This is a guest post by Heather R. Huhman. Heather is the media relations manager at a national health care professional association. She is also the entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com, a career expert for the CAREEREALISM Twitter Advice Project, the job search expert for Campus Calm and author of the e-book “Gen Y Meets the Workforce: Launching Your Career During Economic Uncertainty.”
What do financial services, home/building and healthcare have in common? All three fields can expect good things to happen when they “converge” with IMRE, a full service digital, advertising, marketing and public relations agency in Baltimore, Maryland.
Let’s start with their financial services practice. Strategically expanded in July 2008 near the beginning of our country’s economic troubles, IMRE saw an opportunity for “financial services companies to gain market share.” Did you know you can buy wedding insurance from Travelers? IMRE won this client by proposing—no pun intended—to launch a campaign on Valentine’s Day about nuptial nightmares ranging from heart attacks to blackouts to hurricanes. They won the account and reached more than 74 million people with their messages. Like most public relations practitioners, I’m not a numbers person, but I do love weddings!
The “green” market is hot right now, so it makes sense for Arxx Corporation to be included in IMRE’s home & building practice. IMRE “moved Arxx away from a product message and positioned them as a longtime leader in energy-efficient solutions.” Despite being a midsized firm with only one office location, their client list in this practice is impressive—ranging from John Deere to The Home Depot to Target.
Their final practice area is healthcare, which is also my specialty. What I like most about healthcare PR is that you feel like you’re helping people live life to its fullest with every tactic you use to reach them. IMRE’s clients in this sector mostly are nonprofit organizations, including American Red Cross, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Shady Grove Fertility.
Interested in any one of those practice areas? IMRE is extremely open about who heads up each, providing their biographies, fun Q&A’s and e-mail addresses.
IMRE has four internships open right now, two of which are public relations-related. First is the WOM (Word of Mouth) Intern. IMRE’s ideal candidate for this internship? A “dynamic, creative and fun college graduate with a degree in communications or other related field and is an active Internet user who accesses social networks, blogs, forums and consumer reviews on a regular basis.” This person must also be a “self-motivated and detail-oriented team player and can often be found making YouTube videos just for fun.”
IMRE also has an opening for a Public Relations Intern. Candidates should be in their junior or senior year of college. Interns are assigned to account teams and will work with supervisors on projects such as creating press lists, drafting media advisories, pitch letters, and releases, pitching targeted media, preparing media clips and assisting with creative projects, such as direct mail and collateral pieces. You will leave the internship with broad experience across multiple disciplines, including brand strategy, media relations, marketing communications, event planning, market research and analysis, community relations and marketing communications.
The final two internships are Web Developer Intern and Graphic Design Intern. For all internships, candidates must be able to commit at least 20 hours per week, and there doesn’t appear to be any mention of whether the internships are paid or not.
Interested? Send your cover letter, résumé and writing samples to internships@imre.com. Don’t forget to also fill out their job application.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
Need help with your cover letter and résumé—or your entire job search? Heather offers low-cost coaching packages specifically for students and recent graduates seeking careers in public relations. Click here to learn more.
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Tags: communications, design, finance, green, healthcare, Internships, marketing, Maryland, public relations, social media, social networking, web development
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