grouchy publicist assistants. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. When I shared this with one of my supervisors, she told me to split the list with the other intern. I was to only call the males, while he called the females. This small tactic worked amazingly. Not only did we both get really good responses from the people we called (sometimes we were on the phone with these people for up to 10 minutes, which was pretty significant), but the people we called actually showed up to our event and came looking for us to put a face to the name.
I learned was that remembering a name and giving people, who aren’t necessarily celebrities, a level of respect, go a really long way. Because I was the one who actually created the guest list for our Miles Davis exhibition, I was able to remember most of the guest’s names. So, when I let people in without even looking down at the check-in list and talked in such a way that seemed like I actually really knew who they were, the guests (more so the ones who aren’t actual celebs, but those who are usually the ones backstage) really appreciated it and would later come back to ask what my name was. In this way, I was able to boost my networking skills and mingle with more people in the music industry.
Rogers and Cowan helped me realize that I actually do belong at a PR firm. I felt really comfortable in that scene and felt that I really did contribute to the firm. Through this experience, I was able to think on my feet quicker and became more creative in my approaches to different projects.
Overall, this is an experience I would recommend to anyone. The firm was awesome because of how they really integrated me into their work instead of pushing me aside. The events were a lot of a fun too because I got to directly interact with the people who were usually behind-the-scenes. Through them I learned a lot about the industry. And besides experiencing the life at a PR firm, it was terrific to be able to work the red carpet at the Grammys.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship!