Hello blog enthusiasts!
My name is Spencer Turney and I am writing my piece as a summer intern here at Signal Flow PR. I’m sure that a strong majority of college students will agree with me when I say that the search for a valuable and worthwhile internship is exhausting. Don’t get me wrong, there obviously are a good number of internships available in various career fields. The search for one that will enhance your understanding of the field, as well as provide serious background experience can be tougher. When I decided to take on an internship over the summer, I searched for the entire Spring semester to find a great place to land my first intern spot. I went through the places that weren’t looking, were already full, and some less-than-reputable places that I’m, quite frankly, not sure even work in a legitimate aspect of business. When I finally was led by a friend to check out Signal Flow, I was initially curious as to the level of involvement in dealing exclusively with these small musicians and music businesses here in Memphis. I quickly learned that working for these local musicians is an extremely rewarding experience. The ability to see the effect that good PR tactics have on a musician helps to highlight the benefit of working in Public Relations as well as the Music Industry. The art of taking an artist’s dream and helping to mold it into something tangible while translating and promoting to the public is a truly exciting experience.
A majority of my work over the course of the internship here is done through design projects. Prior to the internship, I had no real opportunity to hone my sub-par design skills in an ever-changing aspect of Public Relations & Marketing. Given the task of handling hands-on design projects for great artists such as Chris Milam and The Summers, I now have begun to build an excellent portfolio of work that will undoubtedly help to woo my big-time future interviewers.
When I began my college career at the University of Memphis back in 2010, I, for some unknown reason, went with my gut on a major in Communications. Now in my third year, I’ve since changed to Public Relations and am very confident in my future career path. Hopefully,when I finish up my time at the U of M, and I go on into that great beyond to search for my career, I will be able to use my experience here to land a job doing what I love. If you were to ask me what I had gained from working at Signal Flow PR, I would say that I had seen a great side of the Memphis music scene and had gained the confidence to dive head-first into the Music Business.
The main idea behind my letter? If you’re interested in working in the Music Business, try your best to find a cool music internship.
(Check out some of Spencer’s work here – he did the show poster for The Summers album release on August 9!)