Communications in a communication agency

Edelman Intern Blogpost

By Season Ho

(Original blogpost posted here at Edelman's Intern Blog)

Hello everyone, I am Season and it is my 3rd week here in the Edelman’s corporate team. I am a penultimate student in journalism and mass communication, hoping to invest my career in the PR industry. Although I have had some prior experience in PR agency, the Edelman experience really fascinates me. From the working environment, work culture to the people, everything is just innovative and youthful. Needless to say, it is a perfect environment for a university student to start their PR career in.

In a PR firm, what matters most is communication. Not only the communication with our clients, but also communication within ourselves – and that’s what I like Edelman most. The beautiful pantry, the meeting rooms and the open office all motivate the Edelman employees, especially interns, to speak up and give new ideas. You don’t have to be exceptionally bold or outspoken, the atmosphere of Edelman will push you to be an active team player, and the following are the great opportunities for you to express yourselves.


1) Brainstorming session

At a leading PR agency like Edelman, giving creative ideas and innovative PR plans that suit our clients are what make us so successful. To produce high quality work for every client, we have brainstorming session in every team. Knowing that all clients have their own needs and own goals to reach, we clearly separate brainstorming sessions for different clients, enabling us to focus on a specific client’s needs. During the brainstorming session, our manager makes sure that everyone in the team knows clearly about our client’s background. As an intern, you don’t need to worry about knowing little, the manager will introduce you the partnership of Edelman with that client, and what work we have done, so that we can give ideas promptly according to the background. Edelman always encourages bold and exaggerated ideas, and every person and every idea has equal worth. Moreover, other team players will give me some comments on my suggestions, for example, whether it suits our clients and whether it is feasible, etc. Therefore, every brainstorming session is for the team serving a specific client to communicate and know each other better, and it is very rewarding to the clients and also to our team.


2) Training session

Working in Edelman is not only about giving your best, but also receiving the best. As interns, we were given access to Edelman’s proprietary training tools, engaged in client’s project and attended clients’ meetings. To equip every employee has the most updated skills and understanding in the industry. For example, I had the APAC Compliance training where our Global Compliance Officer, Randy Corley, came to our office for a direct presentation and discussion on various highly important compliance topics. That’s where I learn about Edelman’s compliance and ethics organization, and the global standard. Nevertheless, we had a client presentation, where I learn how the PR business is evolving. It’s no longer just about media engagement, but also executing suitable opportunities for our clients. The whole training is very practical and I feel like learning and absorb new ideas like a sponge.

3) Weekly catch-up with manager

As I am a part time intern, I don’t work every day and that’s why communication with my manager on my schedule and work progress is very important. Every week, on my first day of work, I have a 15-minutes catch-up with my manager, Chaanah. I share with her my work on hand, time management and raise questions if there is any. This weekly catch-up session is a casual meeting for me and my manager to sit together, sharing our whereabouts and knowing more about each other. I am especially grateful that Chaanah asks me in every catch-up if I have any things I want to try, so that I can be exposed to different opportunities and a great variety of events I like. As a newbie in the industry, there is still a lot for me to try and learn, and the catch-up session allows me to share and adjust my expectation, also clear my doubts and questions at work.


4) Vision and Mission

It is a presentation by our managing director Andrew regarding Edelman Hong Kong‘s new vision on our new fiscal year. That’s where I first know about the ‘Team Dragon Boat’ – a system focusing on team work, skillset, training, roles and quality execution. This has helped all of us to learn and understand the vision and mission of Edelman Hong Kong. Andrew also presented the performance of our office in our last fiscal year and performance from each practice. I truly felt the hard work, commitment and passion of my colleagues, how they helped our client to grow their business as well as expanded our work from small project to retainer. I also learned that the creative work and great campaigns we have produced and received industry awards.

Like what Andrew described, I have learnt ‘what worked, what we have learnt and what we can do better’. It is really an enjoyable and fruitful meeting for me, as an intern, to know about the past achievements of our office. It makes me really feel like a part of this family, a crew of the “Team Dragon Boat”.

After that, we also had drinks at a bar nearby, when the whole office put work aside and chill out with great drinks. That is what I called ‘work hard, play hard’.


We are a big family that work hard, play hard and laugh hard together.

In these 3 weeks, I have already learnt a lot from these meetings, trainings and presentations in whatever formats, and I am really impressed at how much Edelman is willing to invest in the interns. Instead of just working every day, I gained a lot from these communication opportunities. I am looking forward to learning more during internship at Edelman. Way to go, Season!